Where should I play in sarasota and st. Petersburg?

Oregon chip · October 12, 2020

Heading to St Petersburg and Sarasota in a month. What courses are worth spending my money at? Don't really want to drive too far. Please help!

th6252 · October 12, 2020

15 hours ago, Oregon chip said:

Heading to St Petersburg and Sarasota in a month. What courses are worth spending my money at? Don't really want to drive too far. Please help!

I'm surprised none of the locals have chimed in on this yet. Anyways, I'm an outsider, but I've been to the area a few times(primarily Anna Maria) so have done some research on this area and a lot of reading from the fine folks here.

But the consensus seems to be that public golf is terrible to non-existent in the St. Pete area, and even Tampa. So you best bet in that area particularly would be if you're a member of a club back home, to have your pro call and see if they can get you on a quality private course.

Otherwise, if you're looking public access only, probably best to avoid St. Pete altogether and concentrate on Sarasota as there are a plethora of good public options around there.

jerebear21 · October 13, 2020

Lakewood National; the Commander course is on the web.com tour and piper isn't too bad either. Rates will be heading to peak season soon so there's really no real cheap option.

Personally if you're in the area, just walk on at streamsong and treat yourself.

Juan73 · October 15, 2020

There are lots of good courses in Sarastoa....

As mentioned Lakewood National has two courses, Commander and Piper.

University Park is a good track

Some like Legacy Golf Club which is an Arnold Palmer designed course

About a month ago, I played the newly opened Esplande Azario course, and it was a nice test and fun.

Jungleland · October 20, 2020

On 10/15/2020 at 1:32 PM, Juan73 said:

There are lots of good courses in Sarastoa....

As mentioned Lakewood National has two courses, Commander and Piper.

University Park is a good track

Some like Legacy Golf Club which is an Arnold Palmer designed course

About a month ago, I played the newly opened Esplande Azario course, and it was a nice test and fun.

Of the two at LWN, the Piper is far more forgiving, fairways are nearly impossible to miss and the greens are big. The Commander is the test of your game, amazing how different these two courses are.

th6252 · October 20, 2020

3 hours ago, Jungleland said:

Of the two at LWN, the Piper is far more forgiving, fairways are nearly impossible to miss and the greens are big. The Commander is the test of your game, amazing how different these two courses are.

challenge accepted!

Juan73 · December 14, 2020

I played Lakewood National's Piper course last week. It opened earlier this year (I think) and the greens are still ROCK hard. So play short of the hole, since you will get run out, even on greenside bunker shots. Yes the fairways are really wide, except for #16. It is a shock when we stood on the tee, and looked out to the fairway. It was MUCH more narrow than any of the fairways.

And the greens have a LOT of undulation. On the first hole, I missed the green to the right, had a long chip, it headed toward the hole and veered right - hard. I ended up in the drain behind the green, chipped on, two putted and started with a double bogie... I was warned ... so studied the undulations as best I could from that point forward. Ended up being 6 over for the remaining 17 holes... just wish I had not started so poorly.

Also, some of the greens seem to be hidden. For example on Hole #3 unless you are to the right of the fairway bunker which is in the middle of the fairway you can not see the green, and even the video map on the cart was not helpful.

Looking forward to playing the course again, now that I know more... to me Commander was not as complicated. Not sure which was tougher.