Orlando Golf Itinerary for late-Feb early-March

[mpm1960]

My three buddies and I are heading to Orlando on Tuesday, February 27th and are hoping to play the 28th, 29th, March 1st and 2nd before heading home on Sunday, March 3rd.  Our foursome includes one good golfer, one mid-handicapper and two of us who are mid-to-high handicappers.  We're staying at the Marriott Grande Vista in Orlando.  After some research, we've decided to try and keep our cost per tee time in the $100-$130 range for mid-to-late morning tee times, but are open to any suggestions regarding places to play that are below that cost threshold.  Here's what we've put together in our early planning:

 

February 28: Highlands Reserve Golf Club

February 29: Providence Golf Club

March 1: North Shore Golf Club

March 2: Harmony Golf Preserve

 

Would love to learn your feedback on any of these courses, or if you think we need to look at other golf courses/clubs in the Greater Orlando area (and in our price range) for our trip.  Any/all feedback on this proposed itinerary would be greatly appreciated!  Thanks in advance ...

 

Best wishes, Mike (MPM1960)

[sabram]

It'll still be high season when you are here so very expensive. The four courses on your list should be within your budget. I play Highlands Reserve and Providence often. Keep them on your itinerary. Both are good courses and currently in good condition. I think Highlands Reserve is one of the best values in the area although their price has increased recently, but so have the conditions. It has good elevation changes. After a slow start, the course is very good .

 

I haven't played North Shore or Harmony in a couple years. I like Harmony, but with the traffic from where I live it's not worth the drive for me to get there. North Shore is okay, but would be my last choice of your four. I'd replace it with Southern Dunes. You can play SD in the morning for $149 in prime season. It's only $19 over your budget and well worth it. 

 

Other courses in your budget worth checking out are Royal St Cloud,  the Reserve at Orange Lake and White Heron. Also look at the Winter Park 9 hole course. It's very good.A little further north is Deltona club. Its a very good course, but conditions can be iffy. I haven't played there in awhile so don't know what shape it's in at present.

Lastly, I've heard that Rio Pinar has made a lot of improvements. I'm playing there in a couple weeks and will let you know.

[Marty86]

Check out Southern Dunes. It should fit your price range.

[Togatown22]

I've been travelling from NY to Orlando in late Feb / early March with a group of guys annually for 15 years.  We've played dozens and dozens of the tracks down there (including Bay Hill, Nona, etc) and I would say that Southern Dunes is the best value we've found and it quickly became a must-have on our itinerary every year.

Sabram pretty much nails it on these Orlando-area threads - he's given you great advice and has helped me many times in the past too! 

Have a great trip!

Edited February 2 by Togatown22
spelling

[mpm1960]

I'm the original poster, and thought I'd post a follow-up on our recent golf trip to Orlando.  Because of the helpful comments received here, we had adjusted our golf itinerary as recommended ... here's where we played:

 

February 28: Highlands Reserve Golf Club

February 29: Royal St. Cloud Golf Links

March 1: Providence Golf Club

March 2: Harmony Golf Preserve

 

To be honest, I enjoyed all four courses we played, as did my three buddies.  Here are a few comments on each:

 

Highlands Reserve - the fairways and greens were in good condition, but we were surprised the rough was very dry and in-need of some attention.  Maybe their watering system only reaches the fairways and greens?  Has there been some drought conditions west of Disney recently?  Other that that observation, we really enjoyed the golf AND the people we met while there.  I had also read about the course elevation changes in advance of our visit, and we had some fun pointing out where those elevation changes were taking place during our round (we come from an area in SW Ohio where every course has a lot of elevation changes).  Overall, a good time was had by all!

 

Royal St. Cloud Golf Links - this course was recommended to us by a responder here, and we were very grateful for the recommendation!  We really enjoyed the course, and the price was the lowest of the four courses we played.  While we were there, there was a women's tournament played the same day and a lot of what looked like collegiate female golfers were warming-up/teeing-off.  There was A LOT of young talent on display at the course, and our foursome was both humbled and impressed as we struggled with our off-season swings.  Overall, we had a great day of golf and we would definitely play this course again in the future.

 

Providence Golf Club - we liked the course, but ... our GPS took us to a gate that was not allowing visitors to enter.  After a few minutes, we flagged down a driver who told us we had to go to another gate to get to the course.  When we arrived at that visitor gate, there were app. 12-15 cars waiting in line ahead of us to be approved entry to the property.  Took us app. 25-30 minutes to get through that line, then we drove to the course where we found ourselves with 12 minutes until our tee time.  We unloaded the car, got our carts, went inside to pay, then rushed to the first tee so we wouldn't be late.  We did express our concern to the golf staff, but everyone we spoke to was apologetic and acknowledged the problem was not an isolated one.   Also, while making the turn, we wanted to get a hot dog and drink and had to go into their restaurant to place an order ... took a lot of time to drive around to the front of their facility and enter to place/receive our order.  We were surprised there wasn't an easier way to get food and drink while heading to the Back 9.  That said, we enjoyed the golf course and think it would be a popular place to play if the "visitor" issue can get resolved by their management.

 

Harmony Golf Preserve -  Our group really enjoyed this golf course.  It's a really nice layout from tee to green, but ... I don't know what's happened to their greens.  Some type of growth was prevalent on some of the greens, which quite honestly was a distraction for me.  Was it an over-seeding of the greens?  I don't know, but I hope they're able to get it under control soon.  But the course was fantastic otherwise, and it wasn't crowded at all on the day we played so we weren't feeling pressed or rushed.  I didn't see a snack shop or restaurant on-site, but we were able to buy drinks and snacks in the pro shop.  The next day, after dropping off our two friends at the airport for their early afternoon flights, and with my buddy and I not scheduled to fly home until later that evening, we drove back to Harmony and tried to get another round of golf in before the rain moved in ... after 14 holes, the skies opened and we had to head to the clubhouse to dry off our gear/change our cloths before heading to the airport.  Even with the rain, it was a really fun day.

 

Thanks for reading ...

 

Mike

MPM1960