Grande Pines, Orlando

[BamafaninKY]

This is a great course. Played it today and it's in great shape. Every hole is interesting and this course will really test your shot-making skills. On this trip I've also played Hawks Landing and Falcons Fire. Grande Pines is easily the best of these.

[jnier75]

It's definitely a nice course but my problem with it, and the other Marriott courses on your list, is that they price it above the competition in the area. They are consistently $10-$20 above courses that are the same if not better in terms of layout and conditioning. I just checked golfnow and grande pines is 89 whereas championsgate, orange lake, grand cypress and windermere cc are 49 for an afternoon round. No public course in Orlando is worth more than 50 IMO. Sorry to rant but I've actually spoke with the GM for Metrowest about it and he seems to be making changes to make golf more reasonable. I just think the other Marriott properties need a reality check.

[BamafaninKY]

Falcon's Fire was in pretty rough shape btw. I am probably going to cancel a round at Championsgate later in the week and play Grande Pines again. Their afternoon rate is $50 (after 3:00) and my son (10) plays free.

[jnier75]

I will say this, I have to drive past hole 10 a lot during the week and love looking at it. Sad to hear about falcon's fire, that's normally as green as Grande Pines. I've been meaning to get out to there because of a 25 dollar deal on another site. Kids play for free is a good deal, I do like that about some courses in Orlando, even though I do not have any. Cgate international is one of my favorite layouts in Orlando but the conditioning is kinda sketchy when I play it (mid summer late afternoon). They need to bulldoze the National course.

[BamafaninKY]

Booked a tee time at Grand Cypres (New Course) for tomorrow afternoon. $35 each is a great deal. I just booked it thru Golfnow and didn't worry about the junior rate.

[mwmgolfx]

If one is local to Orlando, the Marriott Gold VIP card is a great bargain for the various Marriott courses, such as Grande Pines, MetroWest, falcon's fire. It significantly reduces the cost of the course.

[BamafaninKY]

Loved the New Course and it's in great shape.

[tnord]

i have no idea what they charged us at Grande Pines yesterday, but i really thought it was a good course. we played from the golds (~6100 yds) because of the slope rating and we had a couple guys in the group that was the right tee for (i would've played greens or blacks on my own). even with only using driver maybe 3 times in the round i thought it was plenty challenging. overall conditions were great tee to green. i thought it a little silly a couple of the holes they restricted us to cartpath only and that significantly slowed down play.....but i had a great time.

fairways are mostly generous....though the shorter par 4s do have some trouble in the spots you would like to hit your ball forcing a layup or taking on some risk which i really appreciated given the lack of yardage. greens on par 5s were appropriately challenging to make you still consider laying up when you're only 200yds out for your 2nd.

[drpino]

I've only played it once (last year) but Grande Pines has some tough greens from what I recall. If you don't hit your approach to the proper section, you're faced with some really challenging putts up and down significant slopes and over and around significant ridges. I'm generally not a fan of resort courses with their lack of continuity between holes and with each hole being lined with condos but GP was a decent track.

[FLGOLFJUNKIE]

Played GP today from the tips.

Kicked. My. Asparagus!!

First time playing there, to say that you need to know where to place your shots is an understatement. Cannot wait to play it again!!!

[bvmagic]

Grande Pines is a tough course around the greens. No matter what tee's you play from it will be a good challenge. They have actually made the course easier over the years by taking out quite a few fairway bunkers.

[reelop19]

I'd just like to toot my own horn by saying I drove the #3 green (its a par 4). Definitely need proper shot placement on this course. Good times to be had here though.

[FLGOLFJUNKIE]

[quote name='reelop19' timestamp='1340850245' post='5181358']
I'd just like to toot my own horn by saying I drove the #3 green (its a par 4). Definitely need proper shot placement on this course. Good times to be had here though.
[/quote]

That's pretty cool! Pretty serious dogleg left, tough to do!