Practice Facility Jupiter/West Palm?

[th6252]

Gonna be visiting a buddy for a week in Jupiter (he's not a golfer) and was curious if anyone could recommend a good practice facility in the area. Thanks!

 

Forgot to add, I'll be there the last week of January.

[jpt1101]

The West Palm Beach muni has a nice grass range, good practice green, and separate chipping green with practice bunkers. Overall very good.

While I haven't been I understand the practice facility at the PGA Village in Port St Lucie to be world class. While a bit further it wouldn't be too far from Jupiter.

[Johnny Biarritz]

PGA Village Learning Center is outstanding. Grass gets a little beat up in late winter, though. Should be fairly OK in late January though. It's about 40 minutes north of Jupiter. Golf Club of Jupiter has a water range with floater golf balls and mats, or they did in 2008, I wouldn't go there again unless I really felt the need to hit balls. The range at Park Ridge wasn't bad, but I don't remember how much they charged. PGA Village is kind of pricey, like $12 for a basket of 90 balls, though they do have a daily rate if you want to stay all day (not likely).

[th6252]

thanks for the tips fellas. i think pga village is a bit farther than i wanted to travel though. anyone familiar with the practice range at north palm beach cc? decent grass range? thanks again.

[jpt1101]

North Palm's range is fine as long as they put the tees on their main teeing ground. I've been there when they put the tees down in front of the main ground and the turf there is not as nice and the range becomes an iron only range as there is not enough room to hit driver.

[jpt1101]

Also a tip about North Palm if you go. Bring cash as the only way to get balls is through their machines and they don't accept debit or credit cards, cash only.

[th6252]

awesome, thanks for the tips!

since you seem to know a lot about the area, i hope you don't mind if i pick your brain a bit more about some courses in the area.
i saw ironhorse mentioned a few times in a positive light here in older threads, and even though it's private, i see tee times pop up on golfnow pretty often. if i can get a decent time there, it'll be my first choice. npbcc is another that i'm likely gonna get onto as well as i plan on getting 2 rounds in.
however, if ironhorse doesn't work out, there are several courses i'm considering. abacoa is a course i played there back in '05 and i enjoyed it, but i've read that course conditions have gone downhill there and it's not the value it once was. is that really the case now?

2 others i'm considering are hammock creek in palm city(which is about as far north as i'm willing to travel give or take 10min) and palm beach national. would you rate one better than the other and also consider either or both a better value over abacoa? also, if you have any other suggestions within similar distances to jupiter(i'll be staying with a friend who lives near loxahatchee club to give you an idea as to where i'm travelling from), it'd be more than welcomed. thanks again.

[jpt1101]

I'm relatively new to the area so I haven't played a lot of different courses yet but I have played North Palm Beach and Abacoa. Both are nice courses and both were in very good shape when I played them.

The greens at Abacoa were lightning fast and smooth. The strain of Bermuda they use there is a bit different from other courses in the area from what I understand and it leads to very fast, smooth putting surfaces. The course conditions overall were very good.

NPB's greens were also really fast and there are some crazy contours there. While Abacoa's were quicker NPB's were tougher to putt due to the slopes.

Both courses can get very pricey during the peak season so keep your eyes open for deals. I don't think you can go wrong with either one of them. There are some good threads on this site about South Florida / West Palm golf that I have found helpful and accurate. They will pop up If you use the search function.