Orlando - your input

Going to Orlando in mid-Jan. What's your fave course in that area? Don't trust all the online reviews. Thanks ahead of time.

Grand Pines is a nice course, on International Drive quite a ways down towards Sea World across the street from the Marriott whare Faldo has his Golf School.

Here is the link:

http://www.marriott-vacations.com/le...ub/default.jsp

Our trip is at the begining of April. We are playing Shingle Creek, Harmony Golf Preserve, Sugarloaf Mountain and Eagle Creek. In the past, I've enjoyed Southern Dunes, Orange County National (both), Osprey Ridge and Celebration.

Orange County National is good; I like Hunters Creek also.

I was in Orlando last winter and loved every minute of it. My personal favorites were Grand Pines, Eagle Creek and Orange County National. I would go again this year, but it's just not in the cards unfortunately. Have fun!

I actually just realized that I also played Shingle Creek while in Orlando last year. It was nice as well and I recommend going. I did a 5 round golf package and saved a lot of money doing that and I highly recommend going this route as well rather than just making tee times. You'll save yourself a few hundred dollars if you're there for 4-6 days.

The only course I thought was a little weak was Orange Lake Golf Resort - The Legends. There was this funky smell all over the course. I'm not sure why, but it definitely took away from it.

I've only played the Magnolia Course at Walt Disney World, just to play a course where the pro's played. It was OK, nothing spectacular. I'm sure there are better layouts in the area.

Here are a couple of threads regarding the topic, if you haven't searched already:
http://thesandtrap.com/forum/threads...-Area-Courses?
http://thesandtrap.com/forum/threads...f-trip-in-Feb?

Hello all, I just joined the forum and I'm traveling to Orlando with my regular foursome on Feb 15th for 3 days. I'm looking for suggestions for the first two days for accommodation and golf, we're booked into Bay Hill for the third night with a round there, very excited about that! I was looking at Orange County National but the Lodge scares me there a little as it seems to be in the middle of nowhere. Has anyone stayed there? I don't believe there are any restaurants nearby and it seems the restaurant at OCN closes early. The courses sound great but the Lodge sounds very no frills. We're open to ideas of other resorts/courses. It's our first golf trip and I'm not sure if you're better staying at a resort with golf or traveling to courses. Thanks in advance for any suggestions you may have.

Well, I've got three days. In those five round packages: are you playing the same course over and over? Are you staying at the course's resort?

Jeez, Wes Welker is crying on the sideline. Looks like a torn ACL. Ugh. Sorry, side tracked.

The package I got was 5 nights at Embassy Suites and 5 rounds of golf. The package included breakfast, range balls, golf cart and happy hour drinks at the hotel bar. In all I paid around $950 or so? When you factor in that the courses we played are usually around $120 for greens fees in peak season, it's a pretty good deal. Now, the package I got was at reduced price because of the recession at the time, and I know our economy is still struggling, so the deals you can get out there should be pretty juicy still, but I'm only guessing at this. My friend found this specific package that we got, and I think he found it by just using google or something. To get to the courses we were lucky enough to have had access to a car because we didn't fly- we took a road trip. You will need to either rent a car or take cabs since these courses are around 15-20 minutes away from each other. Most of them are pretty close by though. I think Orange County National was the most out of the way place, but was a gem of a facility. However, if you're looking to just stay in one place, I do know that Orange County National has two great courses (they played Q-School Finals there in 2005) and a par 3 course as well as a hotel on site so you'd have to check out their official site to see what kind of deals they have. I recommend bouncing around though. Anyways, this was the website my buddy used to book the trip: http://www.golforlando.com/GOLFORLANDO/ They have a lot of options and we had a good experience last year, but I don't know how good/bad each individual package is. I also haven't checked any of this year's prices or anything so....anyways, you should check it out at least.

Whoops, I forgot to add: Yes, we played a different course every day.

Before I saw your post I had found that website and yes, there are some pretty good deals. My wife has already made resv at Disney and is getting a deal because of some stuff we've done with them. I've played the Disney courses in the past so I didn't really want to do them all again. We did, however want to do Osprey Ridge again since we thought that was the best of their bunch and would be a good warm up for us when we start venturing out to new territory. We have been trying to avoid renting a car which would limit us to keeping our golf close to the resort. At this point, we are considering Grand Cypress and Waldorf Astoria. The key is trying to get a better deal on the fees. Seems that green fees skyrocket after the 15th of this month (we are going on the 19th) so it appears that the only way to get any reasonable rate is play after 2 p.m. which is pushing the limits of daylight for this time of year. If I could get some really good rates just a little farther out from the resort I could then justify getting a rental car. To be continued....

Here are a few "budget minded" courses in or near Orlando. All are fantastic…Juliette Falls is SPECTACULAR!
Black Bear ( http://florida.twoguyswhogolf.com/re...blackbear.html )
El Diablo ( http://www.eldiablogolf.com/sites/co...407&page;=11145 )
Candler Hills ( http://www.candlerhillsgolfclub.com/ )
Juliette Falls ( http://www.juliettefalls.com/ )
I am flying in on February 3rd with a couple friends to play. We plan on playing the courses listed above along with a couple others.

Since you are staying at Disney I recommend Orange County National. It is a short drive from Disney and is an awesome complex. Two championship courses, one short course, and has to be the largest practice facility in the world. The staff treats you very well. I am an Orlando resident and there is plenty of good golf around, but most of my rounds are at Orange County National. Shingle Creek is also another great course in Orlando, but more pricey than Orange County Nat. I hear that the courses on Disney's grounds are good as well, but expensive of course.

Osprey Ridge, Grand Cypress, Waldorf Astoria. Only change I'm considering is maybe doing OCN instead of Waldorf but I've heard some real good stuff about that course. Now that we got an incredible deal on rental car I don't mind driving a little bit so OCN is back on the radar.