Headed to the Space Coast for a golf vacation - need course advice

Hey guys,

My brother and I are making the drive down from Ontario, Canada to the Daytona area (New Smyrna Beach specifically) in December.  I've been looking at GolfNow and there are quite a few courses on there and some I definitely want to hit (the LPGA courses for example).  Maybe there are some courses on that list I want to avoid?  Here's a link to the list.

http://www.golfnow.com/daytona-space-coast

We're fine going some distance from there as well (my brother says drives of an hour or so are as normal there as where we live so no biggie if they're not right in town).  I'd love some advice from locals or people who are familiar with the area golf scene on great courses to play.  We're not looking for stay&play; as we have a condo we're staying in for free.

Cheers!

Brad

OK I thought I'd give this one last attempt and see if anyone bites.

Screw that, I forgot to read your original post. My bad.

Just FYI, New Smyrna is only about 50 miles from Orlando. Lots of fine courses here.

That's closer than I thought (I admit I haven't looked at a map yet!), I drive farther than that to get to work!

Do you have any personal favourites you'd recommend?

Depends on how much you want to spend, but a couple good affordable courses - and not far off of I-4 - are Dubsdread in Orlando & Rolling Hills in Longwood. Mayfair in Sanford is pretty good too. Those are all public courses, so greens fees are in the $20-$35 range.

Now, if you want to spend more, you certainly can in this town! Further south, down in the Disney area you have some great tracks - Shingle Creek, Windermere CC, Championsgate, Grand Cypress, etc.

There's also a gem on the east side of town - Rio Pinar, where they used to hold a PGA Tour event.

But the one I would recommend out of all those would be Dubsdread. It's the closest thing I have to a 'home course' here. Built in the 1920's, lots of history - Hogan used to play there. Here's their website -

http://www.historicaldubsdread.com/

The LPGA courses are must plays as well as Victoria Hills in Deland (does not appear to be listed on Golfnow). I played Halifax Plantation last year and really enjoyed the experience, also played one of the Daytona Beach municipal courses, wouldn't go back. I've just started vacationing in this area the last couple of years and on my list of plays for March 2012 are Walkabout and Deltona Club, both of which I've heard good things about. If it's in your budget, Hammock Beach a little north of the area is supposed to be the best course in that area.

We're used to paying close to $50CAD for a walking round, so $20-35USD sounds great!  Thanks for all the suggestions so far, so much googling to do!

I think we'll absolutely have to hit up Dubsdread, I'd love to play somewhere knowing that Hogan had as well.  I've played some courses up here from the same era and I really like the old tracks.

You will love Dubs. Challenging, but very fair, very playable. I just played it last Thursday & it's in great shape...the greens are fantastic. Don't forget to check the grain! It's Florida & we got Bermuda greens here.

As far as Hogan, they got pics of him in the clubhouse playing Dubs. They got one with him over a putt, sweater hanging over his shoulder & a butt hanging from his mouth. Classic.

Oh, and they have a great restaurant onsite - the Taproom. Great burgers.

Gee, I guess I kinda like Dubs.

Back again!  We've got a list of courses set so far:

• LPGA Champions
• LPGA Legends
• Orange County National - Panther Lake
• Dubsdread

I also have enough GolfNow points to get us 2 rounds at some local courses so we'll use those for warmup rounds I think (gotta knock the rust off).

What we would definitely like to do is play an ocean-side course - not exactly something we can experience in Ontario!  Can anyone recommend a good one that isn't horrendously expensive?  We're willing to drive multiple hours (my brother suggested heading down to the Miami area).

I'm leaving in less than a week so I'm giving this one last try.

I just got back so I thought I'd finish this thread off in case anyone stumbles across it later. Sadly we timed the trip perfectly to get a big price increase right before Christmas at the main courses we wanted to play (LPGA, Venetian Bay, etc.) so we decided not to play them and just get a lot of rounds in.

In a way I'm glad we did as we met a lot of great people who recommended some fun courses that we did end up playing.  Our 'home' course ended up being the New Smyrna Beach Golf Course which was only minutes from where we were staying.  It was quite fun and the price was right.  We decided we'd play recommended courses in the morning and then play New Smyrna Beach each afternoon.

So we ended up playing the following:

• New Smyrna Beach Golf Course
• Indigo Lakes
• Pelican Bay North
• Pelican Bay South
• River Bend Golf Club

I think River Bend was probably my favourite with Indigo Lakes being a really close second.  So while it was disappointing not to play the big name courses, we still had a blast.  Next year we'll just have to try and time the trip a little better.

I think my only complaint all week was the putting.  I have never had so many 3-putts in my life!  I don't know what it was but I just couldn't get a read on those greens.  My pace was great most of the time, I just couldn't roll the ball into the bloody hole! "3-Putt Bogey" became my nickname for the week.