South Florida

[xrayvizhen]

I don't get it. I put in "South Florida" in the search box for this forum, figuring there would be tons of info and got nothing. Oh well.

So anyway, I'm thinking of going to southeast Florida late January, or thereabouts. No wife this time, just me and the golf clubs. (She’s not interested). I'm looking for a nice place to stay within maybe a 30 minute drive of as many different nice courses where I can play. While I went to college down at the U in Coral Gables it was a long time ago and it's been maybe 20 years since I've vacationed in the area, so I'm not familiar with what might be new and nice...both for the golf and places to stay in the general vicinity between Fort Lauderdale & Boca Raton or possibly Delray.

Suggestions, anyone?

 

 

 

 

[iacas]

https://thesandtrap.com/search/?&q=south florida&type=forums_topic&sortby=relevancy

https://www.google.com/search?q=south+florida+site:thesandtrap.com

Either of those work pretty well.

I used to live in Delray Beach. There are a LOT of good courses in the area. Even Delray's municipal course has nine Donald Ross holes.

[MuniGrit]

I've been in Miami for work the last 3 weeks. I have played Doral, Melreese CC, and Miami Springs. I am going to go play Crandon Bay before I leave and my buddies CC(not sure which one it is). Golf has been tough here fighting my swing and it has been windy everyday.

[lastings]

On 1/28/2018 at 8:57 AM, MuniGrit said:

I've been in Miami for work the last 3 weeks. I have played Doral, Melreese CC, and Miami Springs. I am going to go play Crandon Bay before I leave and my buddies CC(not sure which one it is). Golf has been tough here fighting my swing and it has been windy everyday.

I was down in Miami in November.  Crandon at Key Biscayne is excellent for the price.  Miami Beach Golf club is nice, too.   a bit more expensive, though.  

My cousin, who lives down there, picked the courses.   He also highly recommends the Biltmore.    and, obviously, Doral.   if you want to anti up. 

 

 

 

[xrayvizhen]

Good suggestions. I've played the Biltmore many times when I was in college since it was only 5 mins from the campus. Crandon didn't exist then. I won't play Doral because you know who owns it.

I'll be staying in Deerefield so i have Tee times for the new Greg Norman redesign of Pompano Beach's public course as well as Delray Beach. I have time for 1 or 2 more rounds. I might try Crandon Park.Thanks for the idea.

 

[MuniGrit]

2 hours ago, lastings said:

I was down in Miami in November.  Crandon at Key Biscayne is excellent for the price.  Miami Beach Golf club is nice, too.   a bit more expensive, though.  

My cousin, who lives down there, picked the courses.   He also highly recommends the Biltmore.    and, obviously, Doral.   if you want to anti up. 

 

 

 

I played Deering Bay CC and Crandon. I liked them both. Crandon was hard and i played well so I really enjoyed it.

[xrayvizhen]

23 minutes ago, MuniGrit said:

I played Deering Bay CC and Crandon. I liked them both. Crandon was hard and i played well so I really enjoyed it.

 

Am I reading the Crandon website correctly.....$176??? And then there's a forecaddie on top of that??

 

[lastings]

32 minutes ago, xrayvizhen said:

 

Am I reading the Crandon website correctly.....$176??? And then there's a forecaddie on top of that??

 

I didn't even realize that is the regular rate.   I paid The fall rate, after 12pm, with a Miami-Dade resident...    so $76.   i guess it's not so cheap for everyone..  

 

 

that said, twilight is after 2pm for everyone and drops it down to $70...   Sunset is about 6:15, so you should be able to get it in.  

Edited February 12, 2018 by lastings

[MuniGrit]

3 hours ago, xrayvizhen said:

 

Am I reading the Crandon website correctly.....$176??? And then there's a forecaddie on top of that??

 

I paid 70 at 2 pm.

[xrayvizhen]

I just returned from my Southeast Florida golfing “spring training” and thought I would give some course mini-reviews for those who might be interested in the Broward or Palm Beach area. The week was intended to be somewhat frugal in that I definitely was not looking for a golf resort experience. Rather, it was strictly to see if some of the swing changes I had been working on over the winter (ref. my thread in the My Swings forum) had taken effect therefore I didn’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on greens fees if I was going to be spraying the ball all over the place. So I picked out a hotel in Deerfield Beach, and played two rounds at Delray Beach GC (thanks Iacas for the recommendation) a round at each of Pompano Beach’s courses and one round at Deer Creek.

Pompano Beach has two 18 hole public courses right next door to Pompano Beach Air Park, home of the Goodyear Blimp, and one of the courses, the “Pines”, within the past 4 years, has been redesigned and rebuilt by Greg Norman’s company.  (There are shark logos all over the place.) I last played there over 12 years ago, and the only main difference that I could remember between then and now was several of the opening holes were completely rebuilt with new greens, bunkers, land sculpting and layout. A lot of ugly looking scrub vegetation all over the course was removed, fairway’s completely reseeded and the rough was cleaned up to speed up play, and make it possible to find balls that don’t land in the fairway, which wasn't the case a lot of the time back then. This course is much better maintained than the “Palms”, the other layout there, with fairways in good, but not great condition. Unfortunately, the greens were a mess caused, I was told, by a sprinkler system problem that’s been going on for the past month. If Greg were to pop in to see what’s happened to what is advertised as “The first Greg Norman designed municipal course in the country”, I don’t think he would be pleased, but what has happened to Pompano’s other course, the “Palms”, is a disaster. There are burnt out fairways and an infestation of weeds or some kind of weird grass on both fairways and greens, and from appearances, whatever money both courses are generating for the city all of it is going to the Greg Norman course, which is a shame, because both have some interesting and challenging holes. The cost to play the Palms is $34/$45 (walk/ride) and is not worth it with conditions as bad as they are. The Norman course, is $65 (ride only) and would be a bargain if they fixed their sprinkler system and paid a bit more attention to a modicum of basic maintenance.

Thirteen miles north on I-95 is Delray Beach’s muni, designed by Donald Ross in 1923. Whether or not Ross designed all of the holes is a bit murky as it was a 9 hole course originally and then expanded to 18, with I suppose some re-routing, in 1950. Ross died in 1948, so if he was consulted before then, who knows. In any case, comparing conditions between Pompano Beach’s muni’s and Delray’s is like night and day. At Delray the holes and fairways are in excellent condition. The rough has been left on its’ own to either grow or not grow, and in most cases it’s the latter. It’s relatively easy to tell which holes are part of the original Ross design with huge traps, greens in the shape of a saddle or a turned-over dinner plate, and a requirement to stop and think about where and how you want to hit your shot before you pull a club out of your bag. It costs $52 to play whether you walk or ride but the rate drops significantly after 2pm. I enjoyed myself so much I played there twice.

Finally, I splurged and paid $105 to play at Deer Creek, a pretty classy joint. Typical country-club conditions (with condos – I don’t like golf courses with condos lining the fairways) with a fancy-shmancy clubhouse, pristine fairways and greens, very tough Bermuda rough and a practice range with real grass. The course is typical Florida with lots of sand and water. Unlike Delray though, there aren’t any particularly memorable holes which is telling, I guess.

How did I play? Inconsistent as usual, shooting between a high of 83 on day one to a low of 78 mid-week. My index just ticked up 2/10ths. IE: On one day, I went from an Eagle 3 on a par 5 to a double bogey on the very next hole. I’m having a hard time dialing in the yardages with my new irons and had several pull hooks and a few chunks thrown in.  I drove the ball real well though and my short game and putting were great, even on the crappy greens. Not helping things was the wind every day coming in off the ocean between 20-25 knots. I took some videos that I’ll eventually edit and post on the My Swing thread.

One final thing I’d like to say, and I don’t know if this is true for all of Florida or just this area, but these folks really motor along when it comes to pace of play. 4 hour rounds were typical, and a couple of crotchety 80 year-olds, who I was paired up with on one day, even complained about that. On my last day I had a late afternoon flight scheduled so I lucked into a 7:30 Tee Time at Delray and was done by 11:15. 3 hours, 45 minutes!!.  I was able to eat lunch at the grill, get back to my hotel, shower, pack, check out and get to the airport with time to spare. I don’t know how I’m ever going to be able to put up with 4 1/2 hour rounds ever again.

Edited February 24, 2018 by xrayvizhen
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