River Hills Country Club

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Teeming with nature’s goodness, the River Hills Country Club is considered to be among the most beautiful courses in the greater Tampa area. It is backdropped by the hues and views of Tampa Bay, and is laden with natural wildlife that is more than comfortable with sharing the course with the golfers. But not to be mistaken as a wildlife park, the golf course is a true blue golf vacation destination with a superb layout making good use of the natural terrain features in this 200 acre inland countryside just a little outside Brandon.

The 18-hole course was designed by Joe Lee, measuring 7,007 yards from the longest tees and plays for a par of 72. It has a dominantly rolling terrain, accentuated by creeks and lakes and an overgrowth of native vegetation. The River Hills Country Club opens with a beautiful 400-yard par-4 that gives a sneak peek of what’s ahead – both in beauty and in layout, and closes with what is perhaps its most beautiful hole: a 422-yard par 4 that is guarded by an old oak, brushed by the wind. It takes quite a lot of patience, the right amount of wise judgment on metal choice, and a stash of risk-taking attitude just for those difficult holes. But not to worry, though. It never runs low on fun and beauty, a most perfect ingredient for the best golf vacations.

The unmatched quality of the layout is only complemented by the amenities on the River Hills Country Club. Its 15,000 square foot clubhouse styled a la Aspen Lodge is a perfect example. The rest of the course are enough an assurance too that this offers nothing but the best for golf trips.

Buckhorn Springs Golf and Country Club

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A classic and understated golf course, the Buckhorn Springs Golf and Country Club in Valrico, Florida, is one surprising treat. It is none of the usual flamboyance and flair of a Florida golf course. On the contrary, it has a rather casual air, no arrogance, open to the public, but has many a great thrills to startle the unknowing golfer. This golf vacation destination has actually more challenge than it chooses to reveal, leaving it to the player to discover.

At 6,888 yards playing for a par of 72, the Buckhorn Springs Golf and Country Club is neither too short nor too long for its size. It is just about right, with its tree lined fairways and small greens are fast and undulating. Not much is known about this course, unless actually played. Some call it very difficult, others really challenging. Some still call it fun. No matter how it is called, the bottomline is, it is worthy of a golf trip or two.

Just like any Florida golf course, water makes its way around the course. In the Buckhorn Springs Golf and Country Club, six of its eighteen holes have water making its presence felt. And as with most anything in this paradise state of Florida, the course has a stunning scenery of the natural environment. It is a perfect and striking contrast to the course’s challenging layout, thereby making golf vacations here interesting and enjoyable. Quite unforgettable, too. Opened in 1968, its pristine condition is also a truly wonderful surprise. The best way to enjoy this course is to not expect anything, and take it one hole at a time.

Southern Hills Plantation Club

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Pete Dye is famous in the sport for his unconventionally beautiful designs. He is known to challenge the common, to think out of the box. And the unusual quality of challenge his signature courses pose are what draws golfers to them. It is not surprising why Pete Dye’s creations are among America’s most favorite golf vacation destinations. One of them is found in the older part of Florida, in Brooksville: the Southern Hills Plantation Club.

Measuring more than 7,500 yards from the tips, the course plays for a par of 72 and opened in 2006. It was designed with the goal of optimizing the area’s natural views and terrain. The most notable feature of the course is its highly dramatic elevation that could cause a golfer’s heart to rise and fall in beating just as much as there are rises and falls on the course. Elevation ranges between 60 and 250 feet. And as if that is not challenging yet, the Southern Hills Plantation Club has Dye’s infamous deep, wild and small bunkers to contribute to the drama. The holes are carved out of dense magnolia and oak forests, winding through lakes and ravines, providing seclusion from the residences for a truly enjoyable golf vacation.

These superb features of the course are only complimented by the state-of-the-art, world class facilities that includes a practice putting green, a chipping area, and its massive Spa and Fitness Center. It should not come as surprising that apart from being a top choice for golf trips, the Southern Hills Plantation Club is also a top choice for recognitions. It has earned Golf Week Magazine’s two of its top honors, that being among America’s 100 Best Residential Courses, and America’s (not just Florida’s) 50 Best New Courses.

The Bayou Club

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It should not be surprising if a Tom Fazio creation is stunning. The layout is consistently beautiful, carved out of Mother Nature’s own hands, and so excellently challenging it always has to go to the books. The Bayou Club in Largo, Fl., is one perfect example. Its stunning quality is the type that takes a golfer through a myriad of emotions that leaves him gaping – in amazement that a golf vacation destination could be so beautiful, and gaping in shock while thinking of the best way to conquer each hole perfectly, neatly.

The Bayou Club features 7,085 yards of golf, 18 holes of the championship-quality holes spread on a vast natural bayou environment. It is surrounded by oaks, pines, and natural wildlife. A first look at the golf course instantly gives an assuring feeling to the golfer of having made the right decision: this is indeed the best place to spend a golf vacation in. The opening hole will reassure him even further. A very challenging 464-yard par 4 welcomes the golfer’s round, deemed to be the most difficult hole in the course. But the challenge level is not on a decrescendo mode. The claim of the 1st one being the most difficult is hardly accurate, the succeeding ones seem to be as demanding.

The most notable feature of The Bayou Club are the back-to-back par 5’s on the front and back-to-back par 3s on the back nine. This is only complimented by the presence of water on 16 of the 18 holes, and the round finishes with the most unforgettable Final Four hole-series. This course is so scenic, so superb, so stunning, it gives golfers their most unforgettable golf trips. And there is nothing surprising about that last bit.

Plantation Palms Golf Club

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The biggest challenges reap the biggest rewards. This must be the principle behind the layout design of the Plantation Palms Golf Club in Land O’ Lakes, Florida. This golf course offers a variety of challenges, laid out amidst a backdrop of natural Florida scenery, making golf trips here as interesting as beautiful. The scenery alone is good enough a reward.

This golf vacation destination is located some 20 minutes north of downtown Tampa, and stretches to 6,965 yards from the longest tees, playing for a par of 72. The Plantation Palms Golf Club was designed by David Harman and features a links style design. While most golf courses are challenging only from the Championship tees, leaving the shorter ones a bit easy, this course is not. It makes for challenging games from all tee boxes, encouraging golfers – no matter the skill level – to push their limits and take their game a step up.

A links style course, naturally, the golf course is laden with bunkers and water on practically almost every hole. The Plantation Palms Golf Club has a total of 47 soft, white sand bunkers paired with numerous ponds and lakes. This is a most perfect combination for a stunning, challenging course. It also has wide fairways, elevated tees and greens, and unique and dramatic elevation changes that make it all the more demanding. The biggest challenge here is not scoring low, but hurdling one’s own hesitation about taking the challenge. Nevertheless, there is something good waiting for the avid golfer, on the greens or on the clubhouse treats. With a course this excellent, not to mention perfectly maintained, getting to spend one’s golf vacation here is the reward in itself.

Bloomingdale Golfers Club

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Unspoilt natural setting, wildlife preserve, interesting layout made of strategic hole- and bunker-placements – no wonder the Bloomingdale Golfers Club has been an undisputed No. 1 course in Tampa Bay for ten years in a row. Yes, that’s an entire decade of holding on to the top spot in an area where there is a golf course in just about every turn. That is longer than most presidents have held on to their posts! And the reasons are quite easy to tell: from golf trips to tournaments, this course is an enjoyable treat – a combination of fun, challenge, and beauty.

Bloomingdale Golfers Club in Hillsborough County, just outside of Tampa, is a Ron Garl creation that sits on a 219 acre property laden with century-old oaks, natural marshlands, and a field of wildflowers.Half the property is still a wildlife preserve, so it is not surprising to have furry friends stand as spectators. The course measures 7,165 yards from the longest and most difficult tees, playing for a par of 72. 5 sets of tees ensure that more golfers get to enjoy this course that features massive waste areas, tree-lined fairways, and thirteen lakes that play on 13 of the course’s 18 holes. The course was made to be versatile, so as to be challenging for the pros, but fun and memorable for the retreating amateur player who wants to enjoy his golf vacation.

Apart from being a favored golf vacation destination, the Bloomingdale Golfers Club is also a top tournament host, having played host to such competitions as the PGA Tour Qualifying School, US Open Qualifiers, and Florida State Amateurs. This Tampa Bay course also holds a 3 and a half star rating from Golf Digest’s Places to Play and is a Ron Garl creation.

Hernando Oaks Golf Club

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At eight years old, the Hernando Oaks Golf Club is still quite new, but there is something old about this golf vacation destination. And it is not a bad thing. It is not the old, outdated kind that is just awaiting demolition. This is the kind of old that could only be closely associated to classic, timeless, a graceful aging of sorts. It must be the fact that it is located in Brooksville, a part of what is known as Old Florida, or it could be the fact that it bears a semblance to golf courses of the past. It has the air of courses built at a time when large machinery have yet to exist, and there was little or no disturbance on the land’s natural terrain.

This Scott Pate design has that quality. There was a goal to keep this golf vacation haven as close to nature as possible and it was undoubtedly achieved. At 6,905 yards from the longest tees, par 72, naturalists will love the Hernando Oaks Golf Club as much as hardcore golf aficionados would. Its five sets of tees also ensure that golfers of all skill levels will have fun here. It has the right amount of natural beauty and human intervention to its layout, that the wild inhabitants of this area could stand side by side with the enthused golfer and they will both be just fine.

The Hernando Oaks Golf Club is teeming in old, stately oaks draped in Spanish moss and expansive tree-lined fairways. The layout makes optimum use of the natural rolling wooded terrain of Brooksville to create a challenging but fun quality to games here. Truly enjoying the sport never gets old hereabouts; no wonder this is becoming an old-time favorite for golf trips.

Bardmoor Golf and Tennis Club

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If ‘Florida Golf’ were to be an entry in a pictionary, the Bardmoor Golf and Tennis Club would stand a perfect definition. It has all the elements of classic, signature Floridan golfing experience. If one is on the lookout for an authentic Florida golf vacation, this should top the list of choices.

The original design in 1974 and the most recent renovation by Gary Koch brought this course to a new high, whilst maintaining all its classic qualities and the Florida goodness that generations of golfers and countless champions have enjoyed over the years. The Bardmoor Golf and Tennis Club is best described as “challenging for the pros, but enjoyable for all”. There is something about the generous landing areas and many water hazards that make the golf vacation destination as picturesque as it is challenging. And the bottomline of it all is fun. It is generally playable and enjoyable for all players.

Champions the likes of Arnold Palmer, Payne Stewart, Fred Couples, and Tom Kite have tested the greens on this course. Countless others have too, as it is the host of the annual PGA/LPGA JC Penney Classic. Bardmoor Golf and Tennis Club measures 7,012 yards from the longest tees, and plays for a par of 72. Its world class amenities that includes an award winning golf shop and state-of-the-art practice facilities could only do so much as make it better, ranking it among the State’s best. This paints an even more appealing picture for truly fun, authentic and memorable Florida golf trips.

The Plantation Inn and Golf Resort

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Golf never grows old. It is a classic sport that never finds itself a passe; a venue where the generations past and the upcoming ones could compete head to head. Even old golf courses are as beautiful as when they were new, especially if the brand of golf experience they offer are a beautiful, classic combination of natural scenery, natural terrain, and a fun and extremely challenging layout. Such is one of Florida’s most classic golf facilities, The Plantation Inn and Golf Resort. Golf vacations here are a truly Floridan experience, set at another time and age.

This sixty year old golf complex in Crystal River was a Mark Mahannah creation and has all the makings of a classic, and is already one in its own right. The Plantation Inn and Golf Resort offers 27 holes of golf, playing on natural Florida wetlands and woods, getting as close to nature as possible. Guests can choose to either play a short game of nines at the Loops Course, or a full game at the 18-hole Champions course. Apart from natural undulations and tight fairways, the golf vacation destination has the signature features of golfing in the Sunshine State: bunkers (lots of them) and water (21 of 27 holes).

A classic by all respect, the Plantation Inn and Golf Resort thankfully belongs to an environment that respects and lives ‘classic’. Crystal River belongs to the Old Florida, a far cry from the beautiful mess of urban Central Florida, without necessarily being distant. Thus golf trips here are a certified breather, a calm and truly peaceful retreat from the usual complexities of modern golfing. It is a communion with the glory days of the sport hereabouts and with nature itself.

Northdale Golf and Tennis Club

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Tampa Bay and the whole of Florida are home to some of the country’s most beautiful and most sought after golf vacation destinations. It has the perfect weather, the best scenery, and a most unique and interesting natural terrain that makes golf more uniquely exciting than anywhere else in America. Most of these courses, though, only get to capture the first two and choose to rebuild the land. Only a few have perfectly put up a top quality course using Tampa Bay’s natural topography. Such is Northdale Golf and Tennis Club.

Its designer, Ron Garl, has this goal in mind when he built the course in 1977: to ‘artfully employ the unique characteristics of the natural terrain’. And this, he achieved. The Northdale Golf and Tennis Club features rolling terrains and contoured greens of USGA specifications. It plays 6,824 yards from the championship tees for a par of 72. Even after2 its most recent renovation, the principle of keeping the course as symmetrical to nature as possible was maintained. Large cypress trees, natural water features (playing on 11 of its 18 holes) and remolded bunkers all the more make the course interesting, thus making golf trips here memorable and beautiful.

As if that was not enough yet, the Northdale Golf and Tennis Club makes golf vacations even more wonderful, on top of being interesting with the best quality service and amenities anyone could ever want from a golf facility. It certainly has captured everything good about Florida golfing; no wonder it has captured the hearts of countless golfers from within and outside the Sunshine State too.