Tag Archives: golf vacation destination

Oak Marsh Course

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The Oak Marsh Course finds its way among the many beautiful courses of Florida, and it never fails to stand out. Not surprisingly so, the golf vacation destination is an original Pete Dye design. It is among his first few designs that initially raised the eyebrows of many of the conservatives of that era, but is currently ranked among the finest in the world. Since its opening in 1972, the course has never failed to make an impact on its spectators and players.

Small greens, tight fairways, and holes that wind through salt marsh creeks characterize the Oak Marsh Course. Along with two other courses, the Ocean Links and the Long Point courses, they make up the Amelia Island Plantation in Florida’s Amelia Island. What makes this golf vacation favorite excellent is Dye’s unique way of putting together each of its elements to make for a challenging and stunning course. The water hazards on 14 of its holes and the bulkhead greens, not to mention the beautiful bunkering are all made to be lookers, but at the same time, heart breakers. Leave it to the rest of the course and its many wonderful amenities to make up for these heartbreaks.

This course made its way into the hearts of the countless golfers who have spent their most memorable golf trips here. This fact was made known to the rest of the golfing world when Golf Digest ranked The Oak Mash Course as among the “Top 75 Resort Courses in the US”, and Travel and Leisure Golf’s “Florida’s 50 Finest Courses”.

The Palencia Club

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Excellence in a golf vacation destination is measured not only by its supremacy in layout but in the supporting amenities as well. It is one that delivers everything a golfer needs in his vacation, and delivers it on a silver platter. One perfect example for excellence in a golfing facility is the exclusive and elite club that is said to be the best in St. Augustine, Florida: The Palencia Club.

Its most treasured and most popular feature, not that any of its other features are anything less than stellar, is the 18-hole par 72 Arthur Hills-designed championship golf course. Hills designed for the course to mesh perfectly with nature it’s almost as if all he did was place holes around a natural paradise. The course is well adorned with centuries-old maritime oaks among other natural Florida vegetation, and golfers would have to share their golf vacations with the abundant natural wildlife. The Palencia Club golf course winds along the Intracoastal Waterway and the Tolomato River. These facts all combine to give Hills’ design an extra edge in natural hazards and a uniquely challenging topography.

Outstanding as it already is with the course alone, the developers of The Palencia Club did not stop there. The golf trip haven comes complete with a superb teaching facility and a stunning four-story clubhouse that goes all the way out into the greens. It goes without saying that the whole club is pristinely and meticulously maintained. There is nothing at all surprising about why this golf club is named among the best not only in St Augustine but in the entire Florida as well.

Queen’s Harbour Yacht and Country Club

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This is one golf vacation destination fit for royalty. Of the many courses in Jacksonville, Florida, the Queen’s Harbour Yacht and Country Club is considered the best. Not only is it extremely beautiful – with views of yachts at the marina on one side and the surrounding natural splendor of Jacksonville on another, but it offers a quality of play that does not come close to plain and mediocre. This combination of fun, beauty and challenge also expects its guests to play like royalty.

Just as royals are fancied with beautiful things, so are they expected to be skillful and excellent where they should be. And in this golf vacation favorite, they are faced with a layout that requires them the best of their shotmaking skills, and techniques. The 18-hole, par 72 Mark McCumber design is a good combination of a variety of par 3s, long par 4’s and short par 5s spread out on Bermuda carpeted rolling fairways. McCumber’s bunkering and mounding can get quite deceptive on some points, golfers must be on their guard especially for easy looking holes. The Queen’s Harbour Yacht and Country Club stretches to 7,017 yards from the back tees, and has 4 sets of tees to accommodate more royalties.

The grandeur of its beautiful scenery and excellent layout are completed in the impeccable service and amenities offered at the Queen’s Harbour Yacht and Country Club. There are rest stations all throughout the course, the beverage cart is almost never out of sight, and the 19th hole proves to be just as exactly as the rest of the course is: EXCELLENT. The experience here is just too unforgettable guests would still feel regal long after their golf trips.

Golf Club at South Hampton

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Mark McCumber is a celebrated golfer at the PGA Tour. Mark McCumber is a more celebrated golf course designer at the Golf Club at South Hampton in St Augustine, Florida. And he is rightfully so. The golf vacation destination that he designed is one of the best, most unique in this side of the Sunshine State because of McCumber’s distinct take on the usual elements of a Florida golf course.

Perhaps the best feature of McCumber’s design is not in the hole placement, the beautifully done landscaping, the natural Florida woodland scenery, or the even more stunning water hazards, natural and otherwise. Although these factors are, without a doubt, excellent on their own and greatly contribute to the overall beauty of the course. The most noteworthy part of the golf vacation favorite is in the bunkers. The white, soft sugar sand bunkers at the Golf Club at South Hampton were not just strategically placed, but are contoured and are made to fit the shape and style of the holes. And they come in numbers, having a total of 60. By far these are the best bunkering that has come to the Florida golfing scene.

The 18-hole, par-72 layout of the Golf Club at South Hampton wind through 17 stunning and large lakes and natural Florida woodlands. McCumber designed the holes to test every golfer’s shotmaking skills and their better judgment on which club to use at a most appropriate hole. The course measures 6,952 yards from the back tees, and has several sets of tees to make golf trips hereabouts as enjoyable as it possibly can to as many golfers as possible. Mark McCumber has clearly given guests a reason to celebrate the sport at this creation.

Windsor Parke Golf Club

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There is an undeniably royal quality to the Windsor Parke Golf Club. And it’s not just the name! This golf vacation destination has quite a reputation amongst its Jacksonville, Florida counterparts that makes it worthy of its regal namesake. To start off, its designer is pretty much a royalty in the golfing scene, both as a player and a designer. It’s no less than the Arthur Hills himself. And his creation, naturally, reflects his excellence in the sport.

The Windsor Parke Golf Club is one of the most recognized and most well-remembered golf courses in Jacksonville area, both by enthusiastic golfers of golf vacations and pros and amateurs who have had their tournaments here. As is known all over the city, this course has hosted more USGA qualifying tournaments than any other course in Jacksonville, including the US Open. Its numerous beautiful features give tournament organizers every reason to hold their events here. It has rolling fairways, dramatic bunkering, and an even more dramatic elevation changes. All that in true Arthur Hills brand, backdropped by the beautiful Florida scenery.

Its beauty and challenge are well applauded and recognized locally and nationally. Amongst the accolades that the Windsor Parke Golf Club are a 4-star rating from Golf Digest’s “Best Places to Play” and is the only National Golf Course Owner’s Association-certified “Beginner Friendly Club” in Jacksonville area. The service does not come short of regal as well, making golf trips here one for the royals.

The Golf Club at North Hampton

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Nobody should ever expect anything ordinary from a true genius. Whatever comes out of their minds are always with a touch of being extraordinary, and it does not mind being so – whether spectators like it or not. Proof to this fact is The Golf Club at North Hampton in Northeastern Florida. This golf vacation destination attests to the sheer genius of Arnold Palmer – his attention to detail, his reverence to challenge, and his utter love for the sport that made him a legend.

The Golf Club at North Hampton is Palmer’s own brand of poetry, cemented on Jacksonville terrain. It is laden with man-made sand dunes, bridges, coquina and sand bunkers backdropped by beautiful Florida woodlands. The elevation changes tend to be a little dramatic, and the wild grasses are a most perfect distraction. They are put together rather too well under Palmer’s hands that the ten year old golf trip favorite is a wonderful concoction of beauty, challenge, and perhaps, some madness – from the frustrated golfers who can’t score low. This piece of Arnold Palmer’s mind is nothing but ordinary.

Even the brand of service that this course offers does not come close to mediocrity. They give “customers come first” their own take, and it requires a real golf vacation to experience that. The Golf Club at North Hampton is all 18-holes of exciting, challenging, fun golf course that stretches to 7,171 yards playing for a par of 72. The 5 sets of tees allows for more golfers to enjoy its unique offering. It is perhaps safe to say that guests should expect nothing but the unexpected from this Florida golf gem.

St John’s Golf and Country Club

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When designer Clyde Johnston was given the piece of land between St Augustine and Jacksonville, Florida, he was given an empty, clean piece of canvass. It would have worked too easily if he were a painter. The thing is, he’s a golf course architect and a little bump on the terrain every here and there would have been helpful; an outright flat and plain piece of Florida lot seemed more a liability. But his genius was tested, and he has successfully turned the handicap into a full asset. And the result is a premier golf vacation destination, and what most golfers consider as Johnston’s best creation yet: St John’s Golf and Country Club.

Sitting next to tons of other golf courses in the area, the St John’s Golf and Country Club could easily be ignored, considering they share the same South Florida natural wetlands and wildlife. What sets this golf vacation haven apart is what Johnston do and did not do. Instead of putting in too much intervention into the apparently flat land, Johnston made use of what is already there, thus bringing out the best that nature can offer. He complimented it with a good helping of water hazards and sand traps, adding up to the challenge that the natural wetlands provide.

In totality, it is as similar to its neighbors as it is as different. These golf trip favorites share the same Florida goodness, but Clyde Johnston’s balanced mix of beauty and challenge, nature and his own creativity, make the St John’s Golf and Country Club outstanding. The course stretches to a good 7,236 yards from the back tees, and plays at a par of 72. A masterpiece by all means, it is rewarded by consistently being ranked among the nation’s best.

Cimmarone Golf Club

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Jacksonville, Florida may be more popularly known to be the home of the World Golf Village, but there is certainly more to the place where golf is concerned. And why not, Jacksonville has a very interesting natural terrain, beach spots, and the perfect weather to make it the ideal golf vacation destination. True blue golfing fanatics know by heart that some ten minutes or so from the famed Hall of Famer resort, there is an equally stunning golf course: the Cimmarone Golf Club.

An 18-hole par-72 layout, the Cimmarone Golf Club enjoys as much fame with the championship courses of the WGV in South Florida golfing scene because of the unique challenge it offers. David Postlethwait designed the course that stretches to 6,891 yards from the championship tees, and features rolling fairways and undulating greens. Like most So. Florida courses, it is backdropped by the many beautiful natural scenery and natural wildlife inhabiting the area. However, what sets this golf vacation favorite apart from its neighbors is the fact that each of its 18-holes has a water/marsh feature. Yes, EACH OF ITS EIGHTEEN HOLES. Pristine, yes. Challenging, an even bigger yes. And it does not stop there. The bunkers dotted all over the course do not make it any easier either.

With its five sets of tees and challenging layout, it does not come as surprising the Cimmarone Golf Club is flocked by golf trip enthusiasts. It is home to some of the best golf offerings in Jacksonville. The course might just as well be part of an entire county of Hall of Fame-worthy golf courses!

Deercreek Country Club

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Many golf courses employ risk-reward systems in their layout. It makes for some of the most remembered and most talked-about course designs. The more competitive golfers who are looking for the engaging and the challenging in their golf vacations tend to look for such courses, knowing full well they will get what they want. In South Florida, where it seems as if there is a golf course half a kilometer apart of each other, there is that one course that is said to have more risk-reward than any other in the area: The Deercreek Country Club.

The two-decade old golf vacation destination winds through well-preserved natural wetlands, old pines, and rolling uplands – the natural terrain providing the best and hardest challenges. To make it more challenging, the 18 holes of the par-71 Deercreek Country Club are strategically positioned to seem easy, but they are anything but. They test golfers’ shotmaking skills, as well as better judgment on how to take on each hole. The Robert Miller design stretches to a little over 6,700 yards and features a 285-acre natural preserve and a wide range of Florida wildlife.

The best reward, perhaps, that the Deercreek Country Club offers its guests, apart from a low scorecard and the most stunning scenery on the side, is the 19th hole. The clubhouse gives an Old South feel to the place, with its old school Southern Plantation design and the best gastronomic reward any golfer would want in between or after every round. There probably is nothing close to being a “risk” as far as deciding to take a golf trip hereabouts; it’s all reward!

Ocean Course of the Hammock Beach

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Good opening. Good middle. Good ending. There is nothing about this golf vacation destination that could not be listed as “good”. That should not be surprising though, the Ocean Course of the Hammock Beach is a creation of no less than the living legend, Jack Nicklaus himself. His creation is in contention for being Florida’s best with its sibling course, The Conservatory, a Tom Watson creation. But there is actually no contest. The Conservatory is inland, this one is oceanfront. The first oceanfront course in Florida in the last seven decades.

Six of its holes are directly playing on the Atlantic Ocean, and the rest are winding through the natural wetlands and lakes on site. The most notable feature of the Ocean Course of the Hammock Beach, as if anything else here could easily be ignored, are the final four holes collectively called “The Bear Claw”.These holes are edging the coastline, and have been designed to close any golfer’s game rather unforgettably. And there’s no such thing as “easy” in this course’s definition of unforgettable. Guests should expect no less than the same for their golf trips.

With 7,201 yards of golf from the longest tees, and multiple tee options, there is no reason for any golfer to forget their golf vacation at the Ocean Course of the Hammock Beach. And since its opening in 2000, it has not stopped earning rave reviews from pros and amateurs alike, and has rightfully been ranked as amongst America’s top 100 courses. There’s too much goodness here, it might as well be called the ‘best’.