Jacksonville Golf Scene

An unmatched oceanfront experience.

There are a handful of golf experiences that offer oceanfront holes, but very few that include more than 1,000 yards of beachfront golf. There are even fewer golf experiences that include ocean views from every suite of a world-class resort. There is however only one golf experience on the Atlantic Coast that also offers two very different and unique Tour-quality courses and an unlimited number of customizable options to make that experience truly one-of-a-kind.

Hammock Beach Resort, located just south of historic St. Augustine along 2-1/2 miles of pristine Atlantic Oceanfront in Palm Coast, invites you to “Dream Bigger” for your next golf getaway. As they like to say, if you can dream it, their professional planners can create it, whether it be with your regular foursome, a business conference, your vacation golf group or just your spouse or family. They’ve got the expertise, the imagination and the amenities to create your ultimate golf vacation, no matter the length of time or number of people involved.

Hidden Hills Country Club is one of the more storied venues in all of Florida. Home to a number of battles on the golf course during the heyday of the Greater Jacksonville Open, won by Don January, Gary Player, and Tony Jacklin (respectively) from 1970-72 at the club, Hidden Hills also stands on a historic battleground that witnessed the fierce struggles between France and Spain.

Today Hidden Hills draws on its great tradition while providing its members with the finest amenities and a splendid Arnold Palmer Signature Course. The layout was redesigned by the King in 1988, some 16 years after the last Greater Jacksonville Open, the forerunner to today’s PLAYERS Championship.

Think about Golf Legends and who comes to mind? Well, you are definitely going to think about Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. Go back in time to an earlier era and you are going to think about Sam Snead and Gene Sarazen. And how about the chance to play the Official Courses of the World Golf Hall of Fame? The golf courses at World Golf Village have it all. The King and Bear is the only collaborative design by Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus and The Slammer and Squire had Sam Snead and Gene Sarazen consulting on the design with Bobby Weed.

The Champions Club at Julington Creek and Windsor Parke Golf Club, share a common bond – both are owned by Pacific Life, which claims courses in golfing hotbeds like Las Vegas, Arizona and California.

More importantly, both courses offer incredible value considering the excellent course conditions displayed at both facilities.

“You won’t find a better value,” said Jim Lear who serves in a dual role as Director of Golf and General Manager at The Champions Club. “For what it costs to play here and for the conditions, it’s a really good value; a very affordable price for what you get.”

What you’ll be getting at The Champions Club is a championship course measuring just over 6,900 yards designed by former CBS golf commentator and champion amateur golfer Steve Melnyk, who now resides in Jacksonville. Melnyk won both the U.S. Amateur (1969) and British Amateur Championship (1971), and played on the PGA TOUR from 1972-1983.

The four-man scramble is one of the most enjoyable formats for team competition in golf. After all, finding one decent shot out of four is a welcome proposition to many golfers. Beginning this spring, golf clubs across the country will be able to compete in The Great American Scramble and vie for the coveted title of National Champions in Las Vegas.

After the longstanding Buick/Oldsmobile Scramble shut down in 2005, golfers were left without a national scramble competition. PGA Professional Wayne Stone decided to change that. Stone created an event aimed at bringing excitement, camaraderie and team-building experiences back to golfers through the scramble format.

Stone, who is the director of Golf at Windermere Country Club in Windermere, Fla., decided there was enough interest to create a national scramble just by gauging the response of his members to the loss of the Buick event. Encouraged by the feedback, Stone set out to create the national tournament that was currently missing from the golf world.

When it opened a little more than 20 years ago, the Cimarrone Golf Club, located 20 minutes from downtown Jacksonville and 10 minutes from the World Golf Village in St. Augustine, was one of the most outstanding new courses in the state of Florida.

In order to maintain its reputation as one of the Sunshine state’s leading layouts, Cimarrone will close down all its original green complexes June 30 to regrass in an effort to stay ahead in the highly competitive Jacksonville golf marketplace. They will use temporary greens until the 1st of October, which will give the staff at Cimarrone plenty of time to work on the putting surfaces and take the course to a new level.

General Manager of the Cimarrone Golf Club, Mike Rich, said the new grass his club will use is Seashore Paspalum, which has been extremely successful at Cimarrone’s sister course, Oak Harbor Golf Club in New Orleans.

THE PLAYERS is one of the premier events on the PGA TOUR and is widely regarded as golf’s “unofficial fifth major.” The tournament brings the best golfers in the world to the greater Jacksonville area and at the same time makes a significant contribution to a diverse number of charitable organizations throughout Northeast Florida.

Last year THE PLAYERS raised $2.8 million dollars for local charities and continued the PGA TOUR mantra as being the official sport of giving back. The tournament raises money primarily through ticket sales and sponsorships which greatly benefits a large number of groups.

“Realize that the money raised stays right here in the First Coast,” said Ron Natherson Jr., PLAYERS tournament chairman. “The dollars we give span the gamut of human services, youth initiatives, health care; all sectors you could ever imagine. We really touch them all, it’s wide reaching.”

Amelia River, renowned as one of the best conditioned courses in North Florida, continues to feature public and private play on its links-style layout. This Amelia Island gem, first opened in 2001, is one of the few in the area featuring TifEagle greens resulting in smoother surfaces for testing the golfer’s short game.

Add to that the wide-open putting green – and the spacious practice range – both of which allow golfers to be at their best after warming up for a round of golf. In the spring and summer of 2008, Amelia River Golf Club will be implementing an amazing price structure to keep golfers of all ages and abilities even more happy with the course.

In April and May 2008, golfers can play for $100 per round, per person when booking a foursome, including cart and range balls. In June and July 2008, golfers can book a foursome and pay only $75 per person per round, including cart and range balls. These prices will be available even after extensive renovations that added the new clubhouse and improved playing conditions at the public/private course.

Giving Players a Chance to Compete and Play on Some of Florida's Finest Layouts

The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach annually serves as the home to golf’s unoffi cial "fifth major" championship and currently features the richest purse in the game at approximately $9 million.

This coming December the fabled course will serve as the venue for the final event in the Hampton Golf Executive Tournament Series, capping a yearlong string of tournaments that will allow a contingent of amateur golfers from across the state of Florida to compete like the pros.

Hampton Golf, a management company that promotes courses throughout Northeast Florida, Ft. Myers, Orlando and Tampa Bay, started a competitive series for its members in 2007, and because the participants were so receptive to the idea, drastically expanded the number of events this year. 

The Ten Essentials for Golf Improvement

The Answer, when it comes to cutting strokes and recovering more quickly on the course, is actually ten components. On their own, each is powerful. Together, they lead to sustainable improvement – and the ability to overcome plateaus in skill and score.

Crediable Guidance from a PGA Professional is the place to begin. Select an instructor based upon their ability to develop client ability over time, not simply in a one-off, 30-minute lesson. 

Objective Feedback using proven technology can eliminate guessing and time-consuming trial and error. Digital video, motion analysis, biofeedback and a Tour database should be integrated into a total view of your progress.

A Proven Path developed by your Coach should be goaloriented, visual and trackable. Using a documented, time-based approach provides a far-clearer view of progress.