Jacksonville Golf Scene

The perfect resort has to be all things to all people. Fairway lovers need great golf. Water lovers need beaches and boats. Tennis lovers need court time and nature lovers need, well, nature.

At Palm Coast Golf Resort, all that, and much, much more awaits. Nestled midway between Jacksonville and Daytona Beach on Florida’s East Coast, the resort features five of the best golf courses offered in the Sunshine State, headlined by the acclaimed Jack Nicklaus-designed Ocean Hammock®. The resort is also home to a five bell rated, 80-slip marina located on the Intracoastal Waterway, 18 clay, hard and grass tennis courts, fresh and saltwater fishing and 20 miles of biking, jogging and walking trails. Fine dining is available at Flagler’s Seafood and Steaks, or for a more relaxed atmosphere Rafter’s at Pine Lakes offers home cooked dinners. Join us at Henry’s Bar and Grill for a cocktail or snack, featuring live entertainment Fridays and Saturdays. When the action is over, the resort offers more than 154 spacious rooms, each with breathtaking views of either the Intracoastal Waterway or the marina.

Located in the heart of beautiful St. Simons Island, Sea Palms Golf & Tennis Resort features 27 holes of challenging golf, world-class practice facilities and a professional golf staff that combine to make it the ultimate golf destination.

The combination of tall pines and great oaks make for a fabulous 18-hole golf experience. Its traditional design with gentle sloping contours and natural beauty make it a must play for all levels of golfers. The fairways are lined with majestic oak trees and the greens are well flanked with sand traps. The four separate tee boxes allow every level of player to have an enjoyable round of golf.

The surrounding natural wonder blends perfectly with the unequaled standard of living offered at Eagle Landing, the new 1,320-acre golf course community at OakLeaf Plantation. Presented by East West Partners, Inc., developers of the acclaimed Eagle Harbor at Fleming Island, the carefully planned community offers an array of activities and amenities including a par-72 golf course designed by renowned architect Clyde Johnston of Hilton Head, South Carolina.

Also recognized for creating the much-admired course at Eagle Harbor, the award-winning architect has designed a tour de force that incorporates classic designs from around the world by some of golf’s original architects.

The Country Club of Orange Park is one of Northeast Florida’s hidden gems. Hidden behind busy Blanding Boulevard in Orange Park, CCOP offers a quiet and serene course filled with an abundance of beautiful trees, wildlife and water. Since owners Colin Armstrong and Ray Raulerson purchased the Club in 2002, they have poured millions of dollars into the renovation of the golf course and Club’s facilities.

The classic design of Bobby Miller has been updated with a new irrigation system and new cart paths, as well as lengthened by Charles Raulerson (Former PGA Tour Pro and General Manager at CCOP) three years ago. The back tees stretch back to a pro-style 7,048 yards, while leaving the other tees at anywhere from 5,100 to 6,550 offering an exciting challenge to players of all skill levels.

Comstock Golf School opens with the latest in video technology. The school is housed next to the Driving Range at Blue Cypress Golf Club. Instruction is provided by PGA Class ‘A’ Professional Byron Comstock. Byron has many years of experience playing and teaching the game of golf as a member of the PGA Teaching Faculty, as a former Golf Coach at Jacksonville University and as a Director of Golf at some of the most prestigious clubs in Mexico and the Philippines as well as in the United States.

The indoor facility uses P3Pro Swing Technology. P3Pro Swing combines a golf simulator and a swing analyzer that tells you exactly what your club is doing as you swing through the impact zone. It gives immediate feedback on swing path and speed, club angle at impact and ball flight simulation and data. And more.

What could a golf course have in common with ice cream? Aside from the fact that we golfers likely love the taste of both in any season of the year, Royal Amelia Golf Club on spectacular Amelia Island north of Jacksonville, just might be the Neapolitan ice cream of golf courses. Acclaimed designer Tom Jackson has blended an open, Scottish links-style with one featuring a more typical Florida flavor with doglegs and lush vegetation and added holes that’ll remind you of Pinehurst and the well-mounded, pine-tree-lined fairways of the Carolinas.

The result is more appreciated the more you play it. And with five different tee boxes on every hole that can make the course play from 4,800 to over 6,800 yards, and SEVEN different pin positions on each enormous green, it’ll be a long, long time before you play the same course twice. Maybe Royal Amelia’s closer to 31 flavors than just three?

Hyde Park Golf Club offers some very special attractions to Jacksonville area golfers. First, they can play virtually the same course that was designed by the legendary Scottish architect Donald Ross in 1925. The oaks and pines that line the course are magnificently mature and majestic, and lend a special aura to the playing experience. Finally, since the layout has not changed, today’s golfers are playing the same course, making shots from the same tees, fairways and yes, bunkers, to the same greens as the legends of the game.

East-West Partners, the developers who raised the bar in Jacksonville-area golf communities with the Eagle Harbor development in the ‘90’s hope to surpass that with Eagle Landing at OakLeaf Plantation in northern Clay county. East-West hopes to convince its newest residents that Eagle Landing is as much “resort” as it is “community” with a list of amenities longer than your best drive on its Clyde Johnston layout. Johnston, who also designed Eagle Harbor, expects the new golf course that is scheduled to open in October, to be similar in its difficulty, though it is an entirely fresh concept for the avid Jacksonville golfer.

“My goal is to intersperse classic holes such as the Redan Hole, the Eden, and the Cardinal into the routing in order to lend a sense of purity to the golf experience at Eagle Landing Golf Club. Those individual designs are so technically and aesthetically complete that they can truly elevate a golfing experience.” Yet through the use of six different tees, including youth tees, he’ll offer a fun challenge for players of all abilities.

The recent attention given to the late, great Ray Charles reminds us that there are few, very few, great duets that don’t have to be manufactured with cutting-edge technology. Two of those extremely rare pairings have been brought together when golf virtuosos Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, Sam Snead and Gene Sarazen united under possibly the only circumstances possible, The World Golf Village at . The four charter members of the Hall had the opportunity to embellish their own incredible resumes by leaving something for golfers of generations to come to test themselves against every day, and they do not disappoint.

The “Slammer and Squire” came first. Imagine Bobby Weed, a renowned golf course architect in his own right, taking the consulting input of Snead and Sarazen, winners of 14 major championships between them, and crafting what Slammin’ Sammy hoped would be “a golf course that people would enjoy playing and included the need for some good shot-making?” Like the games of its namesakes, the layout has only ripened since it’s opening in 1998, even better fulfilling their legacy.

The “King and Bear” could have been a battle of not only Hall of Fame resumes, but egos as well.

Cimarrone Golf Club is again living up to its Seminole definition as “The Wild One”. Located just ten minutes north of the World Golf Village off I-95, David Poselthwait’s great shot-makers layout through the pine forests and thick marshlands of nort Florida offers an unforgettable challenge to golfers who think they’re playing their best games.

Five sets of tees between 4,700 and 6,900 yards set the stage for an intriguing journey through unforgiving wetlands Golf Digest’s Places to Play has given a 4-star rating. The challenge is to navigate a course that has water on 16 of the 18 holes, and forced carries over marshes on the other two. But before that little truism scares you off, a little secret the members learn early on is that the landing areas are wider than they look from the tees. Poselthwait may have saved his best for last.