I’ve always loved the game of golf. Maybe love is a strong word, but I care a lot about it – how about that. Since Florida is home of some of the most amazing golf courses in the world, it’s only fitting to take the little free time I do have and explore them. It’ll promote good health, fun and fixing the many bullet holes in my game. It’s a work in progress. So with that, I present Golf Stop, my official ‘tour’ of Florida golf courses.
Today’s stop is the ‘New Course’ at Grand Cypress Golf Club in Orlando. My parents were in town so my Dad and I decided to check out this gem of a course located on Disney World’s back doorstep. The road entering the property is lined with ‘grand cypress’ trees, it’s very cool. Once we arrived at the course, we drove to the bag drop – but a Range Rover was parked in the middle of the turnaround, running with no one nearby. I have no idea what that was about, so we backed up and parked in the parking lot and carried our clubs until an employee grabbed them and took them to a cart. Nice save.
I’m a fan of GolfNow.com – I book a lot of tee times on that website. You can end up saving a pretty ridiculous amount of money on green fees. We were saving about 40% this trip. Saving money makes me happy. However, the website does have its cons – we’d soon find out. Upon checking in for our 1:20PM tee time, the employee said we were being pushed to 2:00 and said since we booked on GolfNow and paid in full on the site, they have the ability to bump us. It was not a good start. I was ticked.
We spent a lot of time at the range. It was a nice range. Balls were stacked and were included in the reservation, so that was nice. Most nice clubs offer that. A big clock was out there letting us know when we were up.
2:00 was cloudy and cold. But we were about to tackle 18 of the 45 holes of Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf. The New Course, as it’s called, is very representative of a Scottish links course. Even down to the cart path with it’s bumpy ride (we’re assuming they were printed with bumps on purpose to give it the old, Scottish feel). It did get a bit annoying after awhile to be honest – bump after bump after bump – but it did keep our speed down. Maybe that’s what they were going for. A great tip we picked up from the starter (wearing knickers, no doubt) was to aim for the yellow flags going out front 9 and the white flags on the back 9. I had no idea. Some holes share greens, big greens. So they have two pins on them. One yellow and one white. We did catch ourselves aiming at the wrong pin sometimes. Whoops. Rookies.
But the round was CHILLY. And by the time were were done, we were quite glad because it was getting downright uncomfortable.
But I really liked the Scottish feel of this course and I’d recommend it to anyone wanting to try something different than the common traditional layouts. The extra detail put into the walls, the bumpy cart path, the flags, the bunkers etc. really made it a treat (except for the bump-bump-bump!).
Golf Stop Summary:
Recommendation: Bundle up if it’s cloudy, because it’ll get windy – not many trees to slow the wind. Cart ride will get annoying with the bumps, but enjoy the fine details.
Oh, and aim for the correct pin on the double greens!
