Orlando Golf – Golf Courses in Florida

As well as the obvious draw of Disney World and the other parks and attractions, many visitors are drawn to the Orlando region of Florida for the opportunity to play at some of the best golf courses in Florida. Whether purely visiting the area to play golf in the Florida sunshine or hoping to take in a couple of golf courses between visits to Disney or lying by the pool, our villa is ideally situated with dozens of fantastic golf courses within easy driving distance.
 
As well as apparently being home to more professional golfers than any other city in the world (who worked that out!) the Orlando golf scene boasts numerous top quality courses, designed by some of the most famous names in the sport.
 
The following are just a small selection of the near 200 golf courses in the area and are in no particular order ;

Villas of Grand Cypress

Location – Lake Buena Vista Area
Distance from Disney World – 6 miles
 
Overview –  45 holes of golf, play on the Jack Nicklaus designed tribute to the original home of golf,  the Old Course at St Andrews
 
Website -  Villas of Grand Cypress
 

Hawks Landing 

Location – Lake Buena Vista Area
Distance from Disney World – 9 miles
 
Overview –  Based in central Florida, this course claims to be the top golfing venue in the region, even laying on Valet parking, free of charge, for golfing visitors
 
Website -  Hawks Landing
 

Mystic Dunes Golf Club 

Location – Kissimme area
Distance from Disney World – 10 miles
 
Overview –  Designed by professional Gary Koch, the course is famous for offering a distinct difference between the front and back nines, with the latter featuring many of the characteristics of a classic British links course
 
Website -  Mystic Dunes

Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill  

Location – Sand Lake Road
Distance from Disney World – 14 miles
 
Overview –  Claims to offer a world-class golfing experience, drawing on the name of its famous designer, but the course is only open to those who stay in one of their 70 odd lodges.
 
Website -  Bay Hill Club

 
 

If you are looking for a florida villa to rent, look no further. Check our booking calendar to see if your dates are available and give us a call to confirm your booking.

Selected Golf Articles

Orlando Golf - For Winter Refugees

Florida attracts millions of visitors every year, the majority of whom are primarily looking to visit Disney and the other outstanding theme parks. However, there are a group of regular visitors who are less interested in the parks probably because they have already visited them at least once. This group are normally retirees who return to Florida for part or all of the winter months and whose main aim is to escape the worst of the weather offered by North America. For this reason they are commonly referred to as Snowbirds.

For the Snowbirds, as well as regular holidaymakers who are looking for an alternative to a non-stop diet of theme parks, touring the Florida golfing scene is a major ambition during their stay. Here we will cover a few courses that are not too demanding, but which have enough of a challenge as well as excellent amenities, to make a great day of golf.

Orange Lake Resort – home to two golf courses, the Legends Course and The Reserve Course. The former was designed by Arnold palmer and offers a contrasting experience between the front nine which is pure Scottish links golf and the back nine which is all pine and oak trees. There is also a smaller nine-hole course, fully lit to allow play at night. The Reserve Course was renovated about 10 years ago and is a relatively short course with enough water and sand hazards to make a round interesting.

Celebration Golf Club – located in the town of the same name developed by Walt Disney, this is a beautiful course which offers a challenge to players of all abilities. Each of the holes on the course has a name that is supposed to reflect the nature of the hole, including the easy first (Shirley Temple) and the hard to escape from 16th (The Houdini).

Falcon’s Fire Golf Club – this is a championship standard course and is immaculately maintained, boasting generous fairways and manicured greens. The course starts off friendly enough, allowing a player to build some momentum, before becoming increasingly challenging.

Harmony Golf Preserve – built on a wildlife preserve, the club boasts of its commitment to protecting the environment and any round is likely to expose you to a variety of wildlife including bald eagles, deer and turtles. Without being too easy, the course is not too taxing allowing you a chance to enjoy all the wildlife.

Orlando Golf - Golf on the Space Coast

Although millions of visitors come to Florida for the Disney experience there are plenty of other attractions and activities which draw in the crowds, chief among them are the fantastic golfing opportunities spread throughout the state. This is the first in a series of articles looking at various aspects of the Florida golfing scene, with this feature concentrating on golf and other attractions that make the Space Coast an ideal venue for a golfing vacation.

The Space Coast runs over seventy miles along Florida’s Atlantic shoreline incorporating Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center as well as a plethora of beach focused towns including Cocoa beach and Palm Bay. As well as the world famous space attractions  there are well over 20 golf courses with a huge range of types of course and related facilities. The area is only just over an hour from Orlando so ideally placed if the primary aim of your Florida trip is Walt Disney World, but you find yourself with enough spare time to fit in a round of golf or two.

Great Golf

There is a great range of different types of golf course running from immaculate resort based courses through well managed municipal courses, the latter of particular appeal to anyone on a budget. The course designers have made full use of the area’s natural features including wetlands, pine forests and the ubiquitous lakes. Those designers include Gary Player (Baytree National, which is the pick of the bunch), as well as Arnold Palmer (The Majors Golf Club). For those on a restricted budget, consider Cocoa Beach Country Club or The Habitat Golf Club.

Go on a Cruise

When you have finished playing golf one option is to go on a cruise. Port Canaveral is the starting point for cruises ranging from multiple day outings destined for exotic locations to five-hour long cruises which operate twice daily.

Lie on a Beach

There are a large number of beaches running along the Space Coast, ranging from the hectic Cocoa Beach to the largely undisturbed and under-developed stretch of beaches which make up the Canaveral National Seashore. Cocoa beach is a particular favourite spot for surf enthusiasts.

Go Fishing

Again there is a lot of variety to suit all fishing tastes, ranging from the spectacular deep-sea fishing which can be enjoyed off the Atlantic Coast to the renowned Mosquito Lagoon, which consists of 20 miles of flats running from New Smyrna Beach to Merritt Island.

Space Walk..

..and finally you would be mad to go to the Space Coast without actually experiencing the thrill and excitement of visiting the space region itself, a place that is synonymous with mankinds early exploration of space. The Kennedy Space Center is a must!

Orlando Golf - Alaqua Country Club

Every year vast numbers of visitors arrive in Florida looking for the Walt Disney experience but while here a lot of them want to take part in the Florida golfing scene. This is the third in a series of articles looking at various aspects of the Florida golfing scene, with this feature looking at the Alaqua Country Club.

The Alaqua Country Club can be found 14 miles north of central Orlando. It was one of Gary Player’s early course designs in a career that numbers around 300 courses in total (as well as designing golf courses Gary also found time to win nine majors!).

Unveiled in 1988 the Alaqua Country Club golf course is the focus of an exclusive, luxury, gated community and has been designed to reflect its surroundings, which include Wekiva Preserve State Park as well as the Little Wekiva River. As a result the course is notable for the narrow fairways stretching between corridors of tall trees as well as the ubiquity of water with nearly every hole including a water element in one way or another. The landscape, as well as providing a perfect backdrop for golf, is an ideal environment for wildlife and it is not uncommon for a round of golf to include the occasional sight of an alligator or deer.

The generally accepted approach to playing the narrow fairways and hazardous water features is careful club selection alongside thought through approach play, although by all accounts the course can be played at speed, with a round often taking less than four hours to complete.

The stand out hole on the course is the beautiful 177-yard par-3, hole No. 13. From daunting tee positions to the green protected on all sides by water with a bunker in front to snare anyone falling short, this hole is a challenge for any golfer. Hole 13 is the start of the best run of holes on the course, challenging and picturesque in equal measure.

In short, the Alaqua Country Club golf course provides a very decent round of golf, in beautiful surroundings, yet is only a short hop from central Orlando, offering a relaxing respite from theme park mania.