MLB’sFlorida Grapefruit League has a long association with Fort Myers Florida. While Spring Training in Florida began in Jacksonville in the late 1800s, it didn’t really begin in earnest until the mid-1920s. Fort Myer’s first team was the Philadelphia Athletics in 1925, followed by the Cleveland Indians, the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Kansas City Royals who departed in 1986. Today, it boasts the Minnesota Twins and the Boston Red Sox in separate parks in south Fort Myers. at Hammond Stadium and Fenway Park South Jet Blue Park.
If you’re looking to get in a round of golf while in Fort Myers for a game,we’ve compiled a list of twelve of the best golf courses you can play from the major golf periodicals and user reviews. While there’s a total of over 90 private, resort, municipal, and public access courses in the area, it’s been whittled down to the most highly rated. Hopefully, next year, the Dunes Golf Club on Sanibel will reopen after restoration from the extensive damage caused by Hurricane Ian in 2022.
Florida’s MLB’s Grapefruit League now boasts 15 teams playing in twelve different cities dispersed throughout the state from Interstate 4 South. The season runs from February 24 to March 31, and during this time we’ll profile the best public golf courses in the areas convenient to the stadiums.
First off, the Pittsburgh Pirates play at Lecom Park just south of downtown Bradenton and the Manatee River on 17th Avenue. It’s an ancient stadium built in 1923 and is the third oldest stadium currently used by MLB after Fenway and Wrigley. It’s a classic design as well, old Florida Spanish Mission white stucco exterior with covered bleachers-at least over the reserved seating.
There’s 60+ golf courses in the surrounding Bradenton/Sarasota area with a mix of private, municipals, or public daily fees. To save you time in finding the better courses to play, we list just eight of the best public golf courses you can play in the areawhich range from resort offerings to upscale semi-privates. Next year, we hope to be able to include the newly renovated Bobby Jones Municipal Golf Course where Richard Mandrell is tackling a presumably faithful restoration of a Donald Ross original design.
SentryWorld commands most of the attention in Wisconsin this year. This is due in part to its recent renovation and reopening as well being selected to serve as the venue for the 2023 US Senior Open.
One should not, however, overlook the Stevens Point Country Club located just 3 1/2 miles southeast of SentryWorld. The club unfortunately lost over 2,500 Norway spruce and white pine along with several other varieties in the early 2000s due to Dupont’s Imprelis herbicide. After the EPA pulled it from the market in 2011, Dupontlost an estimated $2 Billion in a class action lawsuit and filed claims.
Stevens Point received their fair share-at least two commas in the number, and membership then voted in favor of arenovation plan by Craig Haltom of Oliphant Golf Management. While it’s still parkland in nature, the routing opened up nicely with the loss of the trees and is set on a natural tract of lowland on the east side of the Wisconsin River’s wetlands. Although water hazards affect play on less than 1/3 of the holesthere’s a host of conventional and massive waste area sand bunkers yet with generous green complexes.
If you’re in town for the US Senior Open this summer, Stevens Point is a must-play, and if there’s time for another round, check out the nearby Wisconsin River Club.Before or after the Open when SentryWorld is open for outside play, the Stevens Point area offers a great long weekend golfretreat. There’s plenty of reasonable lodging, restaurants, and shopping and a host of other outdoor activities in this Central Wisconsin Tourism Corridor.
Stillwater Golf Club is on the south side of Jacksonville below I-295 and off I-95 at FL 210 to the west in a 55+ residential community by Lennar.
The golf course is at the upper level of daily fees in the area in the realm of the World Golf Village just up the road. It was designed by Bobby Weed, a protege of Pete Dye, whose most notes for many TPC designs while working for the PGA Tour.
Stillwater was cut out of a large forested/wetlands tract of land over generally level terrain but with rippling and mounded fairways. There’s absolutely no rough in play, but an abundance of water features and an assortment of conventional, pot, and revetted sand traps. There’s five sets of tees with the tips playing to 6,745 yards, 71.6/127, course/slope ratings.
Raindance National Golf Course is located just southeast of Fort Collins in Windsor off I-25 at Crossroads to the east sited with 180 degree views of the Front Range.
The layout, opened in 2022, is on a large, 300 acre tract of land with over 250 feet of elevation change from the top of the ridge to the Cache la Poudre River bottom. It’s routed along broad fescue fairway corridors bordered by arroyos generally devoid of trees but with with massive green complexes. It’s pricey when compared to most other public access tracks in the area and is part of a master planned community with a planned 2,500 homes. It’s possibly the second longest golf course in the world yardage-wise, but mitigated by the 5,000 feet above sea level. There’s six sets of tees from 4,919 yards to 8,463 yards off the Tour tees, the White tees are 6,273 yards, 68.6/126, course/slope ratings, designed by Fred Funk/Harrison Minchew, a former Arnold Palmer Golf Design architect. There’s also a 65,000 square foot putting green and short games area, the G.O.A.T. Ranch.
Not sure why Durand Eastman hasn’t made it on @Bestgolfcourses till now, but thankfully one of our users suggested it, and once we looked into it, the course is a shoe-in to be included. Technically, the course is a Monroe County Parks municipal located on the north side of Rochester and Irondequoit near Lake Ontario on Lakeshore Blvd in Durand Eastman Park. It was donated to the County by Henry Durand and George Eastman (Kodak founder) in 1909 and contains almost 1,000 acres.
It’s an historic layout originating in 1918 with the second nine in 1923 by Donald Ross and Robert Trent Jones, Sr. redesigning the entire layout in 1934.
The layout is carved through a mature forest of hardwoods along a blend of narrow and broad fairway corridors with a variety of green complexes sans bunkers. It’s a gently rolling walk in the proverbial park with streams bisecting both layouts on either side of King’s Highway. There’s four sets of tees from 5,198 yards to 6,033 at the tips where it’s 70.2/122, course/slope ratings.
Another Nebraska golf course, new in 2022 is garnering widespread and appropriate attention. Problem is, it’s located on the far northeastern corner of Nebraska, a good 6 hours from Mullen in the Sandhills.Landmand Golf Course is 20 miles southwest of Sioux City on the north side of Homer, NE surrounded by rolling farmland. It’s situated on 550-acre tract of silty soil in the Loess Hills 200 feet above Homer providing views over thousands of acres of farms and on to the Missouri River.
The layout is characterized by broad, 80 yard wide and undulating fairways through towering dunes. It boasts massive green complexes, and gigantic, blowout and pot bunkers while it traverses over 150 feet of elevation change. It features a Punchbowl green on steroids and a sand bunker named “The Milk Carton”-we’ll leave that to the imagination. There’s five sets of tees at Landmand from 5,420 yards to 7,200 yards, the middle tees play to 6,440 yards, 71.3/130, course/slope ratings, designed by Rob Collins and Tad King (Sweetens Cove, Inness), their first original 18 hole layout.
Medora is located 330 miles west of Fargo and 280 miles east of Billings without much significance in between. Fortunately, if you’re on I-94 and want to make a day of golf and sightseeing in the area, there’s plenty of lodging choices.
The course was built using the existing land over a roomy 900+ acres. It’s routed along a mile or more of Little Missouri riverside and the Badlands. The Badland’s, described as “hell with the fires gone out,” is a rugged land. On course, there’s frequent sightings of wild bison and horses, bighorn sheep, antelope, mountain cats, coyotes, turkeys, prairie dogs, and snakes, so it’s prudent to keep your ball in the fairway! The holes offer endless variety with those laid into open prairie lands, along the River, into the cottonwood forest with the finishing holes in the Badlands through the gorge and from butte-top tee boxes. There’s five sets of tees from 4,750 to 7,166 yards, the middle tees play to 6,000 yards, 70.4/123, course/slope ratings, designed by Dr. Michael Hurdzan.
Truckee, California is 90 miles east of Sacramento, 30 miles west of Reno, and 21 miles north of Lake Tahoe. It serves as the northern gateway to Lake Tahoe and temperature-wise is 10-25 degrees cooler than Reno and 10 degrees warmer than the Lake Tahoe area. There’s plenty of lodging and restaurants, a very active, western-style downtown area, and an assortment of outdoor, summer activities including rafting, mountain biking, and river rafting, in addition to miles of trails for hiking.
For golf, it’s a tempting base for five high-profile golf clubs which are open to public play. Yes, it will set you back north of $150/round, but for a week of golf without a lot of travel and in a unique, small community environment with moderate temps it’s hard to beat.
Here’s the five in no particular order. Tahoe Donner is a Certified Audubon Sanctuary and challenging as it moves along narrow, pine tree corridors over a significant change in elevation. The front nine was designed by Roy Williams, the back by Billy Bell with a redesign by Cary Bickler.
Coyote Moon marches through a natural setting along towering pines, granite outcroppings, and Trout Creek bordering the fairways, and a true shotmaker’s layout where course management is rewarded over distance. The layout has wide open landing areas with only a few forced carries where approach shots funnel down to greens protected by trees, sand traps, and water hazards.
Gray’s Crossing is a Peter Jacobsen/Jim Hardy design which climbs through a scenic setting along Lodgepole and Jeffrey pine tree lined fairways and over mountainous terrain bordered by native wetlands with Mt. Rose as a backdrop. It’s challenging with 70+ sand bunkers in various configurations, narrow driving corridors, and sloping, quick green complexes.
Old Greenwood is the only Jack Nicklaus design in this part of Northern California. The golf course lumbers through pine tree lined fairways over rugged terrain featuring broad landing areas along isolated, unique fairways. There’s the requisite, Nicklaus doglegs, water hazards, and pot, conventional, and long waste area sand bunkers along the fairways and defending the greens.
Northstar at Tahoe is below the Northstar ski slopes with two contrasting nines in a setting surrounded by the Sierras. The front is more open and links-like journeying through a valley meadow with lakes and wetlands while the backside is carved through the pine tree forests over rolling, tumbling terrain.
Basing in the Truckee area has its advantages in the cost of lodging, proximity to quality golf courses, and within 30 minutes of either Lake Tahoe or Reno.
The Saratoga race season starts this year on July 14 and runs for seven weeks ending September 5. Horse racing and golf go perfectly together in this Upstate region in the lower Adirondack foothills. Consequentially, finding the best public golf courses in Saratoga Springs is essential to making the most out of your visit.
First off, Saratoga National might be the feature golf attraction in the area. It’s on the north side of Lake Lonely and if you only have time for one game, this is it. Saratoga Spa Golf Course is a full 18 hole layout and a 9-hole executive course in the state park just south of town.
The Saratoga Lake Golf Course on the south side of Saratoga Lake is a challenging layout where every hole seemingly plays uphill!
McGregor Links was designed by Devereaux Emmet who apprenticed under C.B. Macdonald and designed over 150 courses in the early 1900s. It’s a more reasonable alternative to the higher end courses in the area and certainly a classic. Ballston Spa is another classic on the south side of town carved through the woods with Gordon Creek slicing through the middle.
Airways Meadows is between Saratoga Springs and Glen Falls. There’s a bit of entertainment when playing Airways as there’s a general aviation airport in the middle of the course. In addition to the occasional Cessna taking off or landing there’s also a skydiving center!
Finally, there’s the Fairways of Halfmoon located southeast of Saratoga Springs on the west side of the Hudson River. It’s a bit more recent design partially routed through a residential community along broad and narrow fairways over rolling topography.
As always, should we have missed one of those best golf courses you can play in the immediate area or we have one in the guide which doesn’t belong, please let us know here. Also, we’re pleased to announce that we’ve been selected as one of the Top 100 Best Golf Blogs and Websites to follow in 2022 and are honored to be included.