The beloved par-4 4th at The Cascades.

One of the first impressions I had playing The Cascades in the Allegheny Mountains of western Virginia was to think how this kind of course would never be built today. Actually that thought came to me around the fifth hole, a big par five that traverses a sidehill fairway and then rises blindly over a shoulder of the same hillside.

Most contemporary architects would cut the hill down and use the fill to level the fairway and open up the view. The same would have been done to the wonderful par four second which pitches steeply left to right careening timid and misaligned shots down toward the trees on the low side—it too would be softened. Not our man Flynny. This is old-time architecture, taking what nature gives you and still making great, strategic golf holes.

Looking back at the canted fairway of the par-5 5th.

I was completely surprised to learn later that in building The Cascades Flynn employed a degree of engineering that would seem significant even today. Whatever it was he did to the property, nestled into a valley a few miles south of The Homestead Resort between the slopes of Warm Springs Mountain and Little Mountain, it was just enough to make it playable without neutering either its ruggedness or the mountain dynamics.

The architecture is simple—Flynn, routing many of the holes parallel to the higher ground, basically used the hard right-to-left or left-to-right falling terrain as hazards. The bunkering, redone several years ago, remains functional but basic and the greens, though not highly contoured, break and drift in directions that are often invisible against the extended valley backdrops.

The Cascades is gorgeous, charming, authentic and challenging. If there are any criticisms they’re only valid in the discussion of where the course rates among the country’s best. I smile just thinking about the stretch of holes from two through five, especially the short uphill par four third with a ravine in front of the green, followed by the famous downhill par three fourth. The ninth, as well, is an extraordinary hole where you have to hit your day’s best drive to reach the top of a plateau crossing the fairway, or otherwise find yourself short of it and left with a blind long iron or hybrid into the small sloping green, possibly from a severe uphill stance.

You'll need all you've got to reach the upper plateau at the 9th--or else.

Such is the character of the course. But there are too many other unremarkable holes to really consider The Cascades elite, including the sixth, the banal 14^th and 15^th, and I’ll even throw the par three 18^th into that group. And after such a strong beginning traveling up into the mountains and slopes, you can’t help but be let down when you return to the murky flats around the clubhouse and remain there for the final six holes. (94)

The Homestead—Cascades Golf Club

Hot Springs/Roanoke

Architect: William Flynn

Year: 1923

Reynolds Landing's second green, as well as the awkwardly wedged in third green beyond it.

Reynolds Landing (nee Port Armor) was the first course built on Lake Oconee in Central Georgia and for a while Bob Cupp had the only two courses on the lake after he followed it a few years later with the first Reynolds Plantation course. The Reynolds development completed acquisition of Port Armor in 2009, renamed it, and have made some minor upgrades to the course and rebuilt the amenities.

You wouldn’t say the course rests lightly on the land. It was an ambitious design with an underlying muscular engineering common to its era that includes broad, shelved fairways and typically small, highly shaped greens. What it does have is variety largely owing to the lovely property—most holes have a defined character and use a backdrop of wooded slopes, the lake’s shore as well as Cupp’s aggressive shaping to mostly positive results.

There’s an awkward moment as the out nine works its way toward the lake where the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it 137-yard third hole doubles back across a pond, merely filling the space between the second green and the fourth tee. The 457-yard fourth helps make amends, however, tumbling gracefully down toward the shoreline. The short par four fifth plays tightly along the lake with a nerve-wracking pitch over an inlet to a tiny green that seems to hover over the water.

The second nine begins with maybe the best four-hole stretch on Lake Oconee. The current 10^th (which replaced the weak original 10^th) climbs 467 yards toward a large exposed green. Eleven is a stout one-shotter across a valley; twelve is another 450+ yard climb through a valley toward another elevated and well-bunkered green, followed by a slender 371-yard par four. The balance and rhythm is commendable and helps to counter other forgetful spots like the downhill 16^th and the totally unsatisfying 350-yard 18^th. (87)

Reynolds Landing

Greensboro/Lake Oconee

Architect: Bob Cupp

Year: 1986

The frightening second shot into the 5th green (photo from Blair Howard at about.com)

1. Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye

2. 21st Amendment Bitter American, California (American Pale Ale, 4.4 ABV)–There’s a ridiculous amount of flavor and depth to this beer for only being 4.4% alcohol. The bitter, citrusy hops are predominant, but there’s also enough in the malt department to make this beer truly three dimensional. Tasty, quaffing, complex, crisp–it gives the Stone Levitation a run for best sub-5.0 ABV on the market. Drink up.

3. The Lost Abbey Red Barn Ale, California (Saison, 6.7 ABV)–There will almost always be a saison on this list, and this time around it’s the Red Barn Ale, which comes across as peppery and slightly yeasty but texturally light and breezy,  laced with complex notes of lemon, meadow flora, herbs and a touch of wheat. Very lovely.

4. De Dolle Dulle Teve, Belgium (Tripel, 10.0 ABV)–Consistently one of my favorite Tripel/strong ale’s from one of my favorite Belgian breweries. This is a big mouthful of beer bordering on the sweet side with lots of rock candy, bread, esters, citrus, spice and coriander underneath a thick white head. One “Mad Bitch” that’s always up for repeat visits.

5. Maredsous Brune (8), Belgium (Dubbel, 8.0 ABV)–All the usual Dubbel suspects: fig, plum, caramel, sweet cooked fruits, bread, spice and cola but delivered within a focused and surprisingly fresh mouthfeel. The beer does not feel cloying or clodding like many Brunes.

Old Weller “Antique” Original 107 Brand Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

107 Proof, Buffalo Trace Distillery

It took me a while to wrap my head around wheated bourbons. To my old way of thinking, if it was going to be taken seriously a bourbon should have a hefty dose of rye in it. To give it that spicy punch. To make it burn a little. To put hair on your chest. Replacing wheat for rye in a blend softens the whiskey, and that’s not what we’re going for. At least I thought.

Where rye will usually kick up or amplify a bourbon, wheat in the blend can not only soothe it but make it harmonious. The Old Weller Antique (not to be confused with the Old Weller Special Reserve, it’s little brother) does exactly that without sacrificing the extrovert personality we’re looking for in rye bourbons. Partially that’s because it’s bottled at 107 proof, which gives it enough structure to hang with similarly big rye-based bourbons. So while the Antique is beautifully integrated and complete, it also has balls and a fighting personality that overshadows simpler wheats like Maker’s Mark.

The most distinctive characteristic that I get from the Antique is a soft spearmint and bubble gum essence that blooms first on the nose and then rounds out sweetly in the mouth on the finish. There are also the usual suspects of caramel, butter/toffee, banana and spices to be discovered in the nooks of all that alcohol. This is basically my house wheat–if you come over there’s probably a bottle in the cupboard.

Score: 6

Getting near the pin at the short par 3 16th is complicatd by wind, lack of depth and multiple green levels.

You could say Ponte Vedra Inn & Club’s Ocean Course had been remolded, mended and re-mended so many times over the years—by Trent Jones, Robert Walker, possibly Joe Lee, grounds crews and who knows who else—that it ended up an utterly broken mess.

The course’s popularity peaked in the 1930’s when it was selected for the 1939 Ryder Cup (which was never played) while considered one of the toughest and best courses in America. For the next 60 years, however, the resort would do all it could to soften and modernize the design. Paradoxically, the changes actually narrowed the course, shrunk the greens and removed a lot of the golf course that could actually aid the high handicap player while entertaining better ones. (A second, shorter Lagoon Course was built in stages beginning in 1961).

Bobby Weed’s 1998 renovation–some of his best restorative work–returned to the Ocean Course much of what was lost. The course looks and plays like, if not exactly 1935, at least cut from Golden Era cloth. Weed pushed the fairways back out to the sides of the broad hole corridors, then pulled the bunkers inward to create left-right shot strategies and alternate avenues of play. The greens are angled beautifully against hazards and the surfaces dynamically contoured–almost as if designed for 1938 green speeds. The par three 16^th, for instance, is just 131 yards long but protected by a canal, ocean winds and a shallow green with about five different interior levels.

The holes runs north-south on both sides of the aforementioned canal (called Lake Vedra now) that Herbert Strong created. The routing loses momentum on the first side after it crosses over the water away from Highway A1A and the coastal breezes, but the entire second nine is a winner, especially when it turns from 12 through 15 into an isolated patch of nature at the north side of the property.

The incredibly wide third and 17^th holes—each southward running and featuring centerline bunkers staggered from tee to big, elevated putting surfaces—are two of the most strategic holes on the First Coast, and the tempting little 308-yard 10^th (from the back tees), bending ever so gradually along a cove of the canal and reachable with driver in season, is not far behind. 5 (92)

Ponte Vedra Inn & Club—Ocean Course

Ponte Vedra/Jacksonville

Architect: Herbert Strong; renovated by Robert Trent Jones in 1947, and Bobby Weed in 1998

Year: 1928

The wonderful short 14th gives you the sense of the bubbling terrain of Ballyneal and the Chop Hills of Holyoke.

Someday we’ll be able to talk about Ballyneal in the northeastern corner of Colorado without referencing Sand Hills, as I’ve already just done. It’s kind of like how it took about 10 years for every violent, ironic new crime movie not to be viewed through the lens of Pulp Fiction. Such is the advantage of being first—you get to set the terms of the debate.

But a fact of life for the intermediate future is that as more clubs trickle open across the vast, fascinating wildernesses of the American high plains (Sutton Bay, Dismal River and The Prairie Club to name three more, though there aren’t many more likely to open any time soon) they’re going to be analyzed and cross-examined against both The Touchstone and each another.

It won’t last forever—we can talk about Shinnecock without thinking about NGLA, Riviera without Bel Air, etc.—and when it finally stops, Ballyneal will be recognized as its own singular expression of American golf greatness.

In the meantime I find comparison to Sand Hills useful only from about 30,000 feet: both courses gallop freely, naturally through big fescue-covered sand dunes in the middle of North American nowhere. But at ground level Ballyneal has much more extreme ground movement and as such, whether natural or modified, it’s even easier to believe that the Chop Hills here, as the locals call them, were simply left alone, mown and seeded as was the case at Sand Hills. Who would be crazy enough to let alone some of this wilderness?

The untamed undulations and firm grasses kick balls every which way into hollows and bunkers, across plateaus and down ramps. There’s so much random kinetic energy stored in the ground it’s impossible to imagine any two rounds ever being played remotely the same way. I can’t think of an American course where inertia and gravity have a more profound and entertaining effect on the outcome of a shot.

One of my favorite holes and greens anywhere--the short 7th at Ballyneal.

My favorite holes are the shorter half-par holes like the 7^th, 8^th and 14^th where untamed green surfaces are microcosms of the surrounding dunes, although I’d put the long par four 17^th into this category as well.

The only hole I’m not in love with is the 18^th partly because of where it falls in the round, sitting out at the edge of the property near the entrance road like an army’s exposed flank. If it occurred somewhere else it would make a passable, tough transition hole to link us to a more interesting part of the property. As is, it’s the most stock hole on the course. I’m lukewarm on the par four 9th too because there isn’t really anything to look at or to decipher from the tee or fairway, although I know one person who disagrees—my father. He made a two there.

This, the 18th, qualifies as an "average" hole at Ballyneal.

Interestingly, I spoke to an architect who helped work on Ballyneal, and he told me they rushed construction to get the course open on schedule. In his opinion, the course would be better if they’d taken more time to finish the greens more carefully. It’ s hard for me to imagine how much better they could have been because right now they’re one of the most interesting and remarkable sets in the world. I pressed the architect to elaborate and go on record, but he declined and would only leave it at that. (97)

Ballyneal Golf & Hunt Club

Holyoke

Architect: Tom Doak

Year: 2006

Crooked Cat's par-3 13th is not the place to lay the sod over the ball.

Of the two courses at Orange Country National, Crooked Cat has more appeal to me than Panther Lake. Both courses are built in former citrus groves west of Orlando over nice natural topography and very little tree cover. The soil is arid and sandy and with no development anywhere near it lends a rustic, country aura to the entire establishment. Crooked Cat does a better job of playing to these strengths.

The architecture is less polished—that is, shaped—than its neighbor’s (which might explain why most people prefer the other course) so there’s a little more natural rumble and roll through the fairways. It actually could blend into the environment even better than it does because there’s still a modest manufactured feel to its features and tie-ins. I think if it were built today amid the popularity of so many “old”-looking new courses those features would have been roughed out even more. It’s easy to envision the edges of the bunkers, for instance, as choppy and eroded rather than straight cut. The clean and circular shapes tend to work against the open vistas and otherwise rugged feel of the land.

The routing gets off to a good start on a par five that presents a phalanx of bunkers crossing your line of sight with no clear indication of where the fairway is. From there the holes basically tumble nicely through an open landscape spotted with long grasses, hollows and a randomly assorted bunkers.

A good look at the challenging 12th.

The par four 12^th is a beast. The deep, narrow green slants right over a sunken wetland. Tee shots down the right side, hugging the edge of the hazard, get a clear look at it and a shorter approach, but getting to this position also demands a longer, flirtatious carry over the wetlands from the tee.

Later, a cross ridge is employed usefully to lengthen uphill tee shots at 14 and 16 while at the same time shortening the downhill 235-yard 15^th. Pretty good stuff, overall. (89)

Orange County National—Crooked Cat

Orlando

Architect: David Harman and Phil Ritson

Year: 1997

2. Scaldis “Noel,” Belgium (Winter Amber/Strong Dark Ale, 12%)–For many, the ultimate Belgian Christmas beer. Count me in.

3. Goose Island “Sofie,” Illinois (Saison, 6.5 ABV)–Though it’s slightly out of season, I had this gorgeously floral saison recently on draught at Gramercy Tavern and cannot get it out of my mind.

4. Anchor “Our Special Ale” 2011, California (Winter Ale, 5.5% ABV)–Though the recipe changes each year, this year’s ale shows a refreshingly clean malt canvas painted with piney, Antico Carpano-like spicy infusions.

5. Sweetwater “Fresh Sticky Nubs” Dank Tank Series, Georgia (Red/Imperial Red Ale, 8% ABV)– The 130 IBU’s are woven seamlessly into this beautifully balanced big beer, with sweet malts coddling the fragrant Nugget hops.

The ChampionsGate International Course is a blend of Irish links concepts with the limitations of the Florida landscape.

It’s one of the most frequently asked questions in golf. Whether for a conference, convention or family vacation, you’re going to find yourself there, eventually asking it: “Where should I play golf in Orlando?”

There’s no clear cut answer, which is why it so frequently comes up. Orlando and its surrounds account for some of the most abundant and affordable public and resort golf in America. Unlike vast swaths of the Northeast (or South Florida, for that matter), private clubs here are the exception, not the rule, and outside of a handful (Islesworth, Lake Nona, CC of Orlando) they’re rather undistinguished.

The wealth of public access golf is a tremendous draw, but don’t expect a lot of variety. Most courses are flat, swampy, cart ball accompaniments to housing developments with uninteresting greens and repetitive bunkering. If a course can break free of any of these stereotypes it automatically qualifies it for consideration. The territory north and west/southwest of the city, in fact, features some quite unexpectedly hilly and sandy terrain, and most of the good or at least interesting golf is located there.

Unfortunately the overall standard of excellence in Orlando is low, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t places you’ll enjoy playing. A few courses even have the potential to grab your attention and make you remember. I’ll guide you to the courses I believe are the most stimulating and unique as well as a few that possess some quality or quirk that will make a lasting impression, for better or worse.

The First Five

ChampionsGate, International Course (Greg Norman Golf Course Design, 2000)–There are really no points to be earned for subtle, indigenous golf design around Orlando, and ChampionsGate’s International Course is not alone in using a theme to prop up the design. In this case, some of the holes are fashioned as Irish links, at least if you buy into the parallel “dunes” planted with long border grasses. The less contrived holes at the center of the property are far stronger, with nice pacing, strong green contour and scatterings of bunkers large and small. The routing is a bit odd and all the water is out of character, but individually most of the holes possess character and variety.

The playing conditions are opposite, but the New Course does replicate the Old Course's open-endedness.

Grand Cypress, New Course (Jack Nicklaus, 1988)–Nicklaus’s first three nines here (North/South/West) made a big splash in the 1980′s when they opened, but it’s his later homage to the Old Course at St. Andrews that remains the most strangely authentic and one of the most interesting course in greater Orlando. None of it makes sense–an interpretation of some of the most famous links holes planted with spongy bermuda grass on a flat, landlocked orange grove–but somehow it delivers a believable facsimile of the scenes and shot-making setups of the home of golf.

Mystic Dunes (Gary Koch, 2001)–I haven’t met too many players who like this course as much as I do, but if you think great golf begins with great greens, we’ve got something to talk about here. “Great” may not be the exact word for these putting surfaces, but some combination of fascinating, outlandish and exasperating is. The vertigo-inducing short game situations are worth the price alone, but you’ll also find nice ground movement, spacious fairways, environmental variety and only minimal intrusion of homes and condos. [Note: the club has recently been struggling to maintain the greens. Call ahead to inquire about course conditions.]

Orange County National (Dave Harman/Phil Ritson, 1997)–The late Harman hit the jackpot with his clifftop design for Kauri Cliffs in New Zealand, but he made his name around these parts with OCN, one of the country’s most well-rounded daily fees. Most people think the Panther Lake course is the better of the two designs here, and it is pretty solid even if it borders on 1990′s maximalism with muscular shaping, sectioned greens and numerous shots over wetlands and water. I prefer the Crooked Cat course, a more natural, low-to-the-ground course with a prairie feel through the first nine followed by a more amplified second nine that serves up a succession of heroic propositions.

Reunion Resort, Watson Course (Tom Watson, 2004)–The (Arnold) Palmer and Nicklaus courses at this resort on the southwest I-4 corridor (across the interstate from ChampionsGate) are visually dramatic and strategically cerebral, respectively. The Watson Course, however, is combinations of both. A little of everything was thrown into this stew, with steep mounds, buckshot bunkers, waste areas and rippling greens. Yet there’s a method to it all and ultimately you feel like you’re being psychologically propelled rather than tricked by all the incontinent-looking shaping in front of you.

Tom Watson's busywork at Reunion Resort.

On The Margin

These courses are as good and in most cases better than the First Five, but require a slightly longer commute from central Orlando.

Sugarloaf Mountain (Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, 2008)–Though widely assessed in the lower half of the estimable Coore and Crenshaw design portfolio, Sugarloaf Mountain, about 45 minutes north of downtown Orlando, is still easily one of the three or four strongest courses within driving range. Routed over the dome, and down the sides, of one of the highest piles of sand, er, pinnacles in peninsula Florida, the course wends through native scrub, oaks and carved-out sand pits en route to sublimely contoured greens.

Sugarloaf Mountain exposes and expresses the natural elements of an exciting (for Florida) site.

Black Bear (P.B. Dye, 1995)–Even though he went to school here (Rollins College) Pete Dye hasn’t done much work around Orlando except for a now defunct course for Disney. But Black Bear, located north of Orlando in some peaceful scrub country outside of Eustis and designed by son P.B., is a good make-do with small, fiercely guarded greens and slinky holes that jostle against pot bunkers and grassy embankments.

The bunker "seas" that Bobby Weed created at Deltona are visually arresting.

The Deltona Club (Bobby Weed, 2008)–Weed and associate Chris Monti transformed a hilly, run down 1960′s-era course into a gorgeous and whimsical up-and-down adventure of shortgrass and deep channels of bordering sand. The green fees are inexpensive ($37-$47) and maybe that’s why maintenance can sometimes be an issue, but there’s something almost erotic about all the sleek contours juxtaposed against the rough sandy white buffers.

Victoria Hills (Ron Garl, 2002)–Located just north of Deltona in the town of Deland, Victoria Hills is a beautiful composition of holes set amid pockets of pine here, oak there and open field over there. The design incorporates a sometimes unnecessary array of bunker styles and green shaping, but each is painted expertly into the ever-evolving scene.

Mission Inn, El Campeon Course (George O’Neal, 1917/Charles Clarke, 1926)–Part of the story is that this is one of Florida’s oldest courses, and it feels like it hasn’t moved much the nearly 100 years it’s been here. Another part of the story are the uncharacteristic elevation changes the course possesses, with several of the holes plunging up and down off a prominent ridge.The architecture and routing are classic rather than dynamic, and the course feels at home amid the sleepy citrus groves in a part of Florida most tourists and fly-ins never get to see though it’s just 45 minutes from Orlando International Airport.

Southern Dunes (Steve Smyers, 1993)–Would Pebble Beach be Pebble Beach without the ocean right there? Who knows, but the question really asks whether we can evaluate a golf course strictly by the golf, or does the context matter. If we can do the latter, Southern Dunes, south of Orlando in Haines City, is one of Florida’s strongest with strategy galore, breathtaking bunkering and sophisticated green complexes. If it’s the former, you’ll have a hard time getting past the housing that can sometimes seem invasive.

And Now For Something…

Try these if you up for something fun and unique with a little local flavor. These are not necessarily great courses but they’re full of personality and might just strike a chord if you’re the adventurous type.

Smyers did all he could to inject life-and then some-into the horrid site at Bridgewater.

The Golf Club at Bridgewater (Steve Smyers, 2007)–Flat and bordering the interstate and an industrial park, the atmosphere around the course stinks. The golf, however, is ambitious, especially the green complexes, many of which are built up like medieval fortresses above sheer-faced moat bunkers. A network of lovingly reclaimed wetlands winds throughout the course, and some masterful short par 4′s and prodigiously contoured putting surfaces keep your heart beating and mind alert.

Diamondback (Joe Lee, 1995)–This secluded little course just about 6 miles south of Southern Dunes is a tight, target-golf course with fairways threaded through corridors of thick underbrush and wetlands without a home in sight. The shaping is silky smooth and the holes are all isolated from one another so the effect is transporting.

Sanctuary Ridge (Terry LaGree, 1999)–Contrary to popular thought, Florida does have some elevation changes, particularly to the west of Orlando. Sanctuary Ridge proves it with wild holes that sling golf balls off slopes and down steep hills while making you do a rare thing around here: factor both distance and height. The housing development has crushed all the charm the course used to have, but check it out just to say that you saw a golf course that wasn’t flat.

The do-or-die par-3 2nd at Swiss Fairways.

Swiss Fairways (Steve Nugent, 1991)–Imagine a hardscrabble country golf course that’s also a water skiing school. Could be the setting for a zany golf comedy, but it’s really Swiss Fairways. Several holes cross over the water skiing track, but the rest are raw and rustic and kind of lovable, just like the characters in our would-be movie. Warning: the routing is insane, maintenance is often a liability and service can be temperamental, but if you want a real slice of rural Florida quirk, this is your place.

A Few Words About:

Bay Hill–There’s absolutely nothing wrong with Bay Hill, and certainly many look to it as one of Orlando’s best. But take Arnold Palmer and the PGA TOUR away and there are a dozen courses in the region just like it. Play it for the above reasons, by all means, just don’t expect to get anything all that unique.

Walt Disney World–I just can’t get into the resort’s three primary courses–Magnolia, Palm and Lake Buena Vista. While usually in great shape they’re dated and repetitious, the essence of “resort” golf. The resort plowed under its most interesting Pete Dye course, and Tom Fazio’s Osprey Ridge is gorgeous but I wouldn’t choose to play it over others on this list.

Grande Lakes–If you’re already staying at the Ritz-Carlton or adjoining J.W. Marriott I can see playing Grande Lakes, a low-profile Greg Norman design that spins through a natural preserve. But there’s not much that’s really engrossing, and the holes near the hotels are near total zeroes. Factor in the price, and I can’t recommend it.

Waldorf Astoria Golf Club–The Waldorf Astoria and the golf course outside it are the newest upscale additions to Orlando. I haven’t visited yet, so I can’t include it on any list. The property is very tight and Rees Jones routed almost all of the holes running north-south, which has to be a drawback. I would expect to find quality conditioning, elevated green platforms with bunkers subset into their bases with grass faces, and lots of amoeba-shaped framing and flanking fairway bunkers. Actually, maybe I don’t need to play it after all.

All That Said…

Here’s where I’m playing, in order, next time in Orlando.

1. The Deltona Club. If the conditions are on, the course has everything I want.

2. Sugarloaf Mountain. So much to absorb, great setting and a fun driving course.

3. The New Course at Grand Cypress. Where else are you going to get anything like it?

4. The Golf Club at Bridgewater. Over Southern Dunes? Yup, for a one-time visit. The green complexes, to me, are more exciting.

5. Southern Dunes. For focused, repetitive, high-level play, it beats almost anything.

6. Mystic Dunes. Assuming the greens have grass.

7. Victoria Hills. Almost every hole offers something different.

8. ChampionsGate International. Strong, strategic holes in a (mostly) uninterrupted setting.

Team Norman's sharp-cut bunkers before the stately Ritz-Carlton.

At first glance it might look like Team Norman mailed this one in. There doesn’t appear to be much to the course, especially compared to the size and pedigree of the Ritz-Carlton and J.W. Marriott that overlook it. Granted, Norman didn’t have great material to work with–basically a flat, soggy wetland preserve in south Orlando’s Shingle Creek basin–but everything you’re used to seeing from Norman predictably shows up. There are the low, slinky holes. There are the wall-to-wall fairway cuts. Over there the coral-colored crushed coquina transition bunkers/cart paths. The sharply edged bunkers are lined with Augusta-white sand. The push-up style greens are waxed from the edges into the fairways.

The spacious par-4 12th presents tasty driving options.

Upon closer inspection, however, there’s a methodology here I respect. The fairways encourage you to drive the ball as far as you can into their meatiest parts, but from these safe positions it’s nerve-wracking to hit approaches into the narrow greens that are positioned uncomfortably close to, and often slope toward, water hazards, bunkers or steep drop-offs. The trick works nicely on the three-shot holes as well as on the heartier par fours. Overall, there’s a lot to consider with green angles and hazard placement.

The second nine highlight is the 410-yard 11^th, the second in a run of four very good holes. The fairway is as wide as the Universal Studios parking lot but a tree cluster in the center of the fairway act as a hockey goalie coming out of the net to take away the shooter’s angle. The easier drive is over a short bunker to the right, or you can be brave and try to squeeze one up the left along the lake to open up a clear path to the putting surface.

The total experience could have been enhanced had the course been sequenced in reverse, with the opening holes stretching out through bare space to the north of the resort near two busy parkways, then taking a kind of Heart of Darkness journey through the property’s murky, jungle interior. As it is the round limps home and the exposed 18^th hole, stretching abreast a water feature opposite all the sunbathing hotel guests, is a deal killer. (86)

Ritz Carlton Golf Club, Grande Lakes Orlando

Orlando

Architect: Greg Norman

Year: 2003