Touring Neighboring Courses

Written by Joel Zuckerman

he PGA Tour spends the entire month of March in Florida. From Palm Beach Gardens to Palm Harbor, Orlando to Miami. Later in the spring the Tour heads north to the Jacksonville area and the Players Championship, but it never works its way west across the Panhandle. Too bad, because most television viewers aren’t aware that there’s some wonderfully affordable and uncrowded golf facilities stretching from Tallahassee towards Panama City. Here’s a pair of pertinent examples:

SouthWood is the name of what Tallahassee Magazine has called the golf course of the year, and what is considered the place to play in Florida’s capital city by GOLF Magazine. This large-scale 3,200 acre development features a lovely Fred Couples-Gene Bates design. There’s room to move about in this stretch of north Florida, a stark contrast to the shoulder-to-shoulder dynamic that proliferates further south.

The SouthWood course is the cornerstone of a planned community that will create, over a 20-year build out, a town of its own within the capital city of Tallahassee. Eventually 4,700 homes will stand on 3,200 acres of hills, lakes and oak trees. If there’s a single touchstone of their signature golf course, stretching almost 7,200 yards from the championship markers, it is these magnificent live oak trees, festooned with Spanish moss swaying in an ever-present breeze.

Bear in mind that this is atypical Florida golf. The terrain isn’t tabletop flat and riddled with condos. Nor are there lagoons and out-of-bounds stakes sprinkled in every direction. This is north Florida, with dense stands of hardwoods, notable elevation changes, and fairways that roll and undulate.

The course makes liberal use of the rambling, 175 acre plot, with big tees, big greens and big fairways. There are five sets of tees, and at the opposite end of the back-of-the-box black markers are the “wee links” for juniors and abject beginners, just 2,700 yards. But the two middle tee boxes, the ones most men will play from are garnet and gold, not so coincidentally the school colors of Florida State University, perhaps 20 minutes away. Yes, the connection to FSU runs deep here, and not just because the Seminole golf teams are now using SouthWood as their home course. The fact is that many FSU grads are moving into what’s quickly become one of Tallahassee’s most desirable neighborhoods. But out-of-towners who wouldn’t know a Seminole from a Shoshone are welcome, too. Five classic cottages, featuring antebellum front porches, are grouped together and available for those who choose to stay on property, opting to enjoy one of north Florida’s best new courses.

About 150 miles further west near Panama City is another little-known beauty, the Tom Fazio-designed Camp Creek Golf Club. This is a stand-alone facility, 18 regulation holes in place at the moment, with a brand-new Davis Love III creation called The Origins Course, which is as versatile as a Swiss Army Knife. Through the use of alternate tee boxes and auxiliary greens, The Origins plays as a six-hole regulation course, a nine-hole executive course or a ten-hole par-3 course between 1,600 and 1,800 yards. It was designed and built with the “short course” concept at its core. The mission: make golf more fun, accessible and attractive to families, beginners and casual golfers. Via its non-penal design and manageable distance the Origins Course both appeals and caters to novices. But playing the half-dozen holes from “the tips,” it also retains enough challenge and strategy to keep the interest of experienced players. Conceptually, it’s designed to encourage junior golfers, beginners and families to participate in the game. The name pays homage to the Scottish origins of the game, in which six, nine and 12-hole courses were commonplace.

The big course, which offers the only caddie program in northwest Florida, by the way, appears to be a wondrously wild and untamed property, but in fact was created from a nearly flat thousand acre site by Fazio’s design team and a fleet of bulldozers. One million cubic yards of earth were moved for this project, which translates in to the length, width and height of a football field. But the golf course is fully integrated into the natural surroundings, and the playing features appear as though they’ve been in place forever. “I just kept looking across the road to Deer Lake State Park,” explains Fazio’s design associate Rick Horger. “I attempted to make our shapes look like their contours.”

Camp Creek in all its natural wonder would be worth visiting even if the only lodging options available were some down-at-the-heels budget chain. But the utterly charming WaterColor Inn in Seagrove Beach is quite nearby, and is the just reward for weary golfers seeking ultimate comfort and chic under the same roof. This luxurious 60-room boutique hotel overlooks the Gulf of Mexico. The property is a rare amalgamation of whimsy and chic, spare and elaborate. Service is ultra-attentive, but never fawning, as is sometimes the case at bigger, “brand-name” luxury hotels.

The Inn is a member of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World, and has won numerous accolades, including a designation as north Florida’s only hotel with the AAA Four Diamond rating. It’s also been named the number one Family Hotel in North America by T+L Family Magazine, and the seventh-ranked Hotel in North America by T+L Magazine. The on site seafood restaurant, another award-winner known as Fish Out of Water, shouldn’t be missed. The meals are spectacular. Much like the golf at Camp Creek, just ten minutes down the road.

Area Golf Courses: