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Getaways
Golf Getaways in Florida
Just Fore Kicks
 Golf at the Ponte Vedra Inn and Club circa 1929 |
When golf’s first superstar, Harry Vardon, brought his overlapping grip and knickers to America in 1900, his first southern stop was St. Augustine. The sport was very young across the country, but a nine-hole course had been available for the fashionable set in the Victorian resort town for five years.
Vardon would not be the last Britisher or the last swell to load clubs on a posh railroad car bound for northeast Florida. By 1918, Donald Ross had laid out a full course at the Ponce de Leon Hotel. That course was razed not long ago, yet northeast Florida has remained a major capital of the sport, sculpting courses and playing through for a century.
Where Scotland had crags, Florida put the island, and lots of water, in play. The state’s northeast is home to the most famously daunting par-three holes in golf, challenging duffers and pros alike with 100 yards of lake and lagoon.
The first is the ninth hole on the 1928 Ocean Course at the Ponte Vedra Inn and Club. It was built by British architect Herbert Bertram Strong and 100 mules along the Atlantic shore. Seawater was not hazard enough; he put the ninth green and a bit of fairway across a long water carry.
At No. 17 on The Players Championship at Sawgrass, Pete Dye was less forgiving. In 1980, he condensed the hole to only a green and a small bunker, which takes a sharp eye and a very controlled eight or nine iron.
 The World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine features a replica of the No. 17 island green at The Players Championship. |
Together, great courses and golf lore make the Jacksonville area the most crowded and rewarding corner of the endless fairway that is Florida, and not just for duffers. The pro tours, schedules, records and business are run from the PGA Tour headquarters at Sawgrass and LPGA’s home offices and two more courses in Daytona Beach.
In January and February, when Yankees head down to Miami and Naples for warmth, greens fees in north Florida drop along with the temperatures. Now’s the time to grab a windbreaker and head north to play and replay golf with the greatest.
Resort greens fees aren’t cheap, but $500-a-night package deals to play tour-quality courses still beat a country club initiation.
Choices of golf schools and courses here seem endless. The Ponte Vedra Inn and Club has a tight water-pocked Lagoon course (par 70 with 11 water holes) as well as the Ocean course. TPC added a second course to Sawgrass. The Hall of Fame has two, one named for Sam Snead and Gene Sarazen and another for Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. There are dozens more across the area, including 160 holes on Amelia Island and Fernandina Beach, another early stop for wintering swells of the early 20th century.
Walter Hagen, Maureen Orcutt and other greats walked these holes and live on at the Hall of Fame. Lockers there are stuffed with clubs, badges and old souvenirs in a massive interactive archive that draws a quarter-million visitors a year. The Hall remembers inductees like Dwight Eisenhower (2009) and Carl Shute (2008) and lets visitors try their aim on an 18-hole putting course and that island green or chuckle at “Shanks for the Memories,” the new exhibit on Bob Hope.
Reliving great strokes of the past is fun, yet good golfers focus on improving for the next outing. Northeast Florida does, too. Near all the golf history in St. Augustine, a young organization called First Tee, backed by the biggest names in American business and sport, promotes golf as “More than a Game’’ to 3 million kids to boost diversity and share its core values of honesty, discipline and courtesy. More than 200 chapters coach youngsters, give scholarships and hold a Pebble Beach tournament.
Fore!
follow the Action
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Champions Tour (PGA Seniors) |
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| Date |
Tournament | Place |
| Feb. 12-14 |
ACE Group Classic | Naples |
| Feb. 19-21 | Allianz Championship | Boca Raton |
| PGA Tour | ||
| Date |
Tournament | Place |
| March 4-7 |
Honda Classic | Palm Beach Gardens |
| March 11-14 |
WGC-CA Championship | Doral |
| March 18-21 |
Transitions Championship | Palm Harbor |
| March 25-28 |
Arnold Palmer Invitational | Orlando |
| May 6-9 | Players Championship | Ponte Vedra |
| Note: No LPGA events are scheduled for Florida this year. | ||
