PAR FOR THE COURSE?: The Williams Island Country Club golf course fell into disrepair after Transeaster Properties bought it two years ago. It plans to build 825 homes on the site.

Residents who bought condos overlooking the private golf course at Williams Island Country Club in northeast Miami- Dade once had a spectacular view: The course had abundant trees, 11 lakes and Bermuda grass stretching over 150 acres.

These days, the vista is a little less inviting: Downed trees, a mangled fence and overgrown weeds; all of it crisscrossed by dirtbike trails.

The course is just one of more than 30 that have closed in Florida over the past five years. According to National Golf Foundation figures, Florida had its first net decline in golf courses in 2004. The trend is national, with nearly 300 courses shut down across the country since 2001. "There was a tremendous amount of golf course building throughout the 1990s, and many, if not most, markets got oversupplied," explains Mike Hughes, chief executive of the National Golf Course Owners Association. "Essentially, the courses were just not generating the returns owners like to see."

Florida real estate consultant Lew Goodkin (who occasionally writes for Florida Trend) says open land in the state is so valuable that some owners have found it irresistible to sell courses off for developments. The Williams Island Country Club course is supposed to become 825 residences, though developer Transeastern Properties, which bought the course in 2004 for $48 million, has yet to break ground. Other courses for sale include Serenoa Golf Club in Sarasota and the Ravines Golf Club along Black Creek in Middleburg, whose owners are advertising it to "developers interested in (possibly) the best 252 acres left in North Florida."

Still, there are plenty of holes left to play in Florida, which has by far more courses than any other state. Goodkin predicts, however, that golfers in heavily populated urban areas may have to drive a little farther before they can putt.