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This course is excellent and very challenging. It is on the side of the Niagara escarpment so there are frequent elevation changes. Not a course for walking, unless you want to get a lot of exercise.

Even the clubhouse is built into a slope. The parking Lot is up the hill from the clubhouse. This means parking your vehicle and walking 300 yards to the clubhouse, check in, get a cart and go back to the vehicle for clubs etc. They really need to keep the carts in the parking area and thus leave space near the clubhouse to stop and checkin and get a cart key. I do not recommend this course for anyone with knee problems

I booked my game through Golf Now and so had no Idea who my golf partners would be. Had a great time. Two of the golfers were suffering from leg or thigh issues but they still played great games of Golf and I never heard a complaint from anyone. The course was very busy and so it did take nearly 5 hours to complete the 18 holes.

The only negative about this course is the fact that they have to charge you and extra $5 as a tax by the city of palatka on people who are not residents of Palatka. It makes you feel unwelcome.

When I left the club house it was misting(1:00pm) but it never rained and within an hour the sun was out. I started out along but on the 2nd hole joined up with a golfer who had at one time played professionally. This was his first time at lake diamond in 6 years and he was quite impressed by the improvements. The first 9 are quite changed because of the construction of 400+ new homes that were to start being built shortly. By the 6th hole we asked a couple who came up behind us if they wanted to join us. we were playing behind a foursome. As it turns out all of us had booked the 1pm Golf Now hot deal, So we were meant to be together. This course is really improving and it will be interesting to see how it changes over the next year. Right now the the first nine has a lot of construction rawness to it. The hole course now has a lot less trees along the edges and it is hoped that as the course improves the owner will spend the effort to clean the brush out and make it look more attractive.

This is an excellent Course to play, the people are friendly But the city of Palatka is greedy. They require the course to discriminate against you if you are not from Palatka and to charge you an addition so called tax of $5. Golf now does not mention this until after you have booked your game and even then you would probably miss it if you did not know it was going to happen. Golf NOw in my opinion should be showing it upfront as a city surcharge on tourists so that tourists realize how much they will be paying upfront.

I like the course but I do not like the sneaky way this surcharge is being handled.

This is a fairly tight course, but it is well kept. When their are trees on the sides of the fairways they are well groomed and you never see debris in amongst the trees. They have paved cart paths alongside most of the fairways and ask that you abide by the 90 degree rule.
I took a friend with me this week who normally shots around 90 and has played on a lot of courses. He said he definitely wanted to go back.

I have played here several times this winter and have enjoyed the challenge. There is little wasted space in the course layout and the space between fairways is very clean whether it is only a few trees or a thicker grove.
Unfortunately my last booking on January 1st did not work out because the Club was closed. But this was not the fault of Water Oaks.

This year has seen a rapid rise in the cost of golfing at this course. it is an average course but its green fees are only a few dollars below the best courses. You have to question whether you should spend a couple dollars more and play one of the better courses in the Ocala area.

I played this course for three years ending 4 years ago. This was my first time since then. My compaint is that they have removed a lot of the grass and replaced it with hard pack sand with a thin level of loose sand. If the wind blows you get sand in your eyes. And heaven help if you land on the sand because hitting a little low and you will feel it. I came home with a sore wrist. I have played golf once or twice a week all winter and never got a sore wrist before. In fairness, where they had grass it was green and nice. The greens were disappointing because the mower probably mowed uphill or had a bent blade. the grass was uneven and you could watch the bowl bounce over the grass.
The other issue for me was that to get on the green on some of the par 4's in two strokes you had to exceed 200 yards with each hit. I am a winter golfer rarely palying in the summer time.

This is an excellent golf course but not for someone who shoots over 90. You need to have excellent control over your ball, and be able to hit the ball consistent distances. The in ground distance markers were hard to find. The course is very busy and you felt like you were always under pressure.
To compound the problem on two of the holes the driving range was in between and there were golf balls in the fairways so you had to search for your ball(coloured balls are a good idea to use here). The putting was challenging, only one hole had a flat green, the rest were like putting over a series of waves. My advice is if you are going to play here do it with someone who is really familar with the course.

The course,s greens and fairways were in excellent condition. each fairway is surrounded by homes and you travel between the homes to get to the next fairway. The 12th hole is confusing because you leave for it and come back the same way for the 13th. The signage should indicate the hole numbers.
I was playing on a 45F day and had the course all to myself and never having been there before found myself with some surprises. Like hitting a drive only to find that I had hit it into a deep depression. Their score cards show the layout but do not explain that sandstone colour does not mean sand trap it means a drop off.

I enjoyed the course but
-Their was no information given me on course layout so I had no knowledge of where to shoot for when I could not see the flag
-it was not always clear where to find the next hole
-an open course on most holes but deep grass in places made for frustrating ball losses

The greens were well maintained. the fairways were green without any sandy areas. Their was evidence of work having been done recently with some areas of new grass. Their was some evidence of coarse grass invasion but they seemed to be working on that.

This course suffers from poor drainage. Not a course for cart people, better suited to hand pulled carts. I wound up walking almost as far as someone pulling a cart.

This was a beutiful course but it needed better maintenance . Deep grass really spoiled this course.

the course had very high grass off to the side of the fairways