Streamsong Resort - Red Course

Streamsong Red was totally enjoyable. There is a wide variety of holes, beautiful scenery, and a wonderful layout. Course was in great shape.

I had the chance to play Red again as part of the Golf Advisor Getaway, and this recent round confirmed my love for this course. In my opinion, Red is by far the most scenic course at the property, and the routing makes you think your way through each hole. Also, the greens are certainly not small or flat, but they're much easier to navigate than Blue & Black. Another Coore Crenshaw masterpiece!

The Red Course was the third and final course we played as part of The Golf Advisory Golf Getaway. It was worth the wait. Our threesome was the first group out at 7:30, and we buzzed around in 3:50! This Core/Crenshaw design was my favorite (and most everyone I asked) of the three Streamsong. With picturesque vistas, the course was right in front us, with the exception of one par 5 guarded by a huge sand dune.

My only knock on the course (and on all the Streamsong courses) was the depth of sand in the traps. In most cases the sand was very deep and not well manicured. A few of the traps had been washed out by rain.

I very much like and would recommend all three Streamsong courses, and I rank them: 1. Red, 2. Black, 3. Blue. The Red Course is one of the finest I have played. It is pitch perfect with its flow, setting, challenges, and variety. It feels like a great walk through a distinctively natural property with wonderful golf holes. It has excellent fairway movement with angles off the tee and bends and twists. Very fair width of the fairways, interesting green shapes and sizes, several beautifully nestled into dune settings. Great use of sand and brush as waste areas in certain parts of the property. Nice use of water in a way that is part of strategy without overwhelming any hole. Great mix of long and short holes, several blind shots, elevations. The bunkering is artistic yet natural-looking. Hazards are expertly placed to make you think through your shot selection. Greens are challenging to read but not tricky, with nice banks and rolls, some subtle and others more apparent, and several greens boomerang around a trap. The course has one outstanding hole after another. The Red is a strategic and visually memorable journey.

In my rankings of the on-course food shack options, the brisket sandwich on the Red is great and comes in second to the grouper taco on the Blue. But smelling the smoked brisket as you walk from tee to green on Red 8 adds to the experience!

The best putter in your foursome will likely favor the Black course while the precision driver will like the Red and the precision iron player will like the Blue.

This course off the tee is an absolute test of someone’s ability to keep the ball in play while hitting all 9 golf shots (draw, straight, fade and then high/normal/low for each). If you find the fairway off the tee then this course becomes much more manageable as Coore and Crenshaw leave a bailout option on every green (or at least near it). Such options do not exist off the tee. Pick a line you can make and then commit and execute off the tee.

This course is a phenomenal blend of architecture with birdie holes followed directly by absolute gut punches in the routing. Further, the back 9 is something like 600-700 yards longer than the front so get your birdies early and then hang on.

Tip: if you aren’t taking a caddie then bring a range finder because bunkers that look in play are easily carryable and those that appear out of reach can easily be found with a driver kicking off a downslope and then funneling into bunkers.

The Red Course was the last on the list of our "Streamsong Triple" weekend. It was described to me at the tightest driving course with the least severe greens of the trio. I would agree with all of those notes and would also include that I found it played the most difficult track from the black tees (one up from the back). The Red Course also sports some really difficult par 4 holes, including 6 holes over 400 years, most of which felt like they played uphill and into the wind.

The Red has a tremendous vistas overlooking the property. I haven’t played a lot of Coore & Crenshaw designs in the past, but I’ve read and listened to a lot of podcasts on the subject of golf course architecture. I would say that the Red would be the course that you would want to take the better player or golf architecture fan if you only had one round at Streamsong. The course shares similarities with Tom Doak’s Streamsong Blue in that the round begins in the natural areas including lakes, tall grass and massive dunes (from the phosphate mining) on the front 9 and more meadow-style open back 9.

This was a fitting finish to the our weekend. The course was in excellent shape and along with the Blue and the Black make for an wonderful experience and unlike anything you’ll find in Florida.

Amazing landforms, entirely unlike indigenous Florida,. Course starts out very interesting but only concern is string of long, receptive holes at start of back nine.

The course lives up to all the praise and high ratings it has received. It’s a challenging but not outrageous layout, that mixes the scenery, elevation changes and just good solid golf hole design. You’ll see elements of their work at Pinehurst #2 with the sandy edges of fairways and very puttable approach areas around the greens. Greens are more subtle than their Blue and Black cousins, but there are more forced carries. Highly recommend taking a caddie.

After my second round on the Red Course, I am still looking for redemption. The course was in fantastic shape. I have never played in as much wind as I did that day. It was actually playing into the putts which made it difficult. I don't need any help missing putts! I always enjoy my experience at Streamsong as this was my fourth visit to the property. Hoping to play the Black course in the near future. Must see Resort! The rooms are phenomenal.

I played all three golf courses at Streamsong and the Red course was my favorite. The layout and scenery is terrific and the greens are not as difficult to read compared to the Blue and Black greens. The course is a good challenge from the combination tees. Fore-caddie Bud was awesome. Highly recommend this golf resort which is out in the middle of nowhere.

We played the Red course on Twice in our short trip. We chose the combo tees and weren’t disappointed. Even from the estimated 6300 yds it was a solid test. The architects used elevation changes and existing dunes to frame the holes and create target lines and depth. After playing the Blue and Black courses, we thought that the greens on Red were the most fair and least undulating. The nines are definitely different in their level of difficulty with the back nine being the more challenging. It was a course which, if played well, invites you back and if played poorly pulls you back for another try.
Kudos go to the golf staff, caddies, bag drop attendants, shuttle drivers(Mercedes vans-great touch), restaurant staff and the nicest front desk staff we have experienced. Everyone was personable and friendly and genuinely committed to serving their guests.

The Red course at Streamsong by Coore & Crenshaw is subtly different than its sister (Blue). With generous fairways golfers of all abilities should enjoy making their way around the Red course. One key difference between the Red and Blue are on the greens. My personal opinion is the Red greens are more subtle in nature than most of the Blue allowing for a few more long putts to roll in...assuming you can find the right pace and line. There is plenty to admire on the course from the massive dunes to a few enormous bunkers.

The "signature" par 3 is number 16. A Biarritz green on steroids...easily 170 over water, the green is ~70 yards front to back with an equally enormous swale in the middle. Just an awesome hole.

Finally got to see the legendary Streamsong! It was everything I expected, and not what I expected at all!

For starters... calling this place remote is an understatement. It's a large and beautiful property, and it's not really close to ANYTHING. So don't plan multiple days here unless you are staying onsite. As you'd expect, the facilities are wonderful and the bar has an amazing selection of scotch... but you came here for golf...

I started my day walking the Red course. I got paired up with a couple fellas from NYC. It was a pretty slow moving day. They told me to expect a 4.5 hour round... that was about right, but it felt slower.

This course has some tough tee shots. There are some forced carries, and there are several holes where you have to really commit to the line you want to take. Bunkers are hungry for any wayward shots.

I didn't think the course played super fast (like Chambers or Tetherow), but the greens are definitely tricky and slippery.

The course is a masterful work of art. It's great to just take it all in.

While the course provides good variety and challenge, I expected it to be a little more brutal. At the end of the day, it's a resort course... it's challenging enough for skilled players, but not so challenging that a player of any skill level can't enjoy it. I think that's the right way to go to make this a mainstay of golf buddy trips for a long time.

Took advantage of the Unlimited Summer golf package. for a single it was 199$ per night (149$ double) for 2 nights, 3 days unlimited golf, then you get a 3rd night at the hotel free!

The courses themselves are very unique for florida and you feel like you are in a different place altogether. It is totally secluded and quite beautiful actually..especially in the morning and evenings.

The course was in good summer shape. It was extremely hot and humid but the course was still full in the morning hours. You can tell the course was designed for winter play...'firm and fast' as the grass goes dormant. As it was in the summer the course did not roll out as much as preferred and the fairways were kept longer than usual Id suspect...but they were still in great shape.

I played one day before the greens got sanded, then again right after..and honestly the sand made them easier to putt. Less of that summer grain to factor in. They probably rolled about a 10-11.

The bunkers are deep and have that waste bunker feel. The sand is thicker too, and your ball will PLUG into the deep slopes (happened 3 times for me) so avoid them at all costs!

The par 5s are all reachable in two, and there is a drivable par 4 as well.

Only complaint that I could see..and purely from a course ratings standpoint..is to have a combo tee on the card between the tips and the next tee. As is the tips are 7200 and the next tee is 6500...would be nice for a lot of good players that dont have the length to play the tips to have a rated option around 6900.

Spent 4 days at Streamsong. I cant believe this is a top 20 you can play.

The course layout is interesting. There are some spectacular holes. The first hole--a 460 yard par 4 uphill--is amazing. But the second hole is a par 5 of the same length. Just weird. I really liked the par 5s in general. But there are also some throw away holes. The par 3s for example, are some of the most unremarkable I've ever played (except for the par 3 16th hole). The two par 3s on the front side are 120-140 yard shots straight away with almost nothing interesting about them. It also makes no sense that there are no tees for the 10-15 handicappers. Either you're an 18+ or a scratch. But nothing in the 6500 range.

The conditions while we were down there was only okay--tee boxes had been let to grow out considerable, with dirt patches and clumps of patchy weeds throughout. Given the price, I was expecting immaculate conditions, and I was wrong.

What really got me was the staff friendliness (or lackthereof). We were treated like unwelcomed guests at a country club. Most of the staff were friendly enough, but we certainly were not welcomed as I expected to be.

The worst part about the course is the price. This is some of the most overrated, overvalued golf in the country. Their fees for the carts are absolutely punitive, and will DOUBLE the price of your round. It's absurd. And they nickel and dime you on everything else imaginable (they wanted $5 to deliver hats we bought from the course to the course hotel--you read that correctly).

This is a fun place to play golf, but not at the price they charge. It also doesn't even compare to comparably ranked courses. If I were to plan a golf trip, I'd pick a number of places over Streamsong.

I played as a single walker carrying my bag. Drove in from Anna Maria Island which was about an hour or so. Get gas before you leave civilization because I only saw one option on the way in. They only accept reservations via there website for 2+ golfers so you have to call and book as a single. Over the phone they wanted to pair me up with another twosome even though there were open tee times. I preferred to play as a single so I called back the day before to move my tee time which was no problem. If you are a single and want to book online you can via teeoff.com. I payed $125 as an out of state player and thoroughly enjoyed the course. When I arrived I parked in the lot on the left and walked up to the checkstand by the clubhouse where they tagged my bag and took it out to the putting green while I checked in. Range balls are included and they have a guy that will drive you out to the range in a cart and back which was nice. I carried my bag but would probably use one of the pushcarts they had available if I played again (Not sure if they charge for them). Walking through that unique landscape was amazing. It was very hot but they had a ranger on a golf cart that came by 3 times or so to offer water & cold towels and give me the ins and outs of the course. On the 3rd tee you get a great view of the new black course and the clubhouse being built. I grabbed a BBQ at the shack between 8 & 9 which was very good but I wouldn't count on that as your lunch, just a snack size. I had a very memorable time and loved the biarritz green on 16. I even ran into a baby fawn leaving 15 tee. They do have a bye hole (19th) that i forgot to play. Course condition was excellent and I hit a lot of fairways which helped my score. Some of the bunkers are intimidating so they must be avoided. I would love to come back and play the Blue and the Black one day soon!

The first tee shot on 1 is pretty scary as your first swing. Visually stunning obviously not your typical Florida course. The course was awesome, tough tough greens.The staff were all great and our caddy AJ is highly recommended. AJ is very knowledgeable and understands how to let the players have a good time and not feel too much pressure. He's also a pretty cool caddy too. Halfway house has some delicious sandwiches try them! Love this place can't wait to play the blue and then black.

From the breathtaking opening tee shot you know you are in for a treat. Being from the mid Atlantic the fairways are tight, greens are firm fast and undulated. 3 putts are very easy to obtain. Played as a twosome and rarely had to wait. Took a pullcart, caddies are available $90 a bag plus gratuity. makes for an expensive round. Would have been nice to have a pin placement sheet for those not using a caddie. After a one hour lightning delay we headed back out , however beverage cart and BBQ hut we no longer open. Water was difficult to find. Would definitely play again. Will wait for black to open.

My wife and I took a winter escape to Florida's #1 golf resort at Streamsong.
The distance from Tampa is about an hour and it literally is in the middle of nowhere.
the setting is very remote and having played my first Coore and Crenshaw course in Sand Valley 4 months before, I found them to be similar in regards to conditioning and playability as they play fast and firm. The unique terrain is what makes the course different. Elevation and water come into play on Red and they are not kind with the opening hole, a 440+ yard par 4! You can run approach shots into the greens and caddies are a must the scratch Florida's #1 resort off my list but do not first time you play as knowing the proper lines off the tee can make or break your round.
The walk is demanding even with a caddie. I can need to return as a must repeat.

Streamsong Red can make your scorecard bleed if you're not driving the ball well. I found out the hard way during my round, landing in my fair share of trouble spots. There's more water lurking than on the Blue. Plus, Coore and Crenshaw peppered the landing areas with bunkers in the middle of the fairway or fingers of waste bunkers reaching out, ready to snatch your shot. It's an exhilarating test of golf in the sandy dunes of Streamsong in remote central Florida.
To me, Streamsong Red is all about how you fare on the half-par holes. By that, I mean, the first hole is a 464-yard par 4 from the black tees that I played. Hardly anybody makes par - bogey is the likely result - making the hole more like a par 4 1/2. If you make a four, you've gained at least a half a shot or more on the field. The same applies at no. 2 - a 508-yard par 5. It's reachable if you take the bold line off the tee up the right side taking on the water. It could be considered a par 4 1/2, technically. Short par 4s at no. 5 (312 yards) and no. 9 (271 yards) are par 3 1/2s with a good drive avoiding the sand. Taking advantage of these types of holes just might make your day even more memorable on this walking-only adventure (carts are available in summer).