GapwedgeWizard

My wife and I really enjoy North Shore everytime we have a chance to play it at…a reasonable price ($53 this time on a Saturday; booked 2 hours ahead of our teetime. $100 for non-Fl residents 2 days later, a Monday?!? Why?). Except for #7 and #9 (2 par fives with water on the right off the tee), no 2 holes are alike. Some are wide open while others are really tight. If you pick the proper tee box for you, you’ll likely enjoy this course. Starting time was 11:50 on a Saturday and we were done within 3 hours and 45 min…which would be different during peak season!

First time my wife and I played this course after a 4-days-in-row rainy weather. So, the grass was long everywhere and conditions were very wet. (Played lift-clean-and-place so, we were fine) Although we didn’t get any roll f the tee, my wife particularly found this to be « lady-friendly-course » at 4,886y. For me, I wish there were an in-between or combo tees (blues too long at 6,795y and whites would be a bit short, for me, at 6,239 under dry conditions). Now, design-wise, I wished they could have left more holes between the pars fives, which are on holes number 1, 3, 11 and…12. Although we were only 2 following a group of 4 young guns, we made it back to our car under 4 hours. We will definitely play this course again…when it is dry.

Beautiful Championship layout with several downhill drives leading to very very uphill greens. Not friendly for golfers who usually reach greens in rolling the ball. (My wife is a 17 handicap but played way over 100 because of the difficulty to reach those uphill greens.) I found the greens challenging and hard to read but the speed was perfect. The round took 4 hours and 40 minutes to play with an 11:00 o’clock tee time on a Tuesday, waiting on every single shots. But I definitely would like to play El Campeon again on a day with calmer winds and with a better pace of play.
Oh, several bunkers would need more and better quality sand considering the quality of this course!

Saturday 10:25, 35 min before our tee time. Only 12 cars in the parking lot and 9 golfers on the driving range. Beautiful weather. Proshop tells us to go ahead when we’re ready. On tee of #4, saw a single on tee #6. And my wife and I cought up with a twosome…on #18. Total time on the course? 3 hours and 22 minutes!!! Although some of the greens (especially #5) show patches (desease?), this course should be packed on a beauftiful Sat morning. I agree with other reviews: green fees are too high for December. I still don’t understand why they stopped accepting “memberships”.We were “seasonal” members in 2017 (Nov-April) and attracting people to play with us. Administration was happy to get our money, total upfront in Nov but made us feel we were an obstacle when Feb-March came along. I suggested they restrict members to afternoon teetimes only from Feb to May. For some unknown reason, they completely eliminated the memberships…and leave this nice and really fun course rather empty in the fall. Administration should understand that $80 is too much. We paid $49 which all went to Golfnow since it was on…a GNow Hotdeal. Hope the owner allows seasonal memberships again before this course goes bankrupt!!!

Played North-South. My wife and I enjoyed every moment (although she found the South course quite tiugher than the North. Beautiful layout with challenging approaches to the greens, which are also demanding...à-la-Jack-Nicklaus! Will definitely return!

Although I wish they were much faster, the greens are 200% better than they were when we stopped playing Kiss Oaks 4 years ago and they generally roll ok. There is still work needed on the rest of the course (fairways, bunkers and tee-offs). I was encouraged to re-try this course based on the efforts by the new owner to improve all aspects of Oaks National. He is on the right track! The lay-out is nice with holes of various difficulties (wide open(#1) or very thight (#11). A thunderstorm was approaching when we played (we had to stop after #15) so the strong winds made a few par #3 quite challenging, over water, from back-tees. At that price ($21 with GN including fees), it's well worth the detour!

Beautiful layout, some very tough holes (blind shots), 1 crazy green (#15, pin was upfront!!), GPS not always accurate "to the pin" when compared with laser rangefinder, bunkers need attention(remove rocks, please) and on certain holes, there were "50 shades of green". (I have a 2.4 index so the condition of the greens are critical for me if I want to score on a tough course like this.) But it remains a fantastic course and we will return again and again.

I didn't like the layout of this course. Just too many straight holes with tall trees aligned on both sides of the fairways. The 1st dogleg is on 16th and the last is on 18th! Everything else is straight forward.
The teeboxes on at least 3 holes are tucked too close behind/besides the preceeding green, which can be dangerous/disturbing while you are waiting/driving. Some directions for the carts would be appreciated when approaching the greens, especially when there is a teebox just behind.
Greens were rolling ok.
Pace of play felt slow-we waited on every, every, every single shot- but given that we were in carts and left the 18th green after 4 hours of play, what can I say...

2nd round at Windermere. Loved it, once again. But it'll take me a couple more rounds to get used to some of these greens and better approach them i.e. may be stay short and count on a gapwedge/1-putt combo, once in a while, rather than having to face an extra-long snaking 1st putt...and risk a 3-putt.

Really liked this course which offers a wide variety in terms of tight versus wide-open holes. Got caught on a few holes after hitting what I thought were perfect 2nd shots only to realize that there were blind severe slopes on the landing area that redirect balls from the fairway to huge bunkers (right side on #9, left side on #10 and left side on #18)!!! I took good notes on that. So if this is your first visit and if the pace of the course allows for it, after your drive, take a quick ride up to view what is ahead on these specific holes.
Finally, I just wish that they would offer another set of tees between the Blacks, which we played at 6,647Y, and the Golds (6,042Y). Anything around 6,300-6,400Y would be just fine.
We will certainly play this course again...and will be prepared for these blind 2nd shots.

Greens were in better shape in 2012 but still nice to play. If you are following closely the group ahead of yours, go take a peak on some of the holes where the drive is a blind shot. And once you are at your second shot, ask one of your partners to stay visible on top of the hill so that the group behind doesn't hit...through your legs at it happened to us. Course worth playing if you are staying in the area. We drove 55 minutes to get there, which was ok on the way over but a little too long on the way back after a 5hours+ round.

Our teetime was 11:23am. We got off the 18th green at 4:40pm! No matter how much you love the game, more than 5 hours is just tooooo long. It is very difficult to appreciate a course when you have to wait 10-15 minutes between every single shots. 1st and last time I play at this course.
Course difficulty: To me, Moderate, but with the number of huge fairway bunkers really well-placed, it must have been very challenging for some players today...

Happy we got to play this course at an exceptional 64% reduction with Golfnow. Nice lay-out with very very fast and ondulated greens. (The guy playing with us lost a ball in the water...coming off the pratice green!!) Lacks a little bit of variety on some holes (e.g. from the white tees, 5 par 4 holes (#3, 4, 5, 9 and 10) are ranging from 363 to 373 yards). Would like to replay under better weather conditions (it was 45F with very strong winds today).

Greens were in better shape on my first visit in March 2012 but I was told that weather in Feb 2013 was tough on courses in FL. Still a nice layout with several holes where you have to think twice before taking your driver. Temperature was in low 50F with very strong winds, which made it a little bit tougher to control the ball flight. On the practice green, gusts of wind were moving the balls without having to hit them! I will go back under better conditions. Still can't figure how to play #14, a sharp doglegs left that is over 415 yards from the white tees. If you don't cut the corner, you have 250-275 yards left. To cut the corner with a driver, you have to get the ball airborn very quickly because to me, the white tees are TOO close to the trees. Taking a 5-wood or even a 3-wood would still leave me with a very long 2nd shot. I guess this is an example where playing from the blue tees would be an advantage. May be next time, under better weather conditions.