The 2023 professional golf season is up and running. Florida has long played a role in the early season professional golf. The state of Florida is an excellent fit for professional golf tours due to its number of high quality courses and, as importantly, great weather from January to April. These early in the year days are the glory days for golfing in the state of Florida. In general, temperatures range from 60 degrees to 80 degrees and the humidity mercifully drops creating phenomenal golf weather.
When looking at both men’s and women’s professional golf, many of the tour stops are golf courses that are readily open to public or resort golfers. There are some tried and true iconic courses like the TPC Stadium course in Ponte Vedra Beach and Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club & Lodge. Yet, there are also some newcomers like Orange County National Golf Center and Lodge. So, while looking at the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, Champions Tour, LIV Tour and even qualifying sites for the Canadian Tour, here is where you can walk in the footsteps, in some cases, of yesterday’s pros and certainly today’s pros.
Tiburon is located in Naples, Florida which is down in the southwest portion of the state. This course seems to host the most professional events with the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, and Champions Tour all making stops here. While the pros typically play the Black course, Tiburon provides 36 holes of beautiful Florida golf also having a Gold course. Both courses were designed by Greg Norman and possess classic Florida golf course features such as coquina shell bunkers and lots of wildlife. The facility has achieved a designation as a Certified Audubon Sanctuary in fact.
PGA National Resort is located in Palm Beach County. The resort has a “bring it strong” six golf courses in its rotation. The Champion course gets all the notoriety with its infamous “bear trap” consisting of hole numbers 15, 16 and 17 that give the best in the world all they can handle as the Florida winds kick up on Sunday afternoons. Yet, the resort brings plenty of world class golf with its other courses including The Palmer, The Fazio, The Estate, The Match and The Staple. Interestingly, and most recently, golf architect Andy Staples has resigned older layouts to create The Match and the 9-hole The Staple course. The Match is a nod back to the classic days of golf course architecture creating a layout with a twist that focuses purely on match play competition. Throw out the scorecard and go head-to-head in a layout where the previous hole’s winner picks from a selection of teeing areas. Hazards are minimal and rough is non-existent as the course focuses on strategic positioning and players going head to head with their ground games. Bonus, the course plays fast with it boasting a 3-hour round in most cases.
Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club and Lodge
The home of legendary golfer, Arnold Palmer, Bay Hill has played a prominent role in professional golf for many years. Its professional tournament roots go back to 1979 when the first invitational was held. Most recently in 2022, the invitational was won by Scottie Scheffler. The course itself was designed back in 1961 by Dick Wilson and is considered his finest work. The course was owned by Arnold Palmer until his passing and is still owned by the Palmer family. The course seen in the tournament consists of the challenger and champion nines that play to the full 7,400 plus yards tournament week. Not known by many is that there is another 9-hole course called the Charger available for guests to play.
The crown jewel of the TPC network of courses, TPC Sawgrass is home to The Players Championship and also where the PGA Tour is headquartered. Located in lovely Ponte Vedra Beach, TPC Sawgrass boasts the world famous 17th island green and its stadium course. The stadium course was revolutionary at the time as it was built specifically for the tournament with mounding and viewing areas raised up around the greens to make watching the players more enjoyable. Notoriously, the area around the 17th green is surrounded by viewing areas including a large natural seating area where fans can watch the fate of tee shots on the 17th and also watch shots coming into the par 5 16th hole. Any round at the TPC stadium course has all players thinking ahead to the 16th, 17th and 18th holes which are arguably three of the best finishing holes in professional golf. The course was designed by the legendary golf course architect Pete Dye back in 1980. In addition to the stadium course, there is a second layout called the Dye course. It is consistent with its big brother course as it has plenty of water, sand traps and bulkheads to navigate. Also, it holds up well on its own serving as a tour stop in the past for the Korn Ferry Tour.
Innisbrook Golf resort is located in Palm Harbor, Florida in the greater Tampa area. It’s been a PGA Tour stop since the year 2000. The resort offer four courses with the most famous being the Copperhead. The other three layouts include the Island course which is actually the oldest being completed in 1970. The North course known for its tough par 3 holes and lastly the South course rounds out the rotation.
While Mission Inn Resort presently does not host a formal professional tournament, it does host the pros as the site of a qualifying event for the Canadian Tour due to its affiliation with the PGA Tour. That takes place on the El Campeon Course. The resort has two 18 hole courses with the other being Las Colinas. The resort is located near Orlando in an area called Howey-in-the-hills. If dropped down on this property, you would have no idea you were in Florida. The courses are built among high rolling hills with scenic views across the lakes and fairways when near the Spanish influenced facilities. The resort has a long history with its origination and first course dating back to around 1920.
Orange County National Golf Center & Lodge
Orange County National is a golf first resort with three courses. It has hosted multiple qualifying events over the years for the PGA Tour and in 2023 will host a pro tour event on the Crooked Cat course for the LIV Tour. It’s a true public course with locals and visitors to the Orlando area walking up and playing daily. It also has a top notch teaching and practice facility. A second championship 18-hole layout is Panther Lakes. The 3rd course is the Tooth. It’s a 9-hole short course that many walk. The entire facility winds through picturesque wetlands with slight elevation changes. There is an abundance of wildlife with a lot of unique and memorable golf holes.
Home to the famous Blue Monster golf course and the thrilling 18th hole, the Tump Doral Miami resort has played a long time role in professional golf. For many years, it was a mainstay stop on the PGA Tour. Most recently, it hosts the season ending championship for the LIV Tour. While the Blue Monster course is certainly the superstar in its course lineup, there are many other championship level courses on the property. The others include The Golden Palm named after the tree found all over the property and which was most recently updated by Gil Hanse. The Red Tiger which was originally named by legendary entertainer Jackie Gleason. This course has also been given a dramatic update by the Gil Hanse team. Lastly, there is the Silver Fox course which is challenging to say the least with 17 of 18 holes having water in play.