Famed golfer, announcer and golf course architect Johnny Miller’s Central Florida golf course design Harmony Golf Preserve is a unique layout in what can be the cookie cutter world of Florida golf courses. Harmony Golf Preserve is Johnny Miller’s only Central Florida golf course design and it is located near Orlando, Florida.
Back in 2002, Johnny Miller and his design team were able to do what so many others fail to accomplish on the flat Florida terrain. Through subtle mounding, shaping and vision, they were able to create a layout of interest that is appealing to the eye off the tee box and memorable when reflecting back on the round.
The front nine starts out pretty slow with a straight away par-4. However, it gets interesting on the 2nd with a dogleg right where you can cutoff all the lake you want depending on your length. Lot’s of room. Just don’t go long and left.
Holes three through nine are all unique and memorable. Three is sneaky tough for a short par-3. The par-5 8th is my favorite on the front nine. It’s straight away but gets real interesting at the green. The green is deep with multiple pin positions and is flanked by water on the left, which is hard to see so know it’s there.
The back nine is also interesting. My favorite hole on the back by far was the par-5 16th. Long hitters want to take an aggressive path to the right and cutoff the dogleg. This leaves a chance to hit the green in two. The long ,thin green complex slopes to the woods that are tight to the right side of the green. A miss left doesn’t leave an easy up and down either. Great hole. The 17th and 18th are good challenges too. Both holes can be birdied with good tee shots. Like any interesting hole, the same holes can hit you with bogey or worse with loose tee balls.
Harmony is a fun play situated on 260 acres of wildlife preserve. Any round at the course will be peppered with plenty of wildlife including alligators, sand hill cranes, turkeys and hawks. The course is designed for golfers of all levels. Pick the right tee box to play and you might score a few birdies of your own. Over the years, the course has had its up’s and down’s related to conditioning. Presently, the restaurant is closed which is not ideal and conditioning is okay but not premium. The biggest disappointment was the course isn’t listed in the GHIN system which is not a good sign.
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