PGA Golf Club in Port Saint Lucie, Florida offers three championship level 18-hole golf courses. PGA Golf club also known as PGA Village is considered a home club to thousands of PGA professionals around the United States. The club offers a premium practice facility for PGA pros and members to hone their skills. It also tapped world renowned golf course architects to design the courses.
The Ryder Course was designed by Tom Fazio in 1996. The golf course is an obvious nod to the Ryder Cup. Interestingly, each hole marker has a plaque with the hole marker that presents the golfers with Ryder Cup facts. For example, hole one greets the golfers with the fact the the first Ryder Cup was played in 1927. The United States won that first Ryder Cup at Worcester C.C. with a score of 9.5 to 2.5.
The Ryder Course is a Par 71 layout that plays anywhere from 6,800 yards from the tips to around 4,000 yards from the front tees. There truly is a tee box for every golfer level. The course offers a record setting seven tee box choices plus 5 hybrid mixed tee box choices.
I would call the Ryder Course an upgraded Florida style course. I use the term upgraded as the greens offer multiple pin positions and definitely make you think about where to place your approach shots. It’s biggest asset is it’s conditioning. Kudos to the superintendent and staff as the course is well manicured and the greens roll smooth and true.
It is a house lined golf course, which is very typical of Florida golf courses that are real estate focused by developers. However, Fazio’s design did push the houses back away from the course and mostly out of play. There’s quite a bit of sawgrass that lines the fairways. It both frames the hole visually but can also grab a golf ball or two during the round. Our boy, Hertz found it on the par-3 5th hole being just a few yards long off the back.
Hetz taking on the sawgrass behind the 5th green
Most of the course looks fairly similar off the tee. The exceptions are the Par-5 4th hole and the par-3 16th hole. In my opinion, those two holes are the best holes on the course and are quite memorable.
The 4th is a great risk/reward par 5. The hole turns right off the tee to an elevated fairway. It invites the golfer to cut off as much as they want. However, cut it off with risk as anything right must carry more and more lake. A safe shot bailing out left leaves a longer shot into a narrow green. The green is protected by water in the front. Two bunkers are guarding the bailout area so golfers must commit and be precise if they go for the green in two.
Fazio moved a lot of dirt to build up an elevated tee box on the 16th hole. It’s a long par-3 playing 236 from the back tees. The green is large but is guarded by water both left and long. A bailout right leaves no easy task of getting up and down on this large green complex with multiple pin positions.
While the Ryder Course doesn’t have the thrill factor of the on-property Dye Course. It’s a solid play and I would enjoy having another crack at it one day. It’s a traditional Florida layout with really solid conditioning.
