My Quest to Check Off Golf's Best Experiences

The 14th green.  It's 50 yards deep.  It's a 527 yard par 5, but the size of the green makes it conducive to giving it a shot in two if you have a good drive.  Of course, ample trouble awaits if you miss that approach, so consider carefully whether going for it in two is the right play.

#15 was the most memorable hole on the course in my opinion.  It's a short par 4, where you're faced with a decision of whether to drive left to a wide fairway and be faced with an ugly chip into the green, or go right into a small pocket of fairway and have a simple pitch left to the green.  I figured I'd take a chance and aimed to the right, at the tougher line.  I hit a great drive and was able to hit my target, leaving only about a 40 yard pitch left.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to capitalize and make birdie, but it was still a rewarding drive.

The final hole at Pine Barrens is a 376 yard par 4 from the Green Tees.  It's a pretty tight driving area and a tricky green

I didn't have a chance to play the Rolling Oaks course, though the gentlemen I played with said it was equally nice.  Pine Barrens is a nice track, just not worthy of being in the Top 20 of public courses in my mind, and certainly not in the Top 100 overall in the USA (it used to be Top 100 overage on Golf Magazine, but not anymore).  Golf Digest probably had this ranked more appropriately.  It was a fun experience, but when I face courses that build themselves around huge waste areas and try to "wow" you visually, my gold standard is Tobacco Road in Sanford, NC (www.tobaccoroadgolf.com).  They're both in fairly remote areas, but I prefer Tobacco Road to Pine Barrens.  There's no question that for the $39 I paid, this was worth the trip.  Even for $75, I'd probably say it's worth playing.  However, I'm not sure I'd pay $119 during peak season for a trip around the Pine Barrens.  

11th green.  Play the drive left on this one to avoid the trees on the right.

The 13th plays best to a fade off the tee.  Don't be short on the approach to the green as long is the much-preferred miss.

#7 is the second par 3 on the front nine, and is 176 yards over a large trap.

Here's the 9th green, the culmination of a 395 yard par 4.  The relatively wide fairway slopes right to left and the approach goes uphill to a green guarded on either side by bunkers that extend to the front half of the green.

The second nine starts off with a 159 yard par 3.  The green is wide and relatively shallow with a false front.  Most of the trouble is short, so bring enough club to play it safe.

#5 is a medium length par 4 with a 44 yard deep green with three tiers.

The practice range is equally impressive, with four different sets of tees on the North, South, East, and West side of a 360 range.   A nice touch was the presence of laser range finders behind the teeing area so you could measure to your targets.  The concept is that you can hit in all different directions to play in different winds, but there was only one tee open the day I was there, so I'm not sure whether that's a practical concept or not.  There is also a 3-hole practice course to warm up (I think it was $10 or so to play it), and a smaller iron-only range.  I didn't check out either of these.

So, with the rankings listed above, I was expecting quite a bit.  Truthfully, I was a touch disappointed, but the experience was still positive.  This course claims to be the Pine Valley of Florida.  I've never played Pine Valley, but I can't imagine the comparisons do it justice.  The course has substantial waste areas that fairways weave through, but I just wasn't "wow"ed as much as I had hoped for.  For a course in the Top 20 of Public Courses, I would have expected the rough to be over-seeded during the off-season, but unfortunately, it hadn't been.  With that said, there were some really cool holes around the Pine Barrens.


Pine Barrens has five sets of tees, with the tips at 7,237 Yards.  I chose two sets in front of that (mainly because the group I was playing with was playing from THREE sets in front of that, and I didn't want to be "that guy."  The Green Tees, where I played, are 6,316 yards, and play to a par 71 with a rating/slope of 70.2/125.

#4 is a fun Par 5 with a decision to make off the tee about whether you want to carry the waste area or not to have the better approach angle into the green.  Either way, if you're looking to hit the green in two (which I wasn't), it's a pretty challenging approach over another waste area and uphill.

In December, 2011, I took a trip to the Tampa area to play a few courses, and had the chance to check off a couple more "Top 100 You Can Play" tracks.  Among them was Innisbrook - Copperhead and World Woods - Pine Barrens.  I'll touch on World Woods :

I had read a lot about World Woods, and wanted to make the trip to Brooksville to check it out.  After landing in Tampa, the drive was roughly an hour from the Airport to the course, straight up the GulfCoast Highway.  It felt like there was a toll booth about every 10 minutes, but about $5 in tolls later, I pulled into the impressive World Woods complex.  On a side note, to save a few dollars, check out www.golfnow.com for tee times--I was able to book one for $39, when the published rate was $69.


Living up to the hype, this is probably the most amazing practice facility I've ever seen. The putting green is enormous with a cool rock formation in the middle of a 2 acre green in the shape of a donut.  You can practice any putt you could ever imagine.

World Woods Golf Club (Pine Barrens)

Brooksville, Florida




Checked off the Bucket List December 9, 2011



Golf Magazine:

#19, Top 100 Courses You Can Play(2012)

#2, Best Public Golf Courses in Florida (2012)


Golf Digest:

#76, America's 100 Greatest Public Courses (2013-2014)

#19, Best in the State of Florida(2013-2014)