More Orlando Daily-Fee Golf Courses, Page 2 - Orlando Golf
Panther Lake at Orange County National
I missed Michael Jordan by a week when I played Panther Lake, the older of two courses (the other is Crooked Cat) at Orange County National. Jordan, just like me, must have heard just how great a course this was and came to see for himself. Along with Osprey Ridge, I have added this course to my Top 10 list; it is that good. It is located 20 minutes northwest of WDW Resort on former citrus groves. On largely flat undistinguished land the designers - Phil Ritson, Dave Harmon and Isao Aoki - fashioned an 18 that meanders over and around wetlands and through tall pines. The back 9 features a couple of modest elevations, notably on the 419-yard (from the blues) dogleg left 12th whose pine-tree-lined fairway gives it a New England look and the magnificent 573-yard 14th where you feel like you're driving off treetops to a rightward curving fairway that slopes down to a lakeside green. Stretching from 5,073 to 7,295 yard, Panther Lake plays to par 72 and has a 125 slope from the forward tees and 132 from the championship (blue, 6816 yards) tees.
Orange County National is the dream fulfilled of Phil Ritson, a long-time Top 100 PGA-certified instructor. Along with these two outstanding courses, he has established the Phil Ritson Golf Institute that, besides golf instruction, offers classes in horticulture, landscape/course design, course maintenance and computer training. The institute has partnerships with area private schools and a local community college. You will see Ritson's dedication to quality in the service and exceptional conditions of the courses.
The Legacy Club at Alaqua Lakes
The Legacy Club at Alaqua Lakes
Located in a gated community off I-4 in Seminole County some 20 miles north of Orlando,
The Legacy Club at Alaqua Lakes,
a semi-private Fazio course,
measures 6,763 yards from the blues and 5,872 from the forward tees. It is one of the better community-based
golf courses I have played and it has a few very scenic holes but it suffers some from all the home construction
around it. The club, which hosted a Women's 1999 U.S. Open qualifying tournament, is worthy of being called
"championship" but it is a notch down from his best work. The club is a member of the Audubon International
Signature Cooperative Sanctuary Program. In an interesting novelty, the club hands out speeding tickets to players.
It says that if players can complete their rounds in 4 hours 5 minutes or less, they will receive $5 off in the pro shop.
Southern Dunes
Thirty miles south of WDW Resort in the unexceptional town of Haines City, where the film Thelma & Louise could have been shot, is Southern Dunes, a 6,803-yard par 72 layout by Steve Smyers. A former teammate of Andy Bean on the 'Gator golf team, Smyers is fast earning high marks for his designs, the latest of which is Old Memorial, a very exclusive private club near Tampa that may one day be in the top 100 courses of the world.
At Southern Dunes, Smyers has tried to create a Scottish dunes-like feel. Whether he has achieved that or not is up for question. The course is, however, excellent. It is liberally bunkered with 180 large, dune-like bunkers draped on hillsides that one might easily imagine to be in the Scottish highlands or by the sea. That is, except for the fact that the course on many holes is lined with bungalow-style houses packed as closely to each other and to the out-of-bounds stakes as the law will permit. As my playing partner remarked, "These look like snowbird houses."
The houses do undermine what is a very scenic course, especially the back 9 which has some outstanding holes including the signature par 3 downhill 11th of 187 yards and the 548-yard 16th, a straightaway par 5 with lots of sand and water. The best hole on the course may be the 440-yard dogleg left 7th to an elevated green. The tee shot is downhill to the joint of the dogleg that is heavily guarded by bunkers. From there you might have anywhere from a 4-8 iron to an elevated green. From the tee box, this hole looks menacing but it is a beauty.
Falcon's Fire
Falcons Fire No.13
Located a few miles east of WDW Resort off Rt. 192 in Kissimmee, Fla.,
Falcon's Fire,
a Rees Jones design, is
very player-friendly with lots of water, wide, gentle fairways and large, receptive greens. You may have seen
pictures of the signature 13th hole from the air. From that vantage point, it is far more imposing and
spectacular than it is on the ground, but still it is an interesting and challenging dogleg right of
394 yards. The challenge off the tee is to take off as much of the lake as possible without getting
your ball wet. On most other holes, Jones has designed in plenty of bailouts, in case you came here without
your 'A' game. The flow of the holes is good but not spectacular. The course conditions, however, were
some of the best I have ever seen. The club is managed by Western Golf Properties, which manages a
distinguished list of other courses nationwide including Desert Highlands and The Golf Club at Desert
Mountain both in Scottsdale, Harborside International in Chicago, Wild Wing in Myrtle Beach and Loch
Lomond Golf Club in Glasgow, Scotland. This is a fine course for the casual golfer.
Orlando's Best Daily-Fee Golf, Page 1
Orlando Golf
Cock your wrist up (not back), swing your arms back, turn your shoulders and rotate your forearms
Rotate around your axis and maintain the same posture throughout your swing in order to pivot properly
CHRIS TOULSON demonstrates pitching basics including set up, wrist hinge, turning of the body and finish position
Pick an intermediate target to aim for that is between your ball and the target
Hit closer to the ball using a normal backswing and accelerate the club on the way through
In a one plane motion the arms, shoulders and hips all turn around in a circle as opposed to a slide and hip bump in the two plane swing.
