Bloomingdale Golfers Club, Valrico, FL

Bloomingdale is a great course that is being mismanaged to death. At one point it was one of the premier public courses in the Tampa area, and it has slipped from the position big time. It is still a great layout with serious potential. The greens were in bad shape over the summer but they are coming around at this point. The fairways are in ok shape. The problem comes in with 5 and 6 hour rounds on the weekends. If you play on a Saturday or Sunday, just plan on there being 3 groups on every hole. A five and half hour round is pretty much what is to be expected. They simply over book the course. On a recent friday we went in early in the afternoon and asked if we could get on. He told us yeah there was room if we went on out to the teebox. We loaded up our bags and went straight to the tee, where we waited for a half hour to tee off. We ended up dropping out after 4 and a half hours and 14 hours. The guys behind us were complaining about why they bothered with a tee time if they were just going to let people walk on in front of them, and they were absolutely right. It's hard to turn away business, but we should have been told to come back later. It's sad because it could be a great course, but its hard to play anytime but weekday afternoons.

The greens are back at Bloomingdale. They have Champion ultra dwarf greens that are great. Looks like they are one of the few courses in the area spending money on their course. Love the bev cart girls they are amazing!