Anchored by the city of Jacksonville, Florida's First Coast makes for a worthy opening stop for golf in the Sunshine State. The PGA Tour's headquarters is in nearby Ponte Vedra Beach at the TPC Sawgrass, where the PLAYERS Championship is staged on the famous, Pete Dye-designed Stadium Course.
Architect Clyde Johnston built just enough unique features on Eagle Landing at Oakleaf Plantation to stand out among the best golf courses on the south side of Jacksonville, Florida. Johnston deserves kudos for designing a 7,037-yard layout that rewards good shots and doesn't devour bad ones, Jason Scott Deegan writes.
Bobby Weed has done some fine work in northeast Florida. Surprisingly, some of Weed's best holes can be found on a relatively unknown place south of Jacksonville called The Golf Club at Fleming Island, a residential course that's popular with the locals. Don't let its residential setting scare you -- there aren't many houses to detract from its natural setting among the pines and swamps. In fact, some might even argue Fleming Island is the best of his three, more well known (and more expensive) Florida courses.
Designed by Donald Ross and opened in 1925, Hyde Park G.C. in Jacksonville, Fla. is steeped in history. It isn't long by today's standards, but in the 1950s it was a championship test for the likes of Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, Babe Zaharias and Patty Berg.
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