Back
I moved to Florida in the fall of 2014. In the time since, I have played some 175 golf courses across the state, from Pensacola Country Club to Crandon Golf at Key Biscayne - 687 miles or 9 hours, 47 minutes apart, per Google Maps.
Florida feels like it could be three or four separate states, and from a golfer's perspective, there is no monolithic entity of "Florida." You can subvert just about any stereotype somewhere within the Sunshine State. It encompasses dozens of resorts or clumps of courses that can make for a killer golf vacation.
You could spend a small fortune luxuriating at some of America's highest-end hotels, like The Breakers in Palm Beach or The Boca Raton, where golf is a colossal-shrimp-cocktail-type side dish to a five-star stay. You can also take a golf trip that, even in this day of surging golf popularity and inflating green fees, can be considered a genuine bargain. And there are all sorts of mix-and-match possibilities in between, especially if you're willing to drive upwards of 45 minutes to an hour from your base of operations for an interesting round. Check out our Florida golf resort guide if you want to go that route.
Because of Florida's sheer size and variety of population centers, it can be tricky to define discrete destinations within it in a way that doesn't feel somewhat arbitrary. Just keep in mind that the borders between these areas can sometimes bleed into one another, and marketing organizations may wish I defined things a little differently. Too bad - I'm trying to present these Florida golf destinations in a way that is most relevant to you. Finally, note that these destinations are in alphabetical order. There's too much variety to declare one #1. If you have strong opinions, duke it out in the comments. Here are my choices for the top 10 golf destinations in Florida:
Miami
Miami is one of the top overall travel destinations in America, having welcomed a record 28 million tourists in 2024. More than 20% of all Florida visitors last year spent at least some of their vacation in Miami-Dade County. Balmy winter weather is a near-lock, the food culture is world-class and the beaches are see-and-be-seen hot spots. You can shop, fish and explore to your heart's content. Major-league sports is a big draw, as is the annual Formula 1 race each May.
As golf destinations go, Miami is a bit of a mixed bag within Florida. Its vastness means it's possible to have as high-end a golf experience as you want, but there's still plenty of value there as well. The area's golf culture took a big hit in 2023, when the popular International Links Melreese course closed to make way for the construction of MLS club Inter Miami's new stadium. I hope Messi is happy. Traffic can be a nightmare, so plan accordingly if you've got an eclectic golf itinerary.
I had a memorable trip through the area in 2019, beginning with a luxurious stay at the J.W. Marriott in Aventura and rounds at the two upscale Turnberry Isle courses onsite, which are accessible by overnight guests. I also enjoyed Miami Beach's two public courses, Normandy Shores and Miami Beach Golf Club. But my two favorite courses around are Crandon Golf at Key Biscayne and the historic Biltmore, whose Donald Ross-designed course is a gem. One course I look forward to seeing again is the former Shula's Golf Club, now known as Miami Lakes; it recently reopened after a lengthy rebuild.
Miami isn't just for big-spenders, though. I loved my rounds at the decidedly locals'-favorite Miami Shores Golf Club, and Miami Springs Golf Club is a historic old-Florida hidden gem where figures like Gene Sarazen and Byron Nelson played tournaments back in the day. And rumors have swirled that the county aims to revive the Country Club of Miami, converting its 36 holes of golf into three big nines plus a 12-hole short course. That would take Miami up a notch as a golf destination.
Other notables: Trump National Doral | Miccosukee Golf & Country Club | Palmetto Golf Course
Northeast Florida Beaches
Fernandina Beach, Amelia Island and Ponte Vedra Beach all sit within easy reach of Jacksonville, and all have their own appeal for visitors. TPC Sawgrass' Players Stadium course is the no-doubt bucket-list golf experience among all of them. Its eye-watering peak standalone green fees are understandably controversial, but it gets somewhat more reasonable if you stay at the nearby Sawgrass Marriott, which was just bought by a joint venture that includes South Street Partners, who already own Kiawah Island and PGA National and seems destined for some renovations.
Staying close to the coast is your best bet in this area. I can vouch for the quiet feel of the Omni Amelia Island Resort & Spa, whose Oak Marsh course was just renovated by Beau Welling. Welling's Little Sandy par-3 course on site is charming, too.
Other notables: Ponte Vedra Inn & Club | The Yards | Jacksonville Beach Golf Club | The Amelia River Club | The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island
Orlando
"The Happiest Place On Earth" is not just a Disney-driven sensation. Escaping the cold for a few days in and around Orlando is a long-standing tradition, too. It is truly a choose-your-own-adventure golf destination, with upscale delights and cheap-and-cheerful golf possibilities, with several shades in between. I haven't seen all I want to see on the Orlando golf scene yet, but for several years I have curated a top-10 list that also has some useful advice on other courses.
Other notables: Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate | Reunion Resort | Mission Inn Resort & Club | Disney Golf | Orange County National | Celebration Golf Club | Mystic Dunes Golf Club | Royal St. Cloud Golf Links
The Panhandle (Panama City to Destin)
I haven't played a ton of golf in the Panhandle thus far in my travels, but what I have seen, I've liked. A harrowing late-night rental-car-versus-deer experience aside, I very much like the environs of the Camp Creek Inn, especially the brand-new golf course that opened at the surrounding Watersound Club in 2025, called The Third. Only club members and guests of the inn can play The Third or the club's other two courses, Camp Creek Golf Club and Shark's Tooth Golf Club.
World-famous beaches with sugary sand stretch from Panama City west to Destin and beyond, with the main resort offering out that way being Sandestin Golf & Beach Resort, with four golf courses of its own. There are other independent courses both near the coast and further inland to keep avid-golfer visitors entertained. With Old Shores, a new resort out of the Keiser family, coming online in the next few years, the Panhandle will see a rush of early-adopter golfers to the town of Vernon, pop. 732.
Other notables: Kelly Plantation Golf Club | Regatta Bay Golf & Yacht Club | Windswept Dunes Golf Course | Origins Golf Course | Bay Point Golf Club
Florida's 2 best budget-friendly destinations?
I have relatively limited first-hand exposure to these two areas, but they are both very popular getaway spots among price-conscious golfers in Florida, especially the coastal areas.
Ocala
Ocala is horse country - just ask the proprietors and clientele of the $800 million, AAA Four-Diamond Equestrian Hotel at the World Equestrian Center. But it's also a golf hotbed, with a number of well-respected and mostly very affordable golf courses. The pace-setter among them: Juliette Falls, a John Sanford design that has appeared on several Golfers' Choice lists in past years.
Sebring
Like Ocala, Sebring is best known for something besides golf, namely auto racing. But it and its surrounding areas are home to several value-oriented golf courses as well. One emerging story is the piecemeal transformation of Sebring International Golf Resort, which now has three championship nines and a 12-hole par-3 loop.
St. Augustine to Daytona Beach
Some call this area the First Coast, a nod to the Spanish explorers who first landed near St. Augustine in 1513 and established the city in 1565. Golf came along just a few hundred years later, and has gained a strong hold on visitors to the area, stretching as far down as Daytona. Although the World Golf Hall of Fame left World Golf Village in 2023, the two courses there, King & Bear and Slammer & Squire, are still worth a visit. A little further down the coast, Hammock Beach Resort's own 36 holes - the Jack Nicklaus-designed Ocean Course and Tom Watson's glittering Conservatory, make a strong pairing as well. Somewhere in between sits St. Johns Golf Club, a redone muni that has a C.B. Macdonald/Seth Raynor flavor thanks to renovating architect Erik Larsen.
Down in Daytona, another 36-hole facility, LPGA International, is a solid place to play, albeit without on-site lodging like World Golf Village and Hammock Beach. In nearby Ormond Beach sits one of Florida's hidden gems: Riviera Country Club, a family-owned local-legend public course that is so old-school it doesn't take tee times.
Other notables: St. Johns Golf & Country Club | Cypress Head Golf Club | Victoria Hills Golf Club
Streamsong
Streamsong's isolation and its comprehensiveness - four (soon to be five) golf courses and all the lodging, dining and amenities to compete with other major standalone resorts - make it a destination unto itself that is unique to Florida. The Blue and Red courses remain the class of the place, although the Black is always a hoot when firm and fast in the winter, and David McLay Kidd's yet-to-be-officially-named new course, set to open in 2026, should reinvigorate the bar debates over which layout golfers prefer.
Southwest Florida
Despite having one of the densest collections of golf courses in any one county (Collier), the greater Naples area is relatively bereft of accessible courses. One expensive exception is Tiburon, where overnight guests of the Ritz-Carlton resort on site can play the Gold and Black courses, which have hosted their share of professional events.
Better to head north, to the Fort Myers area as well as Sarasota, where some excellent publicly-accessible golf courses await. Sarasota's muni, Bobby Jones Golf Club, is now one of the state's best overall public options thanks to a meticulous restoration of its Donald Ross design by architect Richard Mandell. And while some of the better community courses in nearby Lakewood Ranch, like Lakewood National, are now private, you can still make tee times at a couple of the newer ones like Esplanade at Azario, an enjoyable Chris Wilczynski design. The Port Charlotte/Punta Gorda corridor has added a couple of accessible courses recently, like Aileron Golf Club, which is attached to the new Sunseeker Resort that sits on nearby Charlotte Harbor. Fort Myers is headlined by another terrific Donald Ross muni in Fort Myers Country Club, and the other city course, Eastwood, is no slouch either.
Other notables: Calusa Country Club | Webbs Reserve Golf Club | Gasparilla Inn & Club | JW Marriott Marco Island | The Resort at Longboat Key Club
Tampa
Tampa has its own unique vibe and centuries of history, plus one of America's top-rated airports making it a bit less stressful for farther-flung tourists to reach. The I-75 corridor has made it a favorite winter hub of folks from the Midwest for decades, and they love their golf, spreading the game throughout the area over the last century.
Tampa's headline golf course for travelers remains the Copperhead course at Innisbrook, with a long PGA Tour pedigree and rock-solid 70s design by Larry Packard. One of the most prolific all-time architects, Packard lived to the age of 101. I am excited to see what the future may hold for the former North course, which has been talked about as having the potential to turn into a new short course. That would help round out the golf experience at the resort.
A little further afield but well worth the trip is Cabot Citrus Farms, a growing golf resort and residential community that has evolved out of the popular but long-neglected former World Woods Golf Club in Brooksville, an hour north of Tampa. Cabot Citrus' Karoo and Roost courses pack plenty of grandiose punch and big-course fun, while the superb Squeeze and Wedge offer something a little shorter and a little more off-beat but no less satisfying.
Saddlebrook Resort is another well-regarded Tampa-area golf vacation spot, and it is finishing up a comprehensive renovation project to refresh the golf and more. We haven't been there yet - stay tuned for our review in early 2026.
Two other area courses deserve heavy consideration. One is Dunedin Golf Club, a Donald Ross original that architect Kris Spence spent much of 2024 restoring to the great Scot's detailed plans. The result: one of the state's best public courses, especially on a dollar-for-dollar basis, considering its $140 top-end green fee is well under half of what it costs to play Copperhead at Innisbrook. The other notable public option is TPC Tampa Bay in Lutz, a former professional tournament host whose staff still tries to keep it in tournament condition for regular play, with exquisitely fast greens and fairly healthy rough. But the Bobby Weed design won't beat you up too badly if you play the right tees.
Other notables: Fox Hollow Golf Club | Clearwater Country Club | Westchase Golf Club | Vinoy Golf Club
The Palm Beaches
If you have the cash and the private club connections, this is easily the best area of Florida for golf, with some world-class courses of all vintages. But even if you're balling on a budget, there is a lot to like in Palm Beach County. At the top of the list is The Park, where more than $50 million in private funding was put to work to transform the long-neglected West Palm Beach Golf Club into America's newest super-muni, with a sparkling 18-holer by Gil Hanse & Jim Wagner, plus a 9-hole par-3 loop, a putting course, Toptracer-enabled driving range and community golf programming. City residents are lucky to get to play for less than $75; peak rates swell close to $300 for out-of-staters (Florida residents get a slight break), but reviews across the spectrum skew very positive for The Park.
Something of a precursor to the Park, North Palm Beach Country Club is a superb public option as well, a 2006 Jack Nicklaus redo of a pre-World War II routing with some nice elevation changes and a couple of scenic front-nine holes that sit on the North Palm Beach Waterway. Public golfers received a boost in 2023 with the opening of The Nest, an 18-hole par-3 course by Nicklaus Design in Palm Beach Gardens, next door to a pleasant existing 18-holer, Sandhill Crane Golf Course. Renovation work has also begun at Delray Beach Golf Course, where architect John Sanford is working on a unique dual-restoration project: one nine laid out by Donald Ross and the other built by Dick Wilson.
Resort-inclined travelers have great premium options, too. PGA National Resort's golf, headlined by the PGA Tour-hosting Champion and bolstered by the incredibly fun Match and Staple courses, combines with an upscale resort that has received nine figures' worth of recent renovations. And true ballers can stay at The Breakers and play its Ocean course, as well as an inland layout by Rees Jones. Down in Delray, the Seagate Hotel offers similar access to the private Seagate Country Club, while guests of the chic, boutique Belgrove Hotel in West Palm Beach can make tee times at the super-private Dutchman's Pipe Club, too.
Other notables: Abacoa Golf Club | Palm Beach Par 3 | Palm Beach National Golf Course | Atlantis Country Club | Osprey Point Golf Course
Treasure Coast
Having lived here for more than a decade, I have to shout out my home turf for the sneaky-good golf possiblities in Indian River, St. Lucie and Martin counties. And the area has become easier to reach than ever, thanks to the Vero Beach airport's (VRB) recent embrace of commercial flights from about half a dozen cities up north, with more routes planned.
My home haunts, Sandridge Golf Club and its Dunes and Lakes courses, plus Fairwinds Golf Club, are inexpensive to play even at peak winter rates, and are in wonderful shape year-round. Further south, my favorite publicly accessible facility is PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, although in recent years its membership has swelled to the point where public tee times have been tougher to come by in the winter. In addition to its solid Ryder and Wanamaker layouts, its Dye Course is one of my favorite layouts in the entire state - play it if you can. Port St. Lucie also has two relatively new public (for now, until real estate fills in) courses worth a look: Astor Creek and Glynlea Country Club.
Further south, Martin County has a strong public golf offering. I'm a big fan of the Florida Club, built by Dick Gray, a longtime superintendent who worked on Pete Dye's revered Crooked Stick in Indiana in the '60s. Hammock Creek is a good semi-private Nicklaus Design course, too, and recent updates to the county facility, now called Sailfish Sands, are worth checking out, especially the reversible 9-holer John Sanford built a few years ago.
Other notables: Champions Club at Summerfield | Sailfish Sands (Sailfish course) | Crane Watch Club
Comments (0)