Rio Pinar Golf

The staff and amenities are incredible. We traveled to Orlando just to play golf and enjoy the weather. The food, drinks, clubhouse, and hospitality are “top shelf.” The course layout is very nice though challenging, but the grass was sparse and we had to hit off sand fairways, basically.

After playing golf in Orlando for the last 30 years and more recently put off by some bad reviews, we decided to bite the bullet and play at Rio Pinar .

What an absolutely wonderful day we had

From start to finish everyone gave us a warm welcome, couldn’t be more helpful, and most of all appreciated the custom .

The course is still being worked on but the greens were good , tees a little scruffy in areas, and the fairways were good with just a few spots that are under repair.

The new clubhouse is great after golf and the service exemplary.

A great day out

My wife and I are average golfers and do not like to pay the Resort Golf Prices. During our stay in Orlando we drove out to Rio Pinar after reading about its history and some of the recent reviews. Large Range with a reasonable price for a bag of balls. Golf Carts with GPS on display were great. Tee Boxes we fine for the most part. Fairways were good and we were always hitting from grass. Ample sand available in bottles to fill your divots. Greens were small. They are not cut super short so they are on the slower side with for us is easier putting than super fast greens. The surroundings are super quiet. We had an awesome afternoon and would definitely go back.

I don't advise playing this course on a Tuesday afternoon. We paid for a full round, and nobody was behind us thru 7 holes, and we kept pace with the two-some in front of us.

When we got to 8, we were told to move to the back 9 to make way for the scramble crowd.

Just saying we paid for 18, and weren't able to get it in as a result.

Sorry guys, but if you are going to boot me and my buddy off the front 9, you're gonna hear about it later.

I’ve played this course a couple of times, and I enjoy it really much, it’s for all types of golfers. Fast greens, but not super firm, I think this is the only area to work on. Super friendly staff in the shop, great starter, good training areas (putting, chipping) with improvement in progress on the range (second thing to improve). I think it’s a really good course and gives great value for what you pay.

Hidden gem,this up and coming course has all the right things going. Friendly attentive staff. Service was quick and fast. Other golfers using this course played right tempo. Never held up play. Golf cart mobile beer cart was there when we need it. Like to see the message system on the carts actual work. Green and tee box had minor debris (windy day). Worth time and effort to play here.

Loved the old school feel. Especially loved the greens. Which we're running very nicely and seems like they may have been rolled recently. Beautiful place.

The starter was very unfriendly. The course is just rough, not flush at all.

We were told we had to tee off on the back nine which is fine and the pace of play was good for our first nine. The issue arose when we finished the 18th hole and went to tee off on 1 and the staff had inserted a new foursome ahead of the group of members in front of us. We waited 18 minutes to tee off and then waited on every hole for our “back nine”. We didn’t get to finish our round which ruined what had been a great experience. The course has improved since I had played 3 months ago. The greens are true and roll fast. The addition of white sand in waste areas looks more appealing. But again, slow play that could have been avoided was a huge disappointment!

We played there March 21/2024, The pace of play was fantastic, they put out foursomes about 9 min apart .

The starter was GREAT! The new ownership is spending a ton of money doing upgrades to the course. It is getting better and better! The club house / restaurant is top shelf , The memrobillia is amazing to see! We will be back next week to play again!

Cheer,,

Brian Finn

It was a tough course for me because the White tees were moved back to the blue tees on a lot of the Par 4,s. The card showed about 5500 yards, but the course from the whites was over 6,000. Made it difficult for my age and length of my drive.

I still shot 90, but I was hitting a lot of 3 woods and long irons on my second shots.

Overall a nice course and one of the best conditions of all the courses I have played in Central Florida. Greens were good, fairways had grass. The only course I liked better this year was Deer Island.

Watch out for the squirrels, they are huge and they like to jump in the carts looking for food.

With prices in Orlando thru the roof , trying to play golf on vacation could be expensive. While trying to play on a budget, Rio Pinar was well above expectations.

The starter told us of the FEW bad spots on the course and some of the history as well. Very tight track. Trees on the front and less trees on the back, but both 9s are very target golf. The history of this course makes it a little oooler .

I cannot say enough good things about the investment put into the club over the past few years, from the clubhouse, to the branding (squirrel logo), to the new range, to the new fairway bunkers and waste areas. I thoroughly enjoyed my round this past weekend and think Rio Pinar is now one of the best values in Central Florida.

That said, at some juncture, they will have to redesign and expand the green complexes. Right now, the greens they have are rolling great, but they have gotten comically small, particularly Nos. 4 and 5. There is anywhere from 5-10 feet or more of encroachment from the fringe and fairways on nearly every green - you can see the old mow lines - and some of these were smaller putting surfaces to begin with.

This is definitely not a knock on the current product. Everything is headed in a positive direction. But the size of the greens is now the obvious spot for improvement. If they can expand and redesign them over time, they'll have something special on their hands.