Rio Pinar Golf

The staff was awesome. The course was in good condition, and I liked the layout, but the pace of play was slow. Also, there is no water on the course.

I played Rio Pinar Golf Course on September 6, 2025, with a 10:42am tee time. I’ve always appreciated this course for its close location—just seven minutes from my home—and I hadn’t played it in about seven months. While I can say the course has made some improvements with new carts and better facilities, my latest experience was extremely disappointing.

The service at check-in has never been great here, but what happened this time was beyond anything I’ve dealt with.

As I was preparing to play the

first tee, one of the starters came over and accused me of not paying. I showed him my GolfNow confirmation on my phone, which clearly showed I had checked in and paid. Rather than apologizing for the mistake, he brushed it off and made another comment about pairing me with two players who had been “causing problems earlier in the day,” warning me they were grouchy.

Sure enough, those players resisted joining our group, but the staff forced the issue. Unfortunately, they played extremely slow, to the point where another staff member had to tell them to pick up the pace. Instead of complying, they argued with him and nearly escalated into a physical confrontation. I ended up moving ahead and finished two holes ahead of them, but the entire round was overshadowed by their behavior and the lack of any real management by the course staff.

By the end, my golf day was ruined. It may be only seven minutes from my front door, but I don’t see myself coming back anytime soon. Between poor customer service, confrontational players, and staff who fail to handle situations properly, I’ll be choosing from the four other golf courses within 15 minutes of my house instead.

They had a tournament going on so made the round longer than usual, we had to wait for 3 foursomes to go by before we could even start our round and got paired up with another twosome, these guys were playing from the blue tees but should not have been and just play from the whites with us, then the marshal comes up saying they are back up on the 7th hole we just finished and to speed up play, we had to wait for a foursome on the hole before we could even tee off so not sure why he was giving us grief and we were not playing slow and keeping up with the group ahead of us but that pretty much was the icing on the cake, I wish I would have known they had a tournament going on and would have booked for another day as it pretty much ruined the experience and staff were rude and could care less if you were not playing in the tournament, won't be going back.

The course was in great shape, greens were awesome. The starter and staff inside the clubhouse were great, however the grounds crew leadership was extremely rude, hollering at us while playing about “not backing out by going forward,” whatever that means.

i really like the course and the amenities. The day we played the course was so wet it probably should not have been opened especially the front nine. It was like playing in a swamp. I do like it and will remember not to go when we have had a lot of rain.

Booked a hot deal on golf now, showed up to course early and was told the course was closed and they didn’t even think to call maybe before we drove all the way there to let us know. Very disappointed because I paid $61 and got nothing out of it. Now I’m dealing with the bank to dispute it. More annoyed with golf now than the course but Rio definitely should have let me know in advance or not even had the tee times up that day if they knew they’d be closed.

We play Rio Pinar on occasion and the course is currently in great shape. The greens were recently aerified but are recovering well and should be back to normal soon. the fairways and surrounding areas were in fantastic ondition and the pace of play was good, maybe because of the aeration.

A little wet, but that is normal this time of year.

Since our first round here some 3 years ago, the course and clubhouse has gone through a very positive transformation rarely seen these days at public courses. Value at an all time high at the Rio.

Actually, all of the staff except for the Starter/Ranger were great. But the Starter ruined the whole day for us with his ugly, gruff attitude. We were ready at the first tee box, and the players ahead were well out of our way, but he insisted we wait 9 more minutes until the actual booking time. The twosome we were paired with were in a rush, so they played on ahead, making two 2-somes, but there were no other players ahead or behind. The Starter came to yell at us about it and said we were 2 holes behind. We never saw anyone behind us and finished the first 9 holes in an hour and a half and the total round in under 3 hours, so not sure where the problem was. There was no reason for him to be so rude and angry. I was planning to go inside afterwards and talk to them about membership, but not as long as that guy is there. There are plenty of other nice courses around.

Staff is unbelievably friendly.

Driving range is always open

Chipping Green and putting Green are great!

Beverage card has everything you need & beverage caddy is very nice.

The staff even came and found us on the course to let us know. Our car had 3% battery life and proactively changed it out for us. Amazing.

Greens were fantastic. Punching and closed 11-13.

Course in good shape especially considering all the rain!

We ate in the restaurant after the round and the food was very good.

All in all this place is worth the money and the experience!

The course has a great design and is in very solid shape right now. For the price it might be the best deal in Orlando.

I was really looking forward to playing at this course, but unfortunately I came down with an illness and had to cancel my round. Despite notifying the course that I was sick and unable to attend, they still went ahead and charged my card in full.

I understand policies are in place, but there should be some level of customer service and basic human understanding—especially when it comes to situations out of someone’s control. I wasn’t a no-show trying to skip out on a reservation. I was genuinely unwell and made an effort to communicate that.

It’s disappointing to see such rigidity, especially from a course that promotes itself as customer-friendly. Sadly, this experience has left a sour taste, and I won’t be recommending this place or returning anytime soon.