Kelly Plantation Golf Club

Course was in good shape from tee to green. Greens were a little slow but it’s the end of July and they have seen a ton of traffic. I’d rather them be a little slow than burnt up. Looking forward to coming back and making new friends.

From arrival at the clubhouse to the drive in from 18 this place was top notch. I will be back. Worth every penny. Thanks for the fantastic experience.

It was a rainy day, but, playing at Kelly Plantation made it seem like it was a beautiful, sunny day at the beach. Starting from the bag drop, where Chris met us & told us to go into the clubhouse, to get out of the rain. Just let him know how we wanted the bags grouped on the carts. Don checked was in with a smile. John Townsend, Head Golf Pro, came out & greeted us. Greeted us & wanted us to take our time going out & if we wanted, to waited until the rain subsided. The rain let up & we hit the range & then went to the 1st tee box. A signature at KP is fresh apples on ice at the first & tenth holes. Also, towels on ice, which you know is refreshing on a hot Florida day. The course is in great shape & maintained perfectly. Even though it rained steadily, for most of the day, the course handled the water well. Not one puddle. They didn’t even even go to cart path only, expect, for 4 holes. Of course, all par 3s. It turned out to be a great day on the course. After our round we ate at the clubhouse. The have a kitchen & bar. Once again, we were checked on by John & the staff. This awesome day was set up by Ashton Crowe, Director of Operations. He did so the day before while handling a weekend tournament at course. Stepping away to make sure all accommodations were perfect for us. Letting me know that he is there to serve us, when I told him I didn’t want to be a bother when he was so busy. Ashton & his staff at KP always make sure we are treated like members. This is why KP is always a place we will play when we are in Destin. Thank you very much for your hospitality.

If you are looking to play a course that will treat you like a PGA Pro, a Member at a private course, Ashton Crowe, the PGA Pro and his staff will make you feel as if you are on the Tour. They have treated us exceptionally well each time we play Kelly Plantation. If you are a golfer and are in the Destin area and do not play Kelly Plantation, you have cheated yourself. Go to Kelly Plantation and the staff will make sure you have a phenomenal day at the course.

The greens fee was $202. I generally will not pay that much to play golf but since I was on vacation – we decided to give it a try. Again, with these green fees, there were many items this course disappointed us on. Here is the list:

The pace of play was slow all day. On the 16th tee, the GPS screen says this. “Get on pace, you have the course backed up”. Really? The only way to fix slow play is to have a course ranger on the course to find the bottlenecks – not to post messages like these. Totally unacceptable and unprofessional by Kelly’s Plantation.

On the back nine, there were clumps of grass clippings everywhere in the rough. You cannot have this when you have a $200 greens fee. Regatta Bay has a cart with a raking mechanism that solves this problem.

Most of the greens had brown markings throughout them. They really did not affect the surface of the greens but were unsightly.

On the 3rd green, the section of the green nearest the water, had 3 large bad sections.

The 17th green is one of the largest greens on the course. They decided to place the pin in the back left on a huge slope. Why?

On the 15th tee (tee number 2), a tree overhangs and you cannot play from that tee.

When teeing off on hole 1, I could hear a drone nearby. The noise was very distracting. The drone then followed us down fairway also. Not sure if this drone is the course’s – but they should eliminate this or prevent whoever is doing this.

Kelly Plantation is known for their chilled apples on hole 10. However, the apples were not good.

Some tee boxes had different type grasses. The thicker grass tees needed to be mowed.

After hole 6, the course gets somewhat bland, except for holes 10 & 18.

With all these negatives, the course did have some nice touches.

The overall condition of the course was good. The greens were much faster than Regatta Bays but still on the slower side. The course is also more memorable than Regatta Bay. The carts had GPS with yardage to the pins. They have cold, mango towels to cool you down. Wonderful clubhouse and the staff were friendly. If you eat in the restaurant, get the Mahi Almandine. It was one of the best fish entrees I’ve ever had. Then the nice finishing touch of just out of the oven chocolate chip cookies. Complementary!

Overall, I cannot recommend this course due to the high greens fee and too many issues for that price.

As the most expensive course in the Destin area, I would have expected it to be well above and beyond all the others in the area. It is not. The greens were terribly slow and the staff admitted this was on purpose. The fairways were "fluffy" as opposed to normal fairway length.

The staff was very nice and the cold towels on 1 and 100 tee were a nice touch, but who needs a cold towel on #1? Maybe reposition those to 9 and 15/16?

It's nice overall but not worth the highest price on the island IMO

This was terrific. Great course, unbelievable facilities and the staff was awesome. Just a great day playing golf with my sons. Thank you!!

Very disappointed with the conditions of the course for the price. If you’re charging $50 more than competitors then it should be worth it. Greens very slow and fairways long. Not worth it

The course was in great shape. Greens were slow and the rough is rough, but both were well maintained. I recommend taking advantage of the range beforehand and trying to figure out a consistent miss and knowing where to miss on the course. There is a lot of trouble and little hope of finding or playing your ball when you get in it. The staff was great.

First time to play here and didn’t disappoint. Staff was excellent and course was beautiful

Staff said they were punched a month ago but they were in really bad shape. Ball bounced on every putt. Really took the fun out of a great course. Not worth the money till greens roll better.

On vacation and thought I would treat my daughter to an expensive, plush, nice, round of golf. While the staff (overly friendly and helpful) were great (and also the scented cold towels were great), everything else was very sub-par. The municipal courses in DFW (where we live) are in better shape (while being in drought status).

The greens were bumpy, slow, and sandy. The fairways were splotchy with lots of areas of burned grass. The good fairways did not have thick grass (where the ball just sits up on the grass as you would expect from a course that costs $189.99). Some tee boxes had not been mowed. The only thing positive about the course (besides the friendliness of staff) was the quality of the sand traps.

Overall, I would not recommend this course to anybody for $189.99. Maybe $75. It was a huge waste of money. We could have played on a Ft Walton muni course and saved a lot of money that we could have spent elsewhere to enjoy our vacation.

Ashton and his crew were absolutely great. The course was in top shape and everyone I came in contact with was very helpful and genuinely friendly.

Definitely will be back!!!

My son and I had a 4pm tee time and we throughly enjoyed our round. Course was beautiful and staff was excellent. Will play again next time we come to Destin.