Saddlebrook Resort - Pine/Oak

Tim Gavrich's January 17th Golf Pass article entitled "Florida's 20 best golf resorts" identifies Saddlebrook as one of Florida's best "stay and play" golf resorts. I must disagree. Perhaps it was a great experience when it opened in 1979 but we had one of the worst golf experiences in years at Saddlebrook today. No one greeted us when we arrived. In fact, there was no staff to be found or instructions for arriving golfers. Finally I went into the resort and was told to wait for a bellman. Ten minutes later I had to go back in because no one came. Once again, I was told they were too busy checking people out of the hotel and had no one to attend to us and take us to the pro shop. They said I could carry our clubs across to the other side of the resort if I wanted to. (They didn't understand the concept of tee times). That was just the initial experience. Nasty bathrooms, several 100% dirt tee boxes, un-manicured bunkers, pedestrians walking across fairways, bikers with toddlers sitting on the handle bars riding through the fairways (not beside them, ON the fairways), cigarette butts on the greens, beer cans in the bushes, spotty greens, patchy fairways. This was fun - - a single player and his girlfriend showed up out of nowhere in their bathing suits. He hit into us, then waited and refused to play through. Then he played the 16th hole after we finished it, After finishing on the 16th green they drove past us on 17,then off the course, parked at the pool and went for a swim. Apparently he had no tee time but was just randomly playing golf wherever he could find an open golf hole. We're there any positives? Yes - (A) The beverage cart attendant and Craig (at pro shop) were helpful, (B) we were given one free bottle of water by the pro shop staff, and (C) American flags were used instead of Saddlebrook flags on hole #'s 1 & 18 to commemorate Memorial Day. BOTTOM LINE: Skip Saddlebrook. Just skip it. As a golfer, I can assure you that you're not missing out on anything. This is definitely not even a top 500 Florida golf destination. We've played numerous clubs and even municipal courses that beat the Saddlebrook experience. The golf course relies on the hotel staff to get you to the pro shop - and this process doesn't work. Saddlebrook Resort needs a lot of pressure washing, landscaping, cleaning crews, redevelopment, and better management. We will not stay here or play here ever again and do not recommend it.

It first started when we were on the first hole. There was some random guy in a utility cart driving right down the fairway while we were on our second shots off the tee. He had no regard for us playing and this continued for the first three holes. He was probably a maintenance manager so I'm sure he knows the proper course etiquette. Next the cart girl met us immediately after we tee'd off and were on our way to find our shots. We told her we were ok that we had just started and she commented "well this is my last round so sorry". I know we were off at Noon, but come on. Other than those staff issues, the course is well maintained, layed out nicely, and pace of play was amazing. A twosome finished in 3.5 hours.

Course was green, fairways and greens were growing very well. Pace was a little bit slow on the green, but rolls were fair.

Overall course in good condition. Greens very good but tee boxes just OK.

Fariways were soft and water hazards were very low as there has not been any rain in some time.

Although they're advertising problems with 5 greens, in my opinion all of the greens need work. Been visiting here for 10 years and the greens are nowhere near what they were prior to covid.

Nice layout and tremendous price. A lot of amenities are still closed.

Worth a trip

The course I don't think has ever been in better shape The fairways the greens the tease the bunkers not many people playing as it was in the upper 90s with high humidity well worth the money excellent job saddlebrook keep up the good work

Pick the Palmer course. In my opinion, the better of the two. Always love playing here. Tough from the blues, no pushover from the whites, either!

The only real issue that I have with the course is that a few of the greens we’re patchwork from repairs other than that the greens were great fairways were great. Nice course

We played the saddlebrook course this time I believe they were letting some of the greens grow to let some spots heal up. It left some inconsistencies in the speeds from hole to hole but the course was in great shape overall.