The Reserve at Orange Lake Resort

🏌️‍♂️ Course Review: Orange Lake Resort - Reserve Golf Course 🏌️‍♂️

Part 2️⃣ of my Orange Lake review series takes us to the Reserve Golf Course. Spoiler alert: It’s a stunner!

⛳ Course Conditions: With the recent rain the Reserve’s fairways were definitely soggy but impressively smooth and well kept. Kudos to the grounds crew for their hard work! CPO (Cart Path Only) didn’t hinder our pace one bit due to not having to walk around large areas of standing water. The layout allows for easy access to the main landing spots on the course.

🏌️‍♂️ Layout & Design: If you like a course that has you strategizing instead of bombs away, you’ll love the Reserve. It’s got this way of gently suggesting, “Maybe leave the driver in the bag?” There are several holes you can take driver but the tight fairways mean the risk is real.

🍃 Greens: They rolled a touch faster than over at Legends, but still had that smooth, true feel. Each green has tons of character and is a true test of one’s short game.

⚖️ Difficulty & Enjoyment: The Reserve might be the more forgiving sibling, but it’s got its own brand of challenge. It’s shorter, sure, but it makes you think and gives you a serious mental workout!

🌞 Overall Experience: The back 9 really shines here – it’s like the course’s personality unfolds as you play. Paired with stellar weather and great company, this round was a standout.

It’s rounds like these – where the joy is in every shot and the company is just as good as the game – that remind me why I love this sport.

Day 2 at Orange Lake. The Reserves is the older course and was in good condition with very nice greens. Lots of slopes on the greens and some with 2 tiers. Greens were larger and much more accessible than the Reserve course.

The course was overpriced at $60 but maybe average for this area as I was on vacation. The course is open and perfect for seniors...short and easy to play. The only challenge is putting.

wow, like golfing at a private club. i forgot that a course should be like this. i have gotten use to bare greens, divoted tees and fairways and weeds. no ones using it right now. its real nice. dont tell anyone.

Course needs a lot of work. Needs grass seed & fertilizer. Fairways in poor condition.

Only complaint was pace of play, it's listed on the card that four and a half hours is the expected pace which is an absolute joke. This is only listed that way so that people don't have a legitimate complaint about standing and waiting on every single shot. Tee times are scheduled every 8 minutes so this causes backups all the time and the slow pace. I would only recommend this course to anyone that's willing to get out early ahead of the crowd.

Just as my title reads, it is a 20-25$ 18 holes at best!!!

The course layout is cool, but the starter was rude, and the fairways are dry, and worst of all the greens needed to be cut and were full of weeds. I will not return. Better courses in the area for similar $$$

A very nice layout with enough water to make it difficult for the first timer. Local knowledge would have helped immensely. Not a fan of playing through a resort. Only hit a screen door once. :-) Played the white tees hoping for 6000 yards. But all tees moved up which led to many 300 yard par 4s. Not a ton of driver holes. Still, tee boxes, fairways, bunkers, and greens in great shape. A pleasant round. Decent value given it's March and prices are high.

Very short course, which leads to slow play. Fairways were in poor condition, lots of spots with no grass. Not great for those of ya who like to play the ball without rolling it.

Staff from pro shop to starter were friendly and helpful.

The staff was friendly, the course was in good shape, we got to see a couple of alligators and were very happy about that. Our only complaint would be not enough bathrooms along the course (unless we just missed them.) Would play here again.

All as expected. Bever expect a quick 18 in Florida between Christmas and Easter. Played the Reserve many times and love the design. Good condition considering the wear and tear.

Nice course for the money. Very convenient. Easy to play.

I missed my tee time by 3 minutes and pushed me back a half an hour. Difficult to find you pay for your round in the marketplace.

My family and I come here every year but it’s gotten worse and worse. The staff is friendly, but the starter was too lazy to pair twosomes together properly which caused major slowdowns on the course. Then there were several 5somes which made it worse. I called the pro shop. The first call was answered by a young lady who said she was only setting teeX then hung up on me as I requested a ranger. The second call was answered by the pro shop who said he’d come out to observe the issue, but he never did. 5 1/2 hour round! We’ll never go back. Course was in average shape, greens were quality!

Greens and tees in poor condition. Villas are lined up on every fairway. Villa are not attractive. Staff were friendly and competent. All said, the green fees are not high and most likely matches the course quality.

Played at 7:09 and our twosome flew through the thing. Course was good, not great. Very playable, with some challenges. Greens in the front had some rough spots, but mostly good. Fun round with my brother in law, but I'm glad we went out early, as pace of play looked to be sitting dramatically.

Regular price would have been $94 - this is NOT a $94 course! We got spoiled playing most courses down here with overseeded rye fairways, which were lush and green. Here, all dormant Bermuda grass. Some patch greens. Overall, the layout was very nice, great people, pace was decent on the front nine and turned into a crawl on the back nine. No ranger so the pace just slowed. Challenging greens and they did role nice.