Grand Cypress Golf Club - Links Course

Not a long course but lots of pot bunkers that make the course tough. Also the greens add to the toughness of the course. Staff were friendly and the course was in good shape.

The greens were in great condition, and course overall was in fantastic shape!! The New Course is a great stop in Orlando.

Just a beautiful links course...had a nice windy chilly day to make it the most Scottish like experience possible. Great layout, pristine fairways with tough bunkers everywhere. Only thing I can complain a bit about is the slowness of the greens at the time I played but will absolutely be back to play this course many times.

A terrific facility with polish. I was treated like a member of a private club. Really fun golf course.

Course in great shape, reasonable pace of play. Unfortunately, young woman in pro shop would not honor our golf now starting time, sent us out 45 minutes later. No sandwiches on beverage cart, problem when you don't return to clubhouse after 9 holes.

This isn't a true Scottish/Irish links style-course, as I'll elaborate on below, but the visual and structural inspiration for this Jack Nicklaus design is definitely old world.

Stepping onto the first tee, much of the golf course is stretched out in front of you, just as you’d expect at a seaside course across the pond. The tee boxes are huge rectangles. Pot bunkers and wild swales are scattered about as far as the eye can see.

Many of the putting surfaces are massive ‘double greens,’ sharing outward (white flag) and return (yellow flag) holes at each end. And there are two clichéd but well done St. Andrew’s Swilcan burn replica bridges.

At 6800 yards from the tips, this isn’t a long course. And this shows in the 121 slope/71.9 rating. With virtually no forest in-bounds, wayward tee shots will usually find some kind of a playable resting spot. The many bunkers, particularly greenside, do offer a spirited defence, however. And the greens are often severely sloped, and as mentioned above, huge, so a two-putt is far from guaranteed.

I mentioned at the outset that this isn’t a ‘true’ old world course, despite the nod to St.Andrew’s Old Course. Firstly, the greens, and the fairways for that matter, are soft and lush. This is a course conditioned to Floridian standards. Throw a ball into the green, even from a distance, and it will hold. Aim at an open spot between fairway bunkers and your drive will settle before bouncing wildly into trouble. The unyielding playing surfaces common in Scotland are nowhere to be found.

Links courses are by definition seaside routings, originally the strip of grassy sand-dunned land that ‘links' inland farms to the sea. The Grand Cypress is far, far from the either Florida coast. True links courses have virtually no trees in sight and don’t employ water hazards (other than the occasional burn and of course the ocean boundary itself. The New Course is true to the theme by playing through a treeless meadow, but jungle surrounds the course and can come into play on the perimeter.

True to the links spirit, Jack did keep water hazards to a minimum, the most demanding being a cleverly routed ‘burn’ (creek) that you’ll meet right away on the first hole, pushed right up to the green, forcing an all-carry approach. On that theme, true links courses tend to be open in front, allowing a ‘bump and run’ approach. The Grand Cypress New Course mixes this technique with raised greens surrounded by more contemporary bunkering, required an air attack.

Criticisms? A few, but they don’t detract materially from a very enjoyable golf experience. There is a big yardage gap between the back tees and the whites, which play only to only 6100 yards. If you sport a solid middle handicap, I’d recommend giving the back tees a try, perhaps moving up to the whites on the par 3’s (which are 185-210 yards from the back markers).

As for the double greens, this design feature simply appears to be ‘trying too hard,’ particularly in this quantity. There are seven double greens – fourteen of eighteen holes share a surface – which happens to be the same number as at the St. Andrew’s Old Course. There’s a reason golf course design moved away from the double green a century ago. Over-club on your approach and you can fly your shot into golfers putting at the other end of the green. And a boisterous group grinding out putts on the same surface can be distracting, even if they’re at the other end of a green that might be as large as two acres in area.

All in, the Grand Cypress New Course is a delightful course. Great, relaxed fun without being a push-over in any way. Conditioning was very good when I played. The plentiful staff was helpful, both on the course and in the clubhouse.

You’ll have to smile and shake your head when you find one yourself in one of the many bunkers. But even here, Jack has included an architectural compromise for the North American golfer. What you see is what you get – there are very few blind shots and most traps are clearly visible from the tee.

Superfriendly staff made arrival a pleasure and getting started easy. Awesome clubhouse with first class restaurant. Wide open but challenging layout with a few memorable holes, but like St. Andrews many holes look similar and run parallel. Decent greens; real pot sand bunkers; very little water but strategicaly placed and very challenging when it comes into play; tee boxes and fairways were in very good condition. Some greens slightly elevated with false fronts but most approach shots can be run onto greens. No ranger to move play along. Accurate GPS on carts. Good range and practice greens. Definitely would play again with GolfNow discount.

A pretty god effort at recreating the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland. Wide open fairways, little rough, loads of bunkers and very tricky greens make it very different from most Florida golf.

Excellent condition, very difficult greens, great staff. Can't wait to go back and play the other courses there.

GPS was great in showing you the distance to the pin; however, it was very poor in identifying distances to various pot bunkers. There would be a prominent landmark but no GPS distance to that landmark. Certainly recommend bringing your own GPS and driving ahead on a few layup shots because you can't see all the trouble that exists (especially on #2).
Greens were in great shape and putted very smoothly, quick, and true.

greens r fast but in great condition..some rough was unfair(2nd fairway)..but no problem elsewhere. no houses.fairways in great condition..to a person the staff is excellent..better than average warmup area..range balls r free..no complaints here and golf now made it a bargain!!

Course was in great shape, pace of play was much better than expected (under 4hrs). What more can you say, a fabulous Jack Nicklaus designed facility. Play it as soon as you can, you won't be disappointed.

Loved playing this coarse! Wide open fairways, smartly placed bunkers, and fun to get to greens made this a blast to play. Great course for the money, will definitely be going back. Challenging but fun!

I've played so many top courses in the US - Pebble Beach, Merion, The Country Club, East Lake, Beth Page Black and so on. Since the New Course is a 'replica' course, sort of, it does not get the credit it deserves. But I guarantee you it is one of the best courses you will ever play.

Great course. Great value through Golfnow!! A great course to bring a guest!!

very open , greens bumpy and dry,patchy had trouble finding tees

This course is similar to St. Andrews, same double greens wide fairways and pot bunkers

This is a must play, I am returning in November and disappointed off how much the green fee has increased from August.