Eagle Trace Country Club

Good old bones, evidence of the great years hosting the Honda Classic so long ago.

Challenging but fair, lots of water in play, which we enjoy.. Could use more yardage markers or perhaps a cart gps, if affordable. No ball washers either.

Overall, a decent value for the fee.

This course is the former home of the PGA tour stop – the Honda Classic. It was held here back in 1988-1991 & 1996. The course was called the TPC at Eagle Trace at that time. When you drive into the parking lot, you see the impressive and huge clubhouse. We played the green tees at 5,620 yards and it still had a slope rating of 130. I thought this slope rating was way too high and needs to be adjusted down.

GOOD…

The greens were firm and in good shape. However, the greens putted on the slow side. Many of the greens had runoff areas and it seemed I had chip shots all-day of closely mowed areas of 10 feet and the same amount of green to work with. Missing the greens made for difficult up-and-downs.

The course design was good. Lot of water that really didn’t come into play. Many railroad tie edges on the water holes. The par 5, 5th hole was an island green. It was designed by Arthur Hills but it gave you the impression that Peter Dye had some influence. I thought the back nine was the better nine. I thought there was plenty of room off the tee and the course was just more visually intimidating.

The starter was very pleasant and helpful.

BAD…

The tees and fairways were not good. Many of the tees were just firm sand, not much grass on them. The fairways were a mixture of different grasses and the grass was too long for a fairway. The fairway divots were filled with white/brown sand. This really took away from the aesthetics of the course. If they used green sand, it would help so much.

This was one of the worst marked courses I have played. No 100, 150, or 200 markers. There were yardages on the sprinkler heads if you could find them, among all the sand filled divots. One yardage marker said 80 yards to the middle of the green and it was 122 yards.

They used the numbers 1,2,3 to indicate whether the pin was front, middle or back. On hole 3, the scorecard indicated the pin was front but the pin was back.

The clubhouse was huge but seemed outdated. The pro shop had very little merchandise to purchase.

I’m not an expert of green fees charged in the Florida area but I thought $118 was too high considering all the issues above.

INTERESTING…

This course is like a bird sanctuary. All sort of birds. Throughout the course are burrowing owl nests in the face of bunkers. These are marked by white stakes. The starter informed of this and told use these owls can become aggressive if disturbed.

This used to be a nice course back when TPC ran it and it might not need much to get back on track. But the new management (ClubLinks) seems to be content milking every $$ without investing in people or course maintenance.

Given current pace of play, I would NOT book this course at any price.

Our group called for a Ranger about 45 minutes and we were watching two other groups tee off on #3. After two more hours, we hadn't seen either a Ranger or even a beverage cart, nor the 9th tee.

If pace of play were to improve then maybe you should ask about if the carts have GPS or at least if a few sprinkler heads are marked. And whether they've repaved the bumpy cart paths or hired someone for the beverage cart. Until then, stay away.

First time at Eagle Trace.What a nice golf course

Layout outstanding

Very challenging

Green in excellent shape

Got to return.

Over all real nice track for the money for this time of year

Greens were as good as you could want

Other course conditions just as nice

Only down side was no walking allowed

Very nice layout some really nice holes challenging yet fair. This course in it day must have been spectacular.. it appears to have been somewhat neglected in recent yrs.. as far as maintenance and course upkeep. For the price it was nice but with some work the course could become a gem again. pace of play was painful that may be the pricepoint to play we played in just under 4:45 a bit longer than ideal..

This was my second time playing. I had forgotten how beautiful this course is. Definitely will go back frequently.!!

This course has good bones. Lots of challenging shots and great use of water and traps. The course looks a bit tired but is clearly a step above many of the public courses on the area. Will definitely come back again

it's a good course, relatively difficult, we were 2 with my son at -2 hcp and me at 1hcp, we were with 2 very nice beginners but for the lady it was her 1st course, the front part was the same level, after 2h30 of play we were only at hole 7, 15mn wait at each departure , we stopped because it was not playable and we left hole 1 to be able to play 9 holes and play normally

it's a shame to drive 2h30 round trip to not be able to play the course under normal playing conditions. there must be a marshall on the course to advance the parties, if we had continued the course we could not have finished because of the night

Overpriced dog track....entire facility and course dated and old, in dire need of modernization....even the ice machine was out, so you couldn't get water to start the round.....only attractive thing about this course was the young lady driving around in the beverage cart.

Avoid.....not worth $40, much less $115

Very scenic course. Courses in great shape. For the money not a bad value.