Eagle Trace Country Club

This course has amazing potential. Unfortunately, it’s littered with hacks and old people who can’t hit very far this requiring multiple shots more than necessary. To make matters worse, it seems like every group we spotted kept searching for lake balls instead of focusing in on their own shot and pace of play. Unbelievable. Only could play 13 holes as I couldn’t stand it any longer. On our way back to the club house we were able to witness a group who was waiting to hit their second shot from 250 yds out and we’re waiting for the group ahead of them to get off the green. Which would be fine, if you could actually hit it that far. All four duffed their shots less than 140 and 2 went into the water about 60 yds away. This kind of slow play is killing golf. 5 hour rounds are in nobody’s best interest. Find somewhere else to play until they actually get people who have some sort of athletic ability playing their course.

Design pretty good, but what got me is when got there staff was not friendly and gave me poor impression from start.

We went off on an early teatime we flew through the course. It’s an awesome layout you could tell that it was really awesome a while back… need some TLC for sure but overall pretty good shape. The snack area didn’t open till nine and you have to buy a towel if you want one or bring one…. Also you get a mini bucket of balls to hit but oh well… overall I would go back again I would just be prepared to bring my own coffee in the morning, but I will say the one staff member went in the back and got me a cup. Thanks!!

Eagle Trace was a good course…but not for $95.00 per player. Thus, I would not recommend play to friends!

This is a stunning golf course. And a very difficult one. They clearly lack the resources to keep it in top shape, but it was fine. Was really glad we okayed there, and would do so again.

Beautiful layout, very friendly and helpful staff and course was in decent shape, but clearly this was once a spectacular course that is now not being as well maintained. It’s still a nice track, but the price is too high for the state of the course.. I was expecting much better but got what I’d expect to pay $70 for, not $110. Kinda sad.

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