Raven at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort

I was in town with in-laws and came as a single to get away. Got paired with another single, and the twosome scheduled with us was a no show.

My playing partner and I had nearly identical distances, misses and handicaps— we were playing quickly out of one cart, in other words. Still, we never felt like we were waiting an unreasonable amount of time on a course full of foursomes.

The track was very fun, with a mix of challenges but forgiving of small misses. I found the fairway bunkers well placed when playing the correct tees, the looks into the greens with any pin placement very much the same, and a variety of course defenses that kept it interesting.

Course was due aerification in a few days, but it was still pristine. Rained all day prior to my round, and for 30m on us, and not a complaint. Greens were spotless and rolled true and fair, rough was manicured but still punitive.

I will 100% play it again if I return.

I really liked the course and would play it again but they allowed a 5 some in-front of us that that turned into a 6 some somewhere we couldn’t discern. Only negative here

There were 2 sixsomes and a fivesome on the course and they didn’t seem to care or do anything about it. After 5+ hour round and 4 groups waiting to tee on 18 I decided to call it.

Tee time was 3pm on a Thursday. Pace of play was excellent. Friendly staff but horrible greens. Extremely poor greens conditions. Would not play again

This is a really nice course that is fun to play! Wide fairways and big greens. At $145/person it is a little over priced in my opinion. I would have liked the greens to have been faster. My only complaint is that my son and I were trying to enjoy a round of golf together then on hole #4 a single player basically played into us. We tried to let him play through but he was told he had to play with us. The course was not over crowded and pace of play was good considering it was cart path only and intermittently raining. No one me mentioned that we would be paired with other people. I do not enjoy playing with people I don’t know and for $300 we should have been able to play as a twosome. He added 45-60 minutes to our round which made us late for our other family plans.

Destin is an annual vacation spot my family and we always carve out one day for the men to scratch the golf itch at a local course. We've played Indian Bayou, Regatta Bay, and one of the other public Sandestin courses, but finally booked a round at Raven GC this year. While there are many others we have yet to play, this one was easily the best course we've experienced thus far. Difficult enough to challenge the scratch golfers in my party but friendly enough to accommodate the wannabes like myself. Well maintained from tee to green, beautiful surroundings, and overall just a better bang for our buck compared to some of the pricier courses we've played. Definitely worth adding to your list!

Course was really well maintained and had a great layout. Not too challenging, but definitely some areas that would keep you on your toes.

The one complaint is we were given a hard time about keeping pace of play by the starter, and the 4some in front of us literally took 5 hours to play 18 holes with no offer for us to play through. Someone pushing them along would have been nice.

No water on the golf course. No trash cans on the golf course. No bathrooms on the golf course. Once you tee off you won't return to the clubhouse until you finish 18 holes, as the 10th tee is miles from the clubhouse. We endured a 5+ hour round of golf in 95° Florida summer heat and it was just miserable waiting on every shot. I ran out of my water somewhere on the back nine with no option to refill it. I suppose I could have grabbed some water from the lakes and ponds surrounding the course if I got desperate. Frankly, the clubhouse is extremely insufficient even with regards to the bathroom. If you have more than one person who needs to use the restroom you have to wait. For as much as Sandestin charges, they sure don't provide any service to support the price tag. And food and beverage service is just so bad to be just beyond a joke. Golf course itself was in good shape, but I can play my home course, which is in better shape and at least have plenty of amenities along with it so I don't become dangerously dehydrated halfway through my round with no options to overcome that. Horrible service, horrible resort, and don't even get me started on the nightmare that Destin traffic has become. An overcrowded, massively overpriced mess. I won't be coming back any time soon. And perhaps that's the angle that Destin was going for, because there are already too many people anyway. One less will only make them happy.

Primary issue was the lack of access to drinking water on the course on a day when it was 90+ with 90% humidity. Also, the towels In the cart were dirty. No attendants met us after the round to assist with bags. Not what you would expect for a $150 round of golf.

Would like to have seen adjustments throughout the round to at least 90 degree driving. Greens were very slow but understandable won’t be conditions previous day. Just as advertised, will be back.