Gator Lakes Golf Course

What a great course. The layout is challenging w/out being too difficult. The course is well maintained. The fairways are in great shape and the greens are fantastic! It is open to the public, and there are a few hoops to jump through to gain access to Hurlburt Field if you are not a military ID card holder, but it is worth it!

Eglin AFB golf course people!!!! Come take a lesson in course maintenance from the folks at Hurlburt! They know what they are doing and you NEED the help!

Sorry, no pics. I was to busy enjoying my round and the course!

Tee boxes were almost completely weeds and sand. Greens we very bumpy. Certain wooden features were rotting and falling apart around the course.

They've really stepped up on the greens. 3rd or 4th time playing the course and I see improvement each time I go. Good value

I really enjoyed playing here. The layout is incredible with challenge and forgoveness. The greens roll slow but are in great shape. Did see 7 gators 6 about 4-5 feet and a big one probably 10 feet just laying on the bank getting some sun. Cool place to play. Love the layput one of the best in the area.

Overall was a good course and the gators didn’t let us down.

We were not made aware of the extensive "authorization process" for entering Hurlburt Field military base where Gator Lakes is located. The only warning on GolfNow is a link to a pdf form to fill out and present at the base Visitor Center.

The form required our SSN, driver's license info and a pledge that we will not carry weapons. The Visitor Center had a sign-in kiosk which asked if we were military, contractors, etc., but nothing about civilians or guests. We finally hailed a uniformed worker and said we just wanted to play golf. She copied our driver's licenses, photographed and fingerprinted us, handed us papers with our info on it to give to the gate guards and we were on our way. All of this took almost a half hour and we were still a 15 minute drive from the golf course.

The course itself was a welcoming sight; tall, well-placed pines; nice tee boxes, fairways and greens; very little water and forced carries; and the layout made it challenging for all of us. All-in-all, worth the wait but a somewhat frustrating way to start a round after driving over an hour and a half to get there.

My advise for first-timers it to add a half-hour to hour to your normal routine and you'll be fine.

Teke is great! He has always been able to accommodate our time to play! The course layout really works well with our type of play...Maintenance has done a great job with keeping the course in playable condition as I know how budgetary restraints can be a factor...Playing weekends can be a bit slow but with a beautiful layout that Gator Lakes has that is not on issue on a Sunny Day...Thank you Gator for great memories! Steve and Marnie

We came down to the sunny state from MI for the month of February and this course met our expectations ☀️ when we are in the area agin we will be back to visit. We even saw some alligators sun bathing on a chilly day.

I know a 3 star review might not seem great, but this course is solid. The biggest downside for me is the pace of play is always a funeral dirge. They stack too many tee times so it consistently takes well over 4.5 hours to play. Also the bar/restaurant hours don't make sense/ I feel like it's never open. Besides that, it's a great value course. Fun layout, target golf, decent greens, top tracer bays (range buckets kinda pricey). All in all it's just fine.

Greens are poor, no fringe at all: can't make a spinny chip shot.

Fairways are poor and completely dried out.

Poor greens, no fringe to chip from, poor dried out fairways.

Nice layout. Some challenging holes with water. Greens were fast and receptive to shots.

It was off season, so not a lot of grass. I don’t know if that improves in the summer or not. It was fairly wet as well. It snowed here about a week ago. The wetness may be due to that or it just may be a low lying area.

****If you are a civilian, you need a pass from the visitor center prior to playing. This takes 30 minutes to an hour***

I don’t live in FL, so I had to have a tee time it’s them waited 45 minutes to get a one day pass. I couldn’t get more days unless I received approval from the golf course manager.

So, arrive early at VCC before your tee time.

I still will likely try to play it again. In expensive and not crowded when I was there.