Huntington Hills Golf & Country Club

The course was in great shape. Greens were slow but in fantastic shape shape. The staff couldn’t have been more friendly. My go to course in Lakeland area

Had a tee time at 930 so we left the Tampa area around 8 am. We did not get back to Tampa until 4pm. Almost a full 8 hours later. Almost 3 hours to get through the front, with the pace getting slightly better over the back 9. 5 and half hour round. Not worth coming back until they space the tee times out a bit more. 7 minutes gaps are not enough. No Marshall anywhere to be seen. We had 5 groups backed up on the 2nd hole. Other than pace, we did enjoy the round. The greens are very well kept. Tee boxes were nice, fairways were decent with some weedage and dry areas along the rough. All in all, this would be a wonderful place to visit more often if they can get pacing under control or get a Marshall to speed groups along.

My round was at 1:45 and I thought it was reasonable that myself and one other person would be able to play a full round before the sun went down, around 5:30-6 pm. We got to the course and noticed 3 groups on the first hole. One group waiting on the tee box for people to clear the fairway, the people on the fairway waiting to hit for people putting on the green. This place was OVERBOOKED. They have no idea how to run a course. It’s also kind of a distasteful feeling looking at the scorecard and seeing it’s full of advertisements. My playing partner and I got through 6 holes and it was nearly 4pm. We decided to drive through the course to see if it opened up ahead of us and it didn’t. It was a 10 minute wait to be able to step onto the tee box on every hole and then another 10 minute wait to actually be able to hit. I wouldn’t recommend unless you want to play a 6 and a half hour round.

On this early March day, not long after a mid-Florida drought had reached its worst, conditions proved to be the main story at Huntington Hills. Yet the course itself remains an otherwise strong design that checks many of the boxes for challenge and strategic interest.

Conditions

Conditions greatly lagged the almost uniformly positive playing surfaces I observed here last year. There were highlights: the greens and bunkers were well-conditioned, the tees mostly above average. Greenside zones proved a mixed bag, as turf conditions made pitching and chipping a strain; before long I began choosing putter from off the green (several times) for fear of botching these shots out of tight or spongy lies. The fairways were underwhelming, given the very sparse grass and a general patchiness. Roughs were far less than desirable.

Layout

About the Huntington Hills layout, however, there is little room to find fault. If any single aspect elevates this layout well above what is commonplace, it is architect Ron Garl’s bunkering, which transforms the course from a simple rolling layout into a study in disciplined positioning.

Creating a strong opening impression, rolling hills define much of the terrain—as the course’s name suggests. Yet it is Garl himself who sets the initial tone, complementing those natural contours with mounding and occasional fairway undulations. Moreover, he places fairway hazards to add another layer of strategic intent. Used with similar variety to the contours are the trees, whether isolated or clustered, or, more ominously, taking the form of dense woodland walls at the course’s outer edges.

Yet the ultimate character of HHGC does not rest on trees and hills alone. This instead stems from the roughly thirty strategic bunkers, which appear most often near the greens but also frequently around fairways. What was Garl up to? Nothing less than transforming the bunkers from a visual feature into a discipline of placement. And it is the bunkers that almost invariably shape a player’s tee-to-green decisions. Sometimes elephantine and bullying, at other times pot-like and rude, they vary widely in size, shape, and depth. Over the course of the round, each seemed to demand my attention. More than any other hazard, they warrant a careful, planned attack: guile outweighs reckless aggression.

Beyond the fine bunkering, Garl wanted to take it up another couple of notches. First, he supplemented the bunkers with waste areas. These often create the greatest psychological threat through their sprawling enormity, especially because they may be seen from the tees as visual magnets. Secondly, he plotted several of these holes such that the most severe hazard–out of bounds, for example–lies on one side of the fairway, counterbalanced by a big bunker or two on the seemingly safer side. It is a tactic that may surprise less experienced players, but it also clearly emphasizes disciplined, positional golf. Making good decisions in response, then, will pay dividends to those weighing their tee shots carefully. Supporting this tactic, too, are fairway widths that often run slightly beyond what is adequate. The structure in this aspect of Garl’s work parallels the similarly controlled strategic edge that Robert Trent Jones, Sr., often employed. And coming from a savvy architect like Garl, this can hardly be called surprising.

What about the typical Florida inland water hazards that show up here? Essentially taking part as cameo players, they still up the ante at holes such as three, four, twelve, and sixteen. The third, especially, is a tough target hole—-playing over a large pond-–that tightens the screws from tee to green. And four, an uphill par-3 that traverses the same pond, may be overlooked—until the player has been “had" by the not-so-subtle slopes on and around its green. The Huntington water hazards do not create genuine risk-reward setups. Their presence, though, again signals an emphasis on tactical and positional golf.

Further splashes of color appear through the fine and unpredictable green design, but also several short par-4s (they include 8, 16, 17 and 18) that are both original and fun to play.

It is not a sensational course, but it stands well above the norm. Garl achieves excellence, but in a way that you almost fail to notice.

Pace

Over the opening four holes, the pace of play left something to be desired, with several groups taking a deliberate approach—uncomfortable to watch—to their pre-shot routines. The logjam peaked at the third tee; multiple groups were stacked up there in short order.

Conclusions

My foursome was a very pleasant one today, and the staff here treats customers well.

I recommend this course, but with a caveat to golfers who place a high value upon carpet-like fairways and predictable roughs–especially around greens. They will have to look elsewhere for the time being. I suspect, though, that management’s objective will be to do what is necessary to restore the turf to its former standard.

We were here about a week ago, and the course wasn't in such good condition then.

Now the course has improved significantly, and there is green grass on the fairway.

The many broken tees have also been removed from the tee boxes. Thank you.

Thanks also to the cart staff for their excellent service in bringing us a new cart for our round, as ours was damaged.

However, the condition of the bathrooms at the 6th hole still needs improvement.

Otherwise, everything was great, and we'd love to come back.

Fun course that challenges a mid level golfers. Fairways were in good shape. Greens were excellent. Course has many many Sandra's to hit out of. Fun round.

Had tee times 7 minutes apart.

Slow play. Greens were very slow also.

Course is always in great shape but play is painfully slow compared to other courses.

After starting waited 10 minutes to tee off on 2nd hole.

25 minutes to tee off on 3rd hole.

Probably an average of 3 minutes on every hole after that

We actually play this golf course every year when we are here on vacation, but this year we were very disappointed with the condition of the course.

Here are the reasons: There is almost no “fairway”; the ball usually lies on bare earth or on some “tufts of grass.” Okay, we can understand that, as there has been little rain and it has been cold.

BUT: The tee-boxes are littered with broken tees. These broken tees have been lying there for days, as we played early and they can't all be from the same day.

Why aren't the tees cleaned regularly?

Speaking of cleaning: The bathrooms at the 5th are very dirty and disgusting and haven't been cleaned for days... that's not acceptable at all.

And one last tip: I am a course marshal at my home club. Your marshal car has “MARSHALL” written on it with two “LL”s. But marshal is spelled with only one “L.”

Fairways are bare and full of weeds. No overseeding done. For $ 65.00 it’s criminal. Pace of play was 5 hours, called pro shop, no ranger on course, would send someone out, never happened. Mentioned in pro shop after round, pro just looked at me with no comment. All they care about is the $$ . One positive, greens are beautiful but very slow. Much better value available in Lakeland.

No trees. Very open. Fairways full of weeds. Fairways dry, no watering.. no chalenge

I wish I was being dramatic/exaggerating, but we had a 1:15 tee time and got to the third tee box at 2:10. Not to mention we were forced to share a cart with the single in our group despite them having 20+ ready to go. Course conditions were great though lol.

Interesting and varied design with some changes in elevation. Due to recent unusually cold weather, the Bermuda fairways were not in the best shape. This is common for many of the courses in the area. However, the greens were in good condition. Overall, I would recommend Huntington Hills and I look forward to my next round there.

We've played this course many times in the past year. There hasn't been much rain and fairways are a notch down than normal. But still very playable. The greens and tee boxes were very good. Overall, we enjoyed our round here today.