Southern Dunes Golf & Country Club (Haines City, FL)

Southern Dunes is recognized as being one the best designed modern golf courses. It's built on a sand ridge which helps it plays firm and fast. Steve Smyers did a great job promoting low runners and bump n runs by leaving the greens open, putting kickplates on the sides, and sloping the putting surfaces enough that shots can be worked towards flags. This gives the course a lot of versatility with pin positions, and gives the golfer a chance to show off his skills. 

(The 413 yard eighth has plenty of room on the left for the drive, but those challenging the sand on the right will have an open angle to the flag.)

(The excellent par three third is 233 yards from the tips. Only the best can hit it high enough to hold the green, so the rest of us must aim at the fairway short left so the ball can bounce forward and onto the  green.) 

The par threes are well designed and require different lengths and skills to obtain par. So whether it's a full blown wood that kicks off the slope, or a short iron over a ring of sand, the player is constantly being asked to hit a shot. 

(The short par three fourteenth has nearly twelve traps guarding the green!) 

I thinks Smyers did a great on the par fives. A couple of them are reachable in two, but the golfer takes a big risk. The short hitter isn't left out either by having a boring drive and/or layup. The fourth forces a play over the pompas grass, or a layup, or wide shot to the side to setup an angle to the pin. 

(Here's the twelfth. 

It's totally reachable, but the second must carry the water and sand. A mishit can find a lot of trouble.)

The ninth is a wonderful par five. The small green is like a tabletop, and requires a well-struck shot to stop quickly. This means attacking the hole with two good blows in order to have a wedge for the third. 

The par fours vary in length, and Smyers was not afraid to put several short par fours in the design. The longer par fours are the most memorable, and the two that stand out to me are seven and thirteen. I like how seven doglegs left with sand guarding the entire left side. The uphill approach can scoot on if the player hits a low shot. Then thirteen has a large bank left of the green that is kept at fairway height, allowing the player to caroom his ball onto the putting surface. 

(The seventeenth green slopes front left to back right. Drives up the left open up the proper angle to the green.) 

The last hole is 461 yards and it reiterates the theme of running the ball on the green by trapping the front right but having the ground left slope forward. 

Southern Dunes is nationally recognized as one of the best courses. However, the housing that surrounds can be distracting at times. On a couple holes it's close enough that television or conversations can be heard. Also, I feel the bunkering gets repetitive. There's well over 100, and many are not needed. The other side to that is the traps create an atmosphere, a look. I think Southern Dunes is a very good golf course. (6) Definitely a place to seek out when staying in central Florida. 

(Southern Dunes was built by Dewey Tomko, a legendary gambler from Pennsylvania. Who knows how much money has exchanged hands on this course! I read Dewey had a standing bet with first time golfers that they could not break par from the tips. If these holes could talk, Oh what stories they would tell!!)