Sailfish Sands (Stuart, FL)

After writing about The Park, America’s newest super muni, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss what I believe municipal golf should really be; an opportunity for everyone to learn, enjoy, and play golf at an affordable price. Sailfish Sands does that but with a cool twist that every golf aficionado would love. John Sanford took an eighteen hole course, and trimmed it into a nine hole reversible course. Every other week, they change the direction of play, so the course consistently alters it’s characteristics. This concept allows the county to shrink the environmental footprint of the course, helping them maintain a smaller acreage of land while distributing the divot pattern to allow the grass to heal. 

As you look at the diagram, you will notice eleven greens. The two that finish the round are only approached from one direction. Every other green accepts play two different ways. The eighth hole plays as a par five both on the black and red routing. While there’s plenty of water, notice how both routings avoid carrying it into the green. One quirk I noticed is how much shorter the Red loop is (2868) compared to the Black (3368). Granted, the Red has three par 3s compared to the Black’s two, which coincidentally, are both over 220 yards. 

I didn’t play Sailfish but did stop by during our annual Ryder Cup week. The novel concept had me chopping on the bit to see this unique course. Ever since Tom Doak designed The Loop up in Michigan, it seems more architects are looking at this possibility. Combined with their TopTracer driving range, a tip of the cap to TopGolf’s business model, Sailfish is positioning itself as a next generation golf course. Although it’s foreign to me and many in my generation, this may very well be the best way to grow the game, a catchphrase that seems to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue nowadays. (No rating since I didn’t play it, but felt it deserved to be spotlighted) 

PGA National - Estates Course (Palm Beach Gardens,FL)

PGA National has five 18 hole courses and the Estates Course is the only one off property. It was designed by Karl Litten in 1984. From my research, Litten was one of Gary Player’s design associates and had a hand in multiple golf courses. He was also instrumental in designing courses on the Arabian Peninsula, with a couple of them hosting the European Golf Tour. 

(The 478/440 yard par five fifth is my favorite hole on the course. The tiger golfer can take on the challenge and reach it two. The casual player will need to hit a solid shot to carry the pinch point and place it in the fairway before the water.) 

Overall, the Estates course is relatively nondescript.

It’s your typical Florida course, a combination of water, sand, and OB stakes. The only thing of interest was the way Litten crowned the greens near the edges so the ball spun off and away from the hole. Of course the greens are well bunkered with shoulders poking into the putting surface. I found them to be difficult to read. I wish there was more to discuss, but the course possesses several things that I don’t like, mainly the soft soil under the fairway grass. The ball splatters as soon as it smashes into the ground. Definitely not a course to play in the rainy season. The greens did roll beautifully which is why I give it a higher rating than my review suggests. I give it a 4 (above average)(worth driving 30-45 minutes to play). 

(I didn’t seen any gators here but when we played the Champion Course, there were several 10-12! footers.) 

[Weather always has an impact on my game, and when there’s no roll, and the course is playing 10-15% longer, I will struggle. I shot 83, my buddy Joby shot 83, and our host Ed drained a 12 footer on the last hole to shoot 82 and win the money.]

West Palm Golf Park (West Palm Beach, FL)

I’m proud to have my 425th review open the 2024 golf season. It thrills me to write about West Palm Golf Park, also known as The Park, one of the most anticipated new courses to debut in the past year. This world class muni is being touted as an instant top ten course in Florida, and judging by the green fees, they think they belong in the same category as Bethpage and Torrey Pines. It’s walking only before noon and a  caddy is a must to secure a time before 9am. I paid $230 for an 11:24 tee time, a staggering amount considering North Palm Beach Country Club is thirty minutes down the road and one of the top 20 municipal courses in America, is considerably less expensive. ($170 for the same time). 

As you approach the course, two sets of nets dominate the skyline. It looks like TopGolf but it’s actually the driving range and a lighted par three course. (How cool is that?!) There’s also an eighteen hole putting course complete with a cabana and a wonderful sitting area. If you’re an after the round soak it in kind of guy, like many of my buddies in the Cuyahoga North Coast Golf Association, then you are in for a treat. It also possesses a great short game area and every station at the driving range has a trackman to help hone in your game. All these things push The Park’s agenda to make golf cool, fun, and family oriented. Date night anyone? 

(The lighted par three course is located between the two nets. The holes are modest length but the sand traps and crazy green contours make it a blast to play. Note how there is an avenue to putt the ball all the way to each green. Beginners can enjoy it just as much as serious players. A+ for this addition!) 

The Park is built on a sandy, scrubby piece of land. Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner designed it to be a links/sandbelt style course that plays firm and fast. The fairways intertwine between waste areas and play to greens that are surrounded by short grass. There are no water hazards, no out of bounds stakes, no rough, and more importantly, no homes. It is a pure golf experience. In fact, the caddy who was looping for my playing partner and his son, said it was very much like Streamsong. That is high praise indeed. Of course, insiders are comparing it to the world famous Seminole which is close by. The property has some elevation change on the western half and the superb routing uses this feature very well. The entire back nine plays on this side, and the 12-17 stretch is as good as it gets. 

(The 477/456/386 yard par four fourth plays straightaway before doglegging right with the waste area guarding the inside line. A waste area all down the left makes this a difficult driving hole. The green thankfully is wide open and tilts to the front left. If you can successfully navigate the drive, you should have a reasonable birdie putt.)

(The short 395/359/324  par four sixth has a very cool lions mouth bunker that guards the center of this two tier green. The left is lower while upper is on the right. The fairway is incredibly wide but todays pin, in my opinion, was best attacked from the higher fairway on the right. One could hit it short and let it trundle on. Getting too far right made the green narrower, and brought the falloff to the lower half into play.) 

The front nine plays on the flatter part of the property, and there are some good birdie opportunities to start the round. The first thing you’ll notice is the width of the fairways. In fact, you will not lose a ball the entire day. The second thing, and I appreciated this the most, was the putting surfaces are not overly contoured. Some of the newer courses tend to have crazy greens and I’ve come to have complete disdain for these type of putting surfaces. Here, Hanse and Wagner put one or two features in them, tilted them a certain direction, and let the golfer decide how best to attack the pin. 

(The punchbowl green on the 474/444/403 yard par four twelth is complete hidden from the fairway. The hole doglegs left while climbing up and over the hill. The key is getting it just over the ridge twenty yards short so it funnels down to the putting surface. The front pins will be difficult to get close. My playing companion nearly holed his second shot!) 

The back nine is fantastic and a big part of that is the curve of the doglegs. They beg and ache for aggressive lines off the tee. The reward for daring play are shorter irons, better angles, and more options. There’s the punchbowl green twelth, the crowned green at thirteen, the boomerang par four fourteenth, and everyone’s favorite, the double dogleg uphill par five fifteenth where you take on the bunker complex to get a perfect view for your third shot, or you bail out straight and fidget with a semi blind pitch over a large mound. It’s a great collection of holes with varying yardages. Toss into the mix the driveable par four sixteenth with its fall-away green followed by the ridgeline to ridgeline par three seventeenth with a gnawing waste area eating into the putting surface, and you’ll be hard pressed to find cooler holes in south Florida. 

(The 174/164/144 yard par three seventeenth sets diagonally from the tee with the carry getting longer the further left you hit it. The green pitches to the front thus it’s hard to be underneath the hole. It’s very fast from above. It’s a beautiful penultimate hole.) 

I love the line Golfpass’ Tim Gavrich used when he described The Park as America’s newest super-muni. By establishing $250 as the starting point for their winter rack rate for out of state golfers, $300 will be in play the next five years. When I wrote about North Palm Beach several years ago, I point out how it did 70k rounds before Jack Nicklaus redesigned it and questioned if it even needed redone. West Palm is a different story because the course was losing money every month. They raised 55M dollars to renovate this course through private and public donations. To think the best they could do was build a $250 per round municipal course is disappointing. I will say that Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner did a phenomenal job and The Park will easily make America’s Best Municipal Course list when the newest version comes out. If you come down in the summer, the price tag drops under $150. I give the The Park a solid 7 (great)(worth driving 3-4 hours to play). 

[My playing partners were Class A teaching pro and his son. We all played different tee boxes. He played the black (6,640), I played the blue (6,111), and his son played the green (4,757). (The course tips out at 7,145)

It was cool seeing all the different variances from each tee. Listening to their caddy speak gave me insight into several holes that I’m not sure I would’ve picked up on. I hit 12 fairways and 11 greens, a recipe that generally produces a very good score, but I only managed a 78. My biggest concern was trying not to three putt, and trust me, you will three putt here. There are several misses around the green where making a bogey will be a good score. Price aside, I had a great time and would love to see it again. There are several pin positions I’d like to see in action.]