July 2024
This past week I spent multiple days playing golf with my two sons, as well as my father at PGA Village. While there, we played the Dye course and the Ryder course. Some observations, as well as a review, starting with ARRIVAL & CHECK-IN:
Upon arrival you are greeted by a friendly associate who comes right to your trunk to get your bags ready for play.
While in the pro shop to pay for your greens fee, the clerk behind the counter says hello before you even reach the counter. They made the payment process rather quick & easy.
After checking in we head back outside to find our bags ready for play. Once we get to the cart the associate walks us through all the details of the driving range, various warm-up area's and putting greens. Then it's the very detailed directions of getting to the 1st tee. All in all, they made the check in process quite easy.
The Driving Range:
PGA Village has two ranges, one with mats only and another that has grass tees. Both are supremely kept and well maintained.
The Starter:
This one is always fun because if you have played golf long enough you have encountered three types of starters: The friendly one, the one who thinks he rules the golf world and acts like a jackass or the guy who is somewhere in between. At PGA Village you get the friendly one. Each day we were there we received a friendly hello and lots of course tips. The starters we dealt with get A plus grades!
The Dye Course:
We played the Dye course on day one. It is more of a links style course with wide fairways, lots of fescue and very difficult sloped greens. The carries off the tee will be dependent on which tee box you hit from. They have five boxes for almost every skill and age level. The one surprise, as someone who has played a lot in Florida, was the lack of water on this course. Not a bad thing at all, just a bit surprising. As expected, the tee boxes, fairways & greens were all kept in tip top shape and the houses that surrounded the holes were not that close so you never felt like an errant shot would break a window. Hard to complain about anything with this course.
The Ryder Course:
This course is also a great track but a bit different. There are more trees and certainly more water on this golf course. The houses are a bit closer to the holes but nothing to invasive. Everything above is about the same. Great layout with well-manicured greens, fairways and tee boxes. This course even has signs to beware of alligators around the lakes which gives it more of a Florida feel.
The cost:
Keep in mind we played in July, however, $70 to play at 8am is pretty damn good. I also paid for rental clubs ($50) and they gave us brand new Callaway Mavrik irons and woods, not to mention six brand new Callaway golf balls and unlimited bottled water.
The negative:
This is minor but I needed to find something I didn't like, otherwise what kind of review would it be. The one thing that was a bit of a problem is the limited time frame they give the public to book tee times. All you get is a two-day window to get your start times. Not an issue if you live here but certainly problematic if you are coming here for a golf vacation. Hard to plan the days. That said, they did a great job of finding times for us, so even though it's a complaint, I have no complaints.
Overall review & grade: A
Is there a reason why I don't give this an A plus? Yes, I believe those need to be reserved until I hopefully play places like Pebble Beach, St Andrews, Pinehurst etc. But I reserve the right to come back and amend the grade.
