Post by Richie3Jack on Aug 30, 2016 14:52:13 GMT -5
Osprey Point is a 27 hole facility located on the west side of Boca Raton. It is one of 5 golf courses owned and operated by the county of Palm Beach. The three nines are named the Falcon, the Raven and the Hawk and were designed by architects Roy Case and Jeff Grossmann.
The course is a part of the South County Regional Park. So while there is no housing on the golf course, there are a few holes that can be a bit noisy due to the other recreation the South County Regional Park affords such as water skiing and the Amphitheatre for music. The golf shop is small and it doesn’t have a ‘clubhouse’ to speak of. It does have a large range that they do a spectacular job of keeping in great condition. I’ve been on ranges of exclusive clubs with $100K+ initiation fees that are not as well kept as the Osprey Point range. It also features and enormous putting green and a large short game area.
The first thing that will surprise you about the course is the incredible conditions. I’ve only played the course in the summertime, but the greens have been smooth and fairly quick for summertime greens in Florida. The fairways are in picture perfect condition and the tee boxes are immaculate. All from a publicly owned course that charges roughly $30 for tee times in the afternoon on weekends. This leads to a busy course although they are good about getting people on if they show up and have room. But, this can lead to some slow play as well.
The Falcon is the toughest course of the group and is my least favorite. Osprey Point gets labeled as ‘tight’, but it’s really more ‘punishing’ than tight. And the Falcon is the most punishing of them all. So, it doesn’t take Hogan in ’53 type ballstriking to keep the ball in play, but if you do hit a bad shot, it’s likely to be in a hazard or a lost ball. The Falcon isn’t my favorite design, but I think it gets labeled as a poor design because of the hidden doglegs. In the end, I think if I’m striking it well and can get used to losing some golf balls early on…it’s a design that you can grow to love as you get more accustomed to it.
The Raven is my second favorite of the 3 nines. It has some of the tightest holes on the course, but is a bit more fair than the Falcon overall. It has a tough 2-hole stretch of #4 and #5 holes. The 4th hole is a 437 yard, tight par-4 off the tee and you don’t have a lot of room to miss around the green. Then you hit the 600 yard par-5 5th hole which is fairly open off the tee, but requires a long forced carry. Then it narrows considerably on the 2nd shot. Furthermore, the wind tends to blow into the player’s face on that hole.
The Hawk is the most popular of the nines. It features a great set of finishing holes with a reachable, but potentially punishing 500-yard par-5 6th hole, followed by a reachable and potentially punishing 300-yard 7th hole. Then the 8th hole is a beautiful par-3 over water followed by a nice, birdieable par-5 on the 18th with a good view over the water. The only thing I don’t like about the Hawk is the 5th hole, a 192 yard-par-3 is difficult to see the green and the flag due to the high brush off the wetlands.
Osprey Point is a good course to get on if you are willing to play a challenging design that comes at an affordable price and will be in excellent condition. If you’re looking for a course that is not very crowded, then you will want to look elsewhere. The same goes for if you’re struggling with your game. I don’t think the course is brutal like a Walkabout Golf Club (now Indian River Preserve), but I think people are going to be surprised how challenging it is. It reminds me a bit of the old Grande Pines in Orlando in that sense….a very public course that wasn’t unfair, but if you bring your C-Game you’re going to be in for a long day.
3JACK