Post by Richie3Jack on May 29, 2012 12:43:00 GMT -5
I played Victoria Hills GC over the Memorial Day weekend. This course was suggested to me by Dan Carraher who also liked Walkabout GC. I’m a bit iffy on my feelings on Walkabout because it certainly has some great holes to it, but you can be KO’d in the first 4 holes and if the wind is blowing, it can make for a real unpleasant round. But, if you play well you tend to enjoy the course and you feel like you’ve accomplished something.
I never got to Victoria Hills because in 2010 (my first year here), it was reportedly in rough condition after a brutal winter. I had heard the condition improved in 2011 and then was hearing some better things about it this year. Generally the consensus was that the design was very nice, it was just the conditioning of the course that people debated about.
Victoria Hills is in Deland, FL which is about halfway between Orlando and Daytona Beach. The Sanford airport is not too far away, but you are looking at about an hour drive to the Orlando International Aiport and about 45 minutes to I-Drive which is where most of the tourists usually stay, particularly those going to the Orange County Convention Center.
The course is just off I-4 and in a nice little area. The restaurant is nice and moderate sized. Same with the pro shop. Fairly large driving range and a decent sized putting green. They also carry plenty of water. One of the things I’m seeing golf courses do now is skimping on the drinking water in order to get people to buy more from the shop, which I don’t like the idea of. Particularly on a course like Victoria Hills which is a little spread out, so there could be a real problem if there’s an emergency. So my thinking is to prevent it from happening over making a quick buck.
Conditioning wise I could see why there was a debate. The front 9 won’t be mistaken for Augusta National anytime soon. However, you could see that the course badly lacked rain. Like I mentioned in my Harmony Golf Preserve review, it’s not uncommon at this time of year to see some spots in Central Florida that get hammered by rain and others nearby get none of it. And there’s not much the superintendent and his crew can do but to stay on top of it, not make any boneheaded mistakes and try to make the best with what they have.
All that being said, the back 9 was not that bad at all, condition wise. In fact, I wouldn’t doubt if the rain just happened to hit the back 9 more than the front 9 because that’s how wacky Central Florida weather works sometimes. Furthermore, while the condition of the front 9 was not pleasant to the eye, it was rather playable. The landing areas had plenty of grass and the greens were decent by Central Florida standards.
Victoria Hills is a Ron Garl design. I remember playing a Garl design once, but couldn’t remember the course. However, La Cita CC is one of my favorite courses and that was designed by Garl and Lee Trevino. Also, tightdraw had mentioned how much he liked playing Garl’s courses down in Tampa.
I guess I would define Victoria Hills’ design as very Pinehurst-esque. It has a similar feel of many of the courses in the Pinehurst, NC area where they are treelined, but also that US style links with a lot of rolling hills and sand dunes.
From a playing perspective the first 5 holes are about as tough as it gets to start out of the gate. From the back tees, they start off with a 450 and 455 yard par-4’s. Then a 225 yard par-3 with a tough greenside bunker right and no man’s land left. Then a 585 yard par-5 where you have to navigate some fairway bunkers and sand dunes off the tee. The front nine is entirely more difficult than the back nine.
The biggest positive is that there was not one poorly designed or tricked up hole on the entire course. Everything was fairly straight forward and if you hit a shot well, you were likely to be rewarded. While I like La Cita, that’s certainly not the case there as you can get screwed on a few holes despite hitting a shot well.
The other strong spot was that the course had exceptionally designed par-4’s. Which is good because most of the holes on a championship golf course are par-4’s. I felt the par-4’s, #1, #2, #4, #8, #12, #13, #16 and #17 were just well above average to downright exceptionally designed par-4’s. That’s 8 out 10 par-4’s that just really stand out in design. I also thought the par-5’s were pretty good as well.
Probably the only negative from a design perspective is that the par-3’s were nothing special. #11 was a nice design. #3 is almost unfair given it’s length, the green shape and the trouble around it. And #14 was an uphill 230 yard par-3.
I wound up paying $25 for the round on GolfNow and got done in less than 4 hours. To me that was an incredible value if you can get past the conditions being a little rough. Still, I would like to play Victoria Hills again, particularly in the middle of summer when the area is getting its daily rainfall and see what the condition looks like then.
I would highly recommend the course because the design is as strong as any design in the area and the value is too good to pass up on. The course may not be fun for the higher handicap because if you don’t strike it decent enough, you can be in for a long day. Although I don’t think a golfer would lose a lot of golf balls because there’s not a ton of water on the course. For the vacationer the trip may be a little out of the way, but the value should make up for that. I would also recommend that the vacationer get to play here before April (that’s when the courses start to dry up) or if they are in Orlando during the middle of summer.
3JACK