Post by Richie3Jack on Sept 9, 2012 21:45:12 GMT -5
RedTail Golf Club is a semi-private, David Harman design; located in Sorrento, Florida. Sorrento is about 45 minutes from downtown Orlando between Eustis and Sanford.
RedTail features a tremendous clubhouse and is an impressive area. There is one house that is off the 10th hole that is probably close to 12,000 square feet and is so big that it looks like a hotel. It appears that the entire area was built during the peak of the housing boom and didn't quite take, but didn't quite fail. Then it simmered down and is building a few new houses currently.
I had been recommended RedTail and wound up purchasing 3 tee times for $30 a person on Golfnow.com. We had a little issue as they were going to charge us full price (about $75 per person), but after explaining the situation the pro shop took care of it.
Overall, I found some similarities to when I played Celebration Golf Club. Fantastic condition, great back nine, and a less exciting front nine.
Condition wise, the only thing that was a small bummer was the greens were on the slow side, about 8.5 on the stimp. But the rest of the course, particularly the fairways, was supremely manicured.
Don't get me wrong, I think the front nine was a fine design. But, when you start off with the first 3 holes being blind or semi-blind and then a 187 yard par-3 that is 3/4 surrounded by water and then a tough 443 yard par-4, it sucks some of the fun out of it. However the 7th hole, a 557 yard par-5, had one of my favorite designs of a hole. It was a dogleg right that was reachable in 2 shots, but the fairway was very tight without being treelined. Miss the fairway and you would have a difficult time getting inside 150 yards on the approach shot. Hit the fairway with a good drive, now you're in business.
The back nine was a lot of fun. And it helped that on the par-3 11th hole, they were smart enough to not use the back tee box as it would be have part of an untrimmed tree in the way. While the par-4 18th hole is a great finishing hole that gets all of the rave reviews, I actually liked the par-5 17th hole. Designed with a semi-tight tee shot that if you hit a good drive, you can get there in 2 shots provided you hit a quality 3-wood. But, get too careless and you'll find the hazard on the right side.
To me, the best holes were #2, #7, #12, #16, #17 and #18. Once again, I don't think we ran into any gimmicky or poorly designed golf holes. #13 forced me to hit a driver over a tree, but I accidentally pushed it a bit and still wound up in decent shape (and made par).
The toughest holes were #1, #3, #4, #5, #6, #10, #15, #16 and #18.
Everybody came away loving the course, particularly for only $30 a person. I think this would have been a great one if it was designed in the 80's or 90's when there was more paid time off and families would often spend their entire weekend playing golf and socializing in that gorgeous clubhouse.
For today's golfer, it's more to be used from October to April. And for the vacationer, it's similar to Legacy Club at Alaqua Lakes...if you are willing to travel about 1 hour, you will get a well conditioned course with a quick pace of play and a great design. I doubt that come the winter time the rates will be over $100, but they'll probably be in the $75-$90 range for peak tee times. Personally, I would rather pay that and not deal with the hassle versus playing courses around Disney which may be 5-6 hour rounds of golf.
3JACK