I made the trip up to Ocala today (yes, I'm still down for a long trip to see an obscure golf course) and played Ocala Golf Club. I was a big fan of the place--the course plays up, down, and, at one point in the back nine, over a large ridge that runs through the property. There was a little repetition on the par fives and the watery par threes, but there were some really phenomenal holes that stood out from the rest of the pack. In particular, I enjoyed the three hole stretch at 11 to 13, which consists of a short par three to a volcano green, a sweeping long par four that was 100% Deep South, and a short uphill par five with a devilish ridge-line green. I think Ocala would (sadly) bump the Heights off my top 10, and it was definitely worth the drive up for the day.
Bill McBride,
I've played three publics in the panhandle that I enjoyed: Camp Creek, Windswept Dunes, and Emerald Bay. Windswept Dunes had some interesting stuff, but I have a hard time remembering much of the course. Emerald Bay has typical housing course shlock, but the back nine is a pretty neat little hidden gem with a lot of variety. I especially liked the stretch down and back from the Bay on 15, 16, and 17. If you are in Destin, which is a bit starved for imaginative golf design, Emerald Bay is not a bad choice.
Camp Creek is a good course and always gets high marks from the raters (probably because the conditioning was/is excellent. But I think CC is a bit of a waste of a piece of property. The land there is absolutely dynamite, and a more talented architect likely could have come up with something much more inspiring. Granted, I played the course two times ten years ago, so I would be looking at it under a really different set of eyes now, but from what I remember it would struggle to get into my top ten. Mentally, I compare Camp Creek to something like Southern Dunes. A rater (or just your typical Florida golfer) might be wowed by Camp Creek's excellent maintenance, gorgeous clubhouse, and amazing setting and be put off be the houses, tiny clubhouse and Wal-Mart parking-lot entrance at SD. But, for my money, Southern Dunes has a lot more flair and inspiration in its design whereas Camp Creek seems a bit sterile. Southern Dunes gets my vote, but I get that many others might disagree.