On the back of John’s Mystic Dunes thread.
Reading it made me go look at Apple Maps aerials of the area and reminiscing about our times there.
I’m a massive Disney fan, so from the late 80s to the early Noughties, we ‘vacationed’ every December in Orlando. Something like 14 or 15 times. Did the parks like crazy and played a lot of golf. Met a bunch of GCAers and had some great times.
We rented villas most of the time and they were often in the area where MD was being built. Indian Ridge, Indian Ridge Oaks, near the old Splendid China, etc. Handy for a lot of the courses in the SW Orlando area, Kissimmee, Haines City, etc.
As Mike Sweeney said, we found Highlands Reserve and had a lot of fun there over the years. Early on, though, we used to go to SunAir, a fairly old housing tract with a decent, if unremarkable, course running through it. Having had a long relationship with it, I’ve kind of been following its slow long lingering death over the years. The current aerial shows it completely unmaintained, a sad shadow of a golf course.
https://maps.apple.com/?address=Sun%20Air%20Lodge%20and%20Golf%20Course,%204669%E2%80%935495%20Watkins%20Rd,%20Haines%20City,%20FL%20%2033844,%20United%20States&ll=28.018268,-81.528929&q=Marked%20Location&_ext=EiYpMSBbZIgDPEAx4fXjqTFiVMA5LcumHNUFPEBBodyV8YphVMBQBA%3D%3D&t=hIt amazes me how an operator can’t make a success of a golf course somewhere like Orlando. Long season, great weather, zillions of tourists. What’s wrong with the model?
As I said, I’ve watched SunAir slowly die, but even more shocking was the revelation that Diamondback was gone. Similar recent aerial to SunAir shows dead fairways and no maintenance. A web search tells it closed a few years ago and hasn’t been picked up by any new developer. Shame, because it was a fun track with interesting timber raised cart paths through the native vegetation, providing protection for lots of species, including the snakes after which it’s named.
https://maps.apple.com/?address=Grenelefe%20Golf%20and%20Tennis%20Resort,%203271%20Camelot%20Dr,%20Haines%20City,%20FL%20%2033844,%20United%20States&ll=28.070516,-81.558381&q=Marked%20Location&_ext=EiYpARWOIJUOPEAx+5C3XP1jVMA5p0BmZ9ETPEBBz1Z7BJhiVMBQAw%3D%3D&t=hBuilt, I think, by some members of the Grenelefe (just across the road) who couldn’t get enough tee times, it always seemed a fun place to be.
We were last in O-town four or five years ago. I’m thinking of returning for a big birthday next year. I hope some of my other golf memories are still there!
Cheers
F.