I've been to Streamsong more than 10 times over the years since it opened. Based on that experience, I much preferred the Blue course. After three times around the Red, I tried to book the Blue whenever I went back.
I like the Blue because it makes me feel more free off the tee - although my somewhat erratic driving doesn't always place me in the appropriate places for approaching the greens. The approaches are all interesting shots and the greens are a very interesting set that are challenging, quirky and fun all in one.
The Red, although a fine course, does not appeal to me because the start, holes 1 and 3 especially generally have ruined my mood too early in the round. The back nine is way too long for me from the Black tees and the front nine is too short from the silver tees. The solution was to play the front from the black tees and the back from the silver tees. Even then the back nine requires too many long second shots. And, there are too many places on the course to lose balls. I do like the 8th, 9th and 16th holes.
If I was to go back for 10 rounds, I think I'd go 8 Blue and 2 Red. I am cognizant that going back ten times is a slightly crazy idea for me financially. Ten rounds could easily set you back $5,000 - a nice round number that could get you an annual membership at many courses. If you stay and eat there you could easily get to $8,000 for these hypothetical 10 round trips. For me, it's so sad that such good and interesting courses can only come at such a high price.
A couple of weeks ago I went back to play the Black course. Following are some random thoughts on it.
The new clubhouse is too modern and sleek for me and seems out of sync with the rather natural look of the course. The service is still too CCFAD for me and leaves me somewhat uncomfortable and cold.
The view of the first hole into the glare of the winter sun looked unimpressive. First impression was that it was going to be a flat course with lots of natural sand waste areas. The flat part disappeared on the second hole and for the rest of the round. The sandy waste areas persisted throughout the course. They were augmented by what seemed to me like a lot of maintained bunkers. I was left wondering how they will ever maintain all the bunkers.
All the holes were memorable. I don't have any trouble recalling them even a couple of weeks later. That's a good sign.
The greens, of course, are the distinguishing feature of the course. If you're in the wrong place on the greens a three putt seems likely. What struck me was that even short putts had significant break. Maybe it was just the pins on this day. I thought that the greens started to wear on me near the end of the round. Maybe too much of a good thing. Some of the runoffs and rejections seemed like they could be quite severe. I suspect they will be quite polarizing.
The 9th green, the dell, plays quite well and isn't as goofy as some of the aerial pictures make it look.
The right green on the 13th does seem a little over the top. By chance I drove up the right side and a bit short and was left with a blind shot over some trees. I struck what I thought was a good shot and the ball was never seen again, probably over the back by 40 yards and lost in the weeds. They have cut back the weedy areas in a few spots, presumably to increase playability.
I birdied the two par 3's on the back, both off of fortuitous bounces off mounds rather than from good shots. Don't let it be said that nobody ever proclaims the lucky bounces.
I played from the 6700 yard tees as it's a par 73. One set of tees forward probably would have been more appropriate. There seemed to be loads of room on the free form tees behind the back tees. Could they run it up to over 8,000 yards? It was described to me as the competition course on the property. It was reputed that Dustin Johnson played the 18th driver, 9 iron, so some more yardage may be required!
I thought it was against the architect design rule book to finish playing the 18th into the setting sun.
Did I mention that there are a lot of maintained bunkers - too many to count. I had three plugged balls in the bunkers.
The number of bunkers seemed overkill to me especially with the vast sandy waste areas. See the picture of the 18th green below for an example - there are 8 or 9 bunkers around this green alone..
I felt like going out again having figured out where the holes went and having some idea of the greens. That's a good thing. Sadly it's cost prohibitive for me.
It is a course that grabs your attention and that will probably make for a memorable experience for the one and done resort players, although I expect many would get beaten up by the course. Like all the courses at Streamsong, it would require multiple plays to really understand it.
The guy I played with, who worked there, said that the hotel was sold out the next night, so perhaps business is good. I think the golf show was on in Orlando then, so that might also account for some of the business.
Anyway, it great that there are three such interesting courses in central Florida. Too bad they are so expensive.
The proverbial breakdown of 10 rounds would be Blue 6, Black 3 and Red 1.
I didn't have my camera, but here's one pic from my phone of the 18th green taken from the side on the 12th fairway. Lots of waste area and maintained bunkers and a pond out of sight to the right of the picture.
