Oct.

25
2006

Where to Play America’s Southernmost Golf Course on Your Florida Golf Vacation

by Craig Better

  • Share/Bookmark

<center>Key West GC begins where the highway ends.</center>

Key West GC begins where the highway ends.

Located only about 90 miles north of Cuba, Key West Golf Club is America’s southernmost golf course, and a fun, historic place to play on a Florida golf vacation.

The course had been closed for extensive renovations in response to damage caused by Hurricane Wilma in 2005, but it re-opened on October 1, 2006 with a much-improved drainage system and smoother, brighter, salt-tolerant grass on its greens. 

Just seconds away from laid-back, wonderfully quirky downtown Key West, the course originally opened in 1924 as a nine holer (nine holes were added in the 1950s) and was later redesigned by legendary architect Rees Jones in 1983, his first design after hanging out his own shingle. It’s not the best course we’ve ever played, but the fact that there’s a golf course here at all — literally at the end of the continental United States — is a delight.

Jones made the most of the site’s 200 acres, guiding the holes through towering palm trees and around saltwater ponds and mangroves. Then, of course, there are the trademark trade winds that serve to confound seemingly straightforward shots and keep this tropical track as cool as the downtown scene.

Not already a subscriber to Golf Vacation Insider? Use this link to stay in the loop with our free tips and expert advice on which golf courses, golf resorts, discount golf vacations, and golf vacation packages are truly worth your time and money. As a bonus, we will send you a free copy of Planning the Ultimate Golf Vacation, a 40-page book filled with some of the best golf travel secrets from the editors of Golf Odyssey.


  • Share/Bookmark
Print This Post Print This Post

Leave a Comment

Previous post:

Next post:

Copyright © 2010 GolfVacationInsider.com - Powered by WordPress and WDS