Golf in northeast Florida: Players Stadium course not the only game in town

While the Players Stadium Course gets almost all of the attention – especially during the Players – there is other quality golf in the area.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass is a fun risk-reward par 5, stretching 499 yards with water all down the left. But you already knew that, right? Because everybody knows about the world-famous 17th at TPC Sawgrass?

Sorry for the misdirect, but that short par 3 with the island green next door isn’t the only 17th hole in town. Not even the only 17th built by Pete Dye. While the Players Stadium Course gulps down almost all of the attention – especially during the Players Championship – there is a more-than-worthy track that begins on the other side of the practice range at TPC Sawgrass. 

Dye’s Valley, which Dye built with fellow architects Bobby Weed and Jerry Pate, is a watery test of its own. Opened in 1987, Dye’s Valley is likely to rejoin the Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list for best public-access courses in Florida when the annual list is revised in May. 

No. 16 at TPC Sawgrass Dye’s Valley (Courtesy of TPC Sawgrass)

It can be tough for other courses when tracks such as the Players Stadium – No. 1 in Florida among Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play and No. 22 in the country on Golfweek’s Best list of modern courses – soak up so much of the spotlight.

But that doesn’t make Dye’s Valley any less fun, what with its generous-enough fairways, seemingly everywhere water and mounding straight out of the famed architect’s textbook.

For golf fans looking to tee it up themselves in northeast Florida as the Players Championship revs into high gear in March, there are several solid options.

About 20 miles by car from TPC Sawgrass are two courses that have grabbed plenty of televised commercial time in recent years, with Gary Player extolling the virtues of the World Golf Hall of Fame and its two neighboring courses: the King and Bear, and the Slammer and Squire at World Golf Village. 

The King and Bear at World Golf Village (Courtesy of World Golf Village)

The King and Bear, with 18 holes built by Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus in 2000, is the wider and more forgiving of the two layouts. Billed as the only course in the world co-designed by the two legends, it presents a fun chance to take mighty cuts off the tee – Palmer and Nicklaus enjoyed the long ball, after all – and still find room to recover from a few foul balls.

The layout features what Palmer called one of his favorite holes that he designed, the 360-yard par-4 15th with water all down the right and a green perched atop boulders. In immaculate shape for a recent mid-winter round and with water in play throughout, the King and Bear is more than worthy of a side trip inland from TPC Sawgrass during Players Championship week. 

The Slammer and Squire at World Golf Village (Courtesy of World Golf Village)

The Slammer and Squire is much more old-school Florida golf, with tighter fairways nestled between thick native foliage and frequent water.

Design credit goes to Weed in collaboration with a different pair of Hall of Fame legends, Sam Snead and Gene Sarazen. Offering close views of the World Golf Hall of Fame’s tower, the Slammer and Squire perhaps requires more thought and patience than the King and Bear. Its elevated greens also exact a steeper price for approach shots that fail to find the putting surfaces. 

Hammock Beach’s Ocean Course (Courtesy of Hammock Beach)

About an hour south of TPC Sawgrass is another pair of highly touted standouts at Hammock Beach Resort.

The Ocean Course, designed by Nicklaus and ranked No. 10 in the state among Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play, features a surprising Florida rarity: six holes along the Atlantic. A face-lift that wrapped up in 2018 included wall-to-wall re-grassing and better views of the beach.

The resort’s second course, the Conservatory, is an inland design by Tom Watson that ranks No. 18 among the state’s public-access courses. 

So while the spotlight will shine brightly on the Players Stadium Course for the Players, as it should, there are plenty of worthy options along the coast. In the Sunshine State, there’s plenty of light to go around.

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