Club Class Jacksonville

Great courses and golf lore together make the Jacksonville area the most crowded and rewarding corner of the endless fairway that is Florida, and not just for duffers. The pro tours, schedules, records and business are run from the PGA Tour headquarters at Sawgrass and LPGA’s home offices and two more courses in Daytona Beach. You can try the shot yourself at a 132-yard replica island green at the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine.

In January and February, when Yankees head down to Miami and Naples for warmth, greens fees in north Florida drop along with the temperatures. Now is the time to grab a windbreaker and head north to play golf with the greatest. Jacksonville Beach Clubs greens fees aren’t cheap, but $500-a-night package deals to play tour-quality courses still beat a country club initiation.

Choices of golf schools and courses here seem endless. The Ponte Vedra Plantation has 58 bunkers and on 16 out of the 18 holes water comes into play. TPC added a second course to Sawgrass. The Hall of Fame has two, one named for Sam Snead and Gene Sarazen and another for Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. There are dozens more across the area, including 160 holes on Amelia Island and Fernandina Beach, another early stop for winter swells of the early 20th century. 

Walter Hagen, Maureen Orcutt and other greats walked these holes and live on at the Hall of Fame. Lockers there are stuffed with clubs, badges and old souvenirs in a massive interactive archive that draws a quarter-million visitors a year. The Hall remembers inductees like Dwight Eisenhower (2009) and Carl Shute (2008) and lets visitors try their aim on an 18-hole putting course and that island green or chuckle at “Shanks for the Memories,” the new exhibit on Bob Hope.