Golf in Jacksonville

The GolfPlex at University of North Florida's Hayt Golf Learning Center boasts a comprehensive golf training facility that can introduce new golfers to the game or help more advanced players take their skills to the next level. Power Tee range technology automatically replaces range balls after each swing at 40 adjustable tee heights, allowing golfers to hit more balls, maintain stance, and develop rhythm. As players swipe balls off of a synthetic Fiberbuilt strike mat, the Power Tee machine logs the number of hits, and a half-inch standing mat cushions carefully planted stances or victory laps around the stall. GolfPlex's experts also provide a full spectrum of instruction including lessons, camps, and player development programs that can focus on short-game or full-swing skill sets. An onsite golf shop keeps players properly outfitted with apparel and shoes from Nike and matches them with fresh new clubs or reshafts old, broken-in ones.

At the tee box on Cimarrone Golf Club's 12th hole, golfers face a dilemma: play a drive safely out to the right—where, at worst, the ball may stray into the rough—or attempt an aggressive shot over the water on the hole's left side, cutting off much of the dogleg and setting up a closer approach. With multiple bending fairways, deep bunkers, and a water hazard or marsh feature on every hole, the 18-hole, 6,891-yard course presents high-risk, high-reward scenarios at nearly every turn, delighting golfers who like to live dangerously and favoring those whose sand wedge moonlights as an actuary.

Before rounds, golfers can warm up swings at the club's driving range, a much-needed confidence booster before taking to the water-laden course or betting that they can outdrive the staff's resident T-shirt cannon.

Course at a Glance:

• 18-hole, par 72 course
• Length of 6,891 yards from the farthest tees
• Course rating of 73.5 from the farthest tees
• Slope rating of 137 from the farthest tees
• Five tee options
• Scorecard

At West End Golf Club, the 3,940-yard executive golf course, driving range, and putting green are all fully lit, allowing players to tee it up during the day or night. Scott Dombeck oversees the pro shop, which has been arming golfers with equipment from brands such as TaylorMade, Ping, and Wilson for more than 30 years. The shop also helps golfers shave strokes with custom club repair, private and group golf instruction, and associations for men and women.

Nestled in the scenic shadows of the Smoky Mountains, Bent Creek Golf Course's 18-hole layout stretches across 6,182 yards of fairways that rise and fall among rolling foothills and pristine valleys. Golf legend and course designer Gary Player made deft use of a babbling mountain stream by running it through the course and seamlessly uniting two distinct nines: a front nine that sprawls across the valley floor and a back nine that roams the hilly mountainside like a forlorn sasquatch. The overall effect is a course that does justice to both the sheer scope of the rising peaks with bottom-up views and the panoramic splendor of Great Smoky Mountains National Park when seen from the cresting hilltops of the back-nine. The inventive layout is perhaps best characterized by the 11th hole, a 362-yard par 4 where a 90-degree dogleg-left plays into a green completely surrounded by the creek's rippling waters. A blend of bent and bermuda grasses grows resiliently for golfers striving to play all year-round, and fragrant wildflowers blossom at every tee to warm the hearts of world-weary nine-irons.

Bent Creek bolsters the pin-hunting prowess of its golfers with a staff of PGA-certified instructors that conducts lessons and presides over the domain of their full-service pro shop. A practice putting green helps players trim their score by reading dicey slopes, and the Creek Side Grill hosts postround revelry and community gatherings to decry the historical hardships of the mashie niblick.:m]]

Course at a Glance:

• Designed by three-time Masters and British Open Champion Gary Player
• Bermuda-and-bent-grass combination
• 18-hole, par 72 course
• Length of 6,182 yards from the farthest tees
• Three tee options
• Link to scorecard

The needles of pine trees brush together softly in the forests that line St. Johns Golf & Country Club, mimicking the bated breath of golfers as they wait for a ball to fall on the bunker-speckled 18th hole. The undulating green caps the 7,250-yard Clyde Johnston-designed course, where golfers unleash their swings from one of five tee distances. The course has served as host of the PGA Tour Q-School for five consecutive years, and a practice facility with a 10,000-square-foot putting green and double-sided driving range allows golfers to work on their grip or stop yelling a childhood secret every time they swing the club. Chatter and the sound of clicking margarita glasses drift down to the course from a restaurant with views of the 9th and 18th holes, and a banquet hall hosts wedding receptions and other gatherings.

Course at a Glance:

• 18-hole course
• Total length of 7,250 yards
• Course rating of 74.7 from the back tees
• Course slope of 132 from the back tees
• Five tee boxes at each hole

My Jax Golf operates on the philosophy that there are many ways to swing a club. Each lesson and teaching approach strive to help students develop a consistent, dependable swing true to their form and athletic abilities. The junior academy focuses on educating students in the fundamentals of golf while developing skills in a safe and fun environment. Not to be confused with Purchasing Golf Accessories, adult lessons adhere to the PGA process of acquiring a perfect swing—correct Posture, club Gripping, and body Alignment—while emphasizing the putting, chipping, and wedging maneuvers of the short game.

The learning center also offers specialized lessons with TPI-certified professional Tom Long, who employs the use of video analysis while conducting swing-sequencing lessons. This technology displays an unwavering digital perspective on the student’s swing while churning up a custom report that analyzes fitness levels, posture, and movement. An accompanying fitness regimen sculpts mortal physiques into golf-ball-swatting machines and golf-cart-racing iron men.:m]]