Played Crooked Cat on Tuesday 5/17, this marked the 6th round in 4 days (we played Panther Lake in the PM for round #7) and surprisingly my golf keeps getting better despite not being able to feel my ... Continue »

Played Crooked Cat on Tuesday 5/17, this marked the 6th round in 4 days (we played Panther Lake in the PM for round #7) and surprisingly my golf keeps getting better despite not being able to feel my hands. Here's the really brief review. This course is downright awesome and an incredible value ($110 for 36, including lunch & drink vouchers). I will say outside of Streamsong, Bay Hill, and Reunion this is THE premier facility in Orlando (at 1/2 the cost). Both courses here are far superior to anything Disney offers, more playable than ChampionsGate, and more challenging than Grand Cypress.

Crooked Cat is pure Florida golf. Subtle elevation changes, great use of water, holes tend to be framed by big, bold bunkering, and large, undulating bermuda greens that require you read the grain. On a side note, I miss grain. I'm such a better putter in Florida than I am in Southern California. Guess it's just what you're used to. Anyways, the course blends a good mix of holes that allow you to chose different strategies off the tee. However, the course doesn't exactly favor one strategy or another. For example, in my group, one guy is a bomber, routinely hitting it 280ish while I'm more of a target golfer, preferring to play from 30 yards back in the fairway. We're both single digit handicappers, but rarely do we play well at the same course. However, we both scored really well here, playing 2 totally different games.

The only down side here is every Monday morning they sand the greens to smooth them out. While that really didn't have a major effect on the ball, like I said before, you need to be able to read the grain to putt well on bermuda, and that's hard to do with sanded greens. But they did roll OK and you just had to get over the fact that they looked different. Everywhere else on the course was nearly immaculate. Fairways were lush and tight. The rough was thick but playable. Bunkers were very consistent and "easy" to play from.

Service here is always top notch. We saw the beverage cart 4 or 5 times and she'd even let us know how fast/slow the play was in front of us (it wasn't busy, POP was right at 4 hours). The driving range here is AWESOME. It's billed as the largest facility in the US and it's easy to see why. It's a 360 degree range with probably 15 or so target greens. There are at least 3 different short game areas including what can only be described as 'mid range" area. We sat here and practiced 60 yard pitches pitches into a green from varying lies (fairway, rough, sand). Pretty cool for a range junkie.

All in all, there's not a better value in Orlando than OC National. Again, $110 for 36 holes with lunch and a beer? Pure. Awesome. Golf.