Jacksonville, Florida     (Return to Previous Page)

With a plethora of beautiful, challenging golf courses and a wide variety of "stay-and-play" resorts as well as exceptional stand-alone hotels, Jacksonville, Florida and the surrounding area is a top golf vacation destination for golf enthusiasts of every level. Stretching from Palm Coast to Fernandina Beach, the "First Coast" of Florida is home to the World Golf Hall of Fame, PGA Tour Headquarters, and The First Tee program in addition to over 200 championship golf courses. With great golfing weather virtually year round, visitors to the area also enjoy Jacksonville's beautiful beaches, world-class shopping and dining, and a host of extra curricular activities and amenities to suit every family or group member.

Many visitors to the Jacksonville area find the World Golf Village at the center of their travel plans and with three full-service resorts and two of the area's best golf courses, it is easy to see why. Adjacent to the World Golf Village, Comfort Suites World Golf Village offers 162 luxurious suites, exercise room, heated indoor pool, outdoor pool, and spa. Laterra Resort and Spa boasts 152 beautifully appointed condominiums as well as exceptional hotel, studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom suites. Located in the heart of the World Golf Village, The Residences at World Golf Village are unique three- and four-bedroom condominiums that include all of the luxuries and comfort of your own home. These three resorts are all conveniently located to the area's most popular attractions and courses as well as the two championship golf courses that World Golf Village boasts, The Slammer and The Squire, a Bobby Weed design named for golf legends Sam Snead and Gene Sarazen and The King and The Bear, an Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus collaboration that features loblolly pines and open meadows on the front nine and the natural beauty of 200-year-old live oaks with vast, shady canopies on the back side.

"Stay-and-play" resorts like Amelia Island Plantation, Ginn Hammock Beach Resort, and Sawgrass Marriot Resort offer world-class golf and amenities inclusive of the their respective facilities. Rated by Money Magazine as "One of America's 25 best Golf Resort Values," Amelia Island Plantation is a standard by which other resorts are judged. With 72 holes of championship golf situated around and on a beautiful stretch of North Florida's finest beach coupled with a variety of exceptional accommodations, Amelia Island Plantation is a highly popular golf resort and destination.

Not to be outdone, Ginn Hammock Beach Resort features an intimate lodge as well as outstanding villa and condo accommodations to go along with two championship golf courses designed by legendary golfers/golf course designers, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson. Just 30 minutes south of Jacksonville proper, Ginn Hammock Beach Resort is fast becoming a top choice in the area.

Sawgrass Marriot Resort offers access to the famed Tournament Player's Club Stadium Course and the TPC Valley Course and features 525 richly appointed rooms as well the Island Green Villas for guests staying at the resort. Additionally, resort guests enjoy a variety of recreational activities outside of golf including tennis on five different surfaces or lounging at one of the three pools onsite to name just two.

For the golfer looking for championship golf and excellent accommodations outside of the resort atmosphere, Jacksonville offers numerous opportunities all within reasonable driving distance and at a great value. Comfort Inn Orange Park, Fairfield Inn Orange Park, and La Quinta Inn and Suites Butler Boulevard are all centrally located to the city with easy access to the surrounding area and golf courses. Each of these hotels offers clean, spacious sleeping rooms with a wide variety of in-room and onsite amenities.

Additionally, a wide variety of championship golf outside of the resorts awaits the avid golf in Jacksonville. North Hampton is a unique Arnold Palmer design that weaves its way through ten spring-fed lakes lined by coquina boulders and wild grasses with rolling fairways and elevation changes of over 40 feet. The Golf Club at South Hampton is a great Mark McCumber designed course featuring 16 large lakes and over sixty contoured bunkers surrounded by acres of tall pines and native oaks. The Grand Club (Cypress Course) was renovated in 2005 to maintain course designer Gary Player's original concept of favoring strategy, club selection, and shot placement and is always considered one of the areas top courses. After major renovations this past year by The Hampton Group, The Grand Club's Pine Course is better than ever featuring new Floradwarf Bermuda greens, tree-lined rolling fairways and numerous well placed bunkers.

Other local favorites include Bent Creek, another great Bobby Weed design s always a great test. Known as "The Wild One," Cimarrone weaves its way around 17 lakes, creating a series of beautiful scenic views while challenging your game. A Robert Miller design opened in 1989, Deercreek is a seasoned masterpiece and always offers a wonderful test of golf with water on 17 of 18 holes. Eagle Harbour is also considered one of Jacksonville's finest layouts featuring multi-tiered greens, rolling fairways, and a variety of sand and grass bunkers. At the Golf Club at Fleming Island, Weed once again made great use of the natural surroundings and wove the 6800-yard layout through mature towering pines. The Clyde Johnston design at St. Johns Golf and Country Club is one of Jacksonville's most underrated courses who's the best feature might be the numerous sets of tees that stretch the course to over 7200 yards as short as 2400 yards from the family tees.