For a actual links-style golf experience we discovered the Royal St. Cloud Golf Links, located in St. Cloud, about 25 minutes southeast of the Orlando airport or the Disney region. The Royal St. Cloud Links greet you with a rolling layout of links-style fairways, punctuated by classic links bunkers that feature names such as Hell, Spectacles, Devil's Pocket and Hoofprint. True to its link heritage, every club in the bag will be utilized as the terrain is naturally varied.
Unlike other Orlando golf courses, the Royal St. Cloud is free of charge of any residential developments and provides a pure golf experience. The style functions four sets of tees and from the blue tee provides a championship length of 7,111 yards and a 74.6 rating, all on flawless fairways and silky-smooth Tifeagle greens.
Its motto, as printed above the entrance to the club residence is "Original Golf Played Here", and indeed the Royal St. Cloud functions original style golf at its unpretentious perfect. I had a chance to talk to Bill Filson, the Director of Golf and given that 2002 co-owner of this facility.
Bill has an extensive teaching background. He has personally studied under some of the best-ranked teaching specialists and brings 12 years of teaching expertise that featured beginners to PGA tour professionals. Bill has consistently been a leading-ranked PGA Expert. The Royal St. Cloud's teaching staff is complemented by Dave Rummels who brings 17 years of useful PGA Tour experience with him and can share advice from the "Tour" with the students. Associate Expert, Doug Holloway, has 16 years coaching encounter.
At the Royal St. Cloud Golf Links the commitment to teaching the game of golf commitment consists of state-of-the art video equipment and even a teaching tent for inclement weather. Lessons, programs, and clinics are offered for each and every skill level and requirement. Bill explained that they run fairly reasonably priced children's clinics at $7.00 per clinic and the club has 120 members in their junior program. Ladies can also find out the sport with out embarrassment in a relaxed, comfy environment. And with each family members membership at the club youngsters play for free.
Bill prides himself on offering 1 of the greatest values in golf in the Orlando location. For the 2005-2006 season rates vary from $46 to $48 from November 1 to January 10, and $64 from January 11 to April 30, 2006. Discounted tee time rates
are out there right after 11 am or 12 pm respectively, 7 days/week. Bill went on to say that the fees at the Royal St. Cloud are constantly reasonable, and that he aims not to oversell his course, but to exceed the visitors' expectations.
In addition, he offers a very special proposition: a 100% cash-back guarantee with no conditions if you didn't enjoy your playing expertise at the Royal St. Clouds. He stated in the just about three years since he has run this course only 2 people today ever asked for a refund a phenomenal achievement, thinking about that quite a few tens of thousands of rounds are played here every single year.
One of the especially one of a kind capabilities of this course is the handcrafted stonework which is evident in 4 bridges found throughout the course that have been hand-built by 1 individual brick by brick. Bill said that some of the bridges are even a little bit crooked, just to give them even more character. The most renowned stone bridge can be found on the 5th hole and countless of the British visitors to this golf course come here particularly for this exceptional feature.
Bill explained that his golf course serves a value-based market that is composed of nearby residents, snowbirds escaping the cold northern winters, and British golfers, a extremely loyal crowd who refer this facility to many of their buddies back house.
The Royal St. Cloud Golf Links have been rated as 1 of the Leading 5 Most Underrated Golf Courses in the Orlando area and they have hosted the 2004 and 2005 British Junior Amateur. With its wide-open fairways the course looks deceptively straightforward, even so, I skilled rather promptly the special challenges provided by the Royal St. Cloud. Standard links golf is played on the ground, regrettably I still managed to locate water a number of times, regardless of the generously open fairways.
The other feature I truly enjoyed were a number of the ponds on the back nine of the course that were playing host to a selection of local wildlife and water birds. I particularly enjoyed watching a really rare specimen of wood stork stalking the edges of a pond for food, and a crane standing upright with stretched out wings. The course had a particularly relaxed, casual and friendly really feel to it and we enjoyed a tasty hot dog following our game on the stunning patio outside the clubhouse as a way to cap off a very enjoyable golf experience on a gorgeous day.
Driving Directions from the Disney Area:
Royal St. Cloud Golf Links is an hassle-free 25 miles from the Disney area.
(25-35 minute approximate drive time)
o Take Osceola Parkway to the Florida Turnpike
o Take Exit 244 to Hwy 192, turn left.
o Go four.6 miles to Vermont Ave, turn right.
o Take Vermont 2.1 miles to Creek Woods Road, take a left.
o Go only .7 miles to Michigan Ave, take a proper directly into the Golf Club.
Statistics
Par 72 Yards Rating Slope
Blue 7111 74.6 128
Gold 6680 72.2 125
Green 6083 69.2 115
Citrus 5531 66.6 111
For even more details please pay a visit to Royal St. Cloud Golf Links website or call them at (407) 891-7010.
