Hello From Orlando: Golf In Orlando -
Playing Links-style At The Royal St. Cloud -
Unpretentious Golf At Its Best
by Susanne
Pacher
For a real 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 area.
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 any residential developments and offers a pure golf
experience. The design features four sets of tees and from the
blue tee offers 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 house is
"Original Golf Played Here", and indeed the Royal St. Cloud
features original style golf at its unpretentious best. I had a
chance to talk to Bill Filson, the Director of Golf and since
2002 co-owner of this facility.
Bill has an extensive teaching background. He has personally
studied under some of the top-ranked teaching professionals and
brings 12 years of teaching experience that featured beginners
to PGA tour professionals. Bill has consistently been a
top-ranked PGA Professional. The Royal St. Cloud's teaching
staff is complemented by Dave Rummels who brings 17 years of
valuable PGA Tour experience with him and can share advice from
the “Tour” with the students. Associate Professional, Doug
Holloway, has 16 years coaching experience.
At the Royal St. Cloud Golf Links the commitment to teaching
the game of golf commitment includes state-of-the art video
equipment and even a teaching tent for inclement weather.
Lessons, programs, and clinics are offered for every skill
level and requirement. Bill explained that they run very
reasonably priced children's clinics at $7.00 per clinic and
the club has 120 members in their junior program. Ladies can
also learn the sport without embarrassment in a relaxed,
comfortable environment. And with every family membership at
the club kids play for free.
Bill prides himself on offering one of the greatest values in
golf in the Orlando area. 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
available after 11 am or 12 pm respectively, 7 days/week. Bill
went on to say that the fees at the Royal St. Cloud are always
reasonable, and that he aims not to oversell his course, but to
exceed the visitors' expectations.
In addition, he offers a very unique proposition: a 100%
money-back guarantee with no conditions if you didn't enjoy
your playing experience at the Royal St. Clouds. He said in the
almost three years since he has run this course only 2 people
ever asked for a refund; a phenomenal achievement, considering
that several tens of thousands of rounds are played here every
year.
One of the very unique features of this course is the
handcrafted stonework which is evident in four bridges found
throughout the course that have been hand-built by one
individual brick by brick. Bill said that some of the bridges
are even a little bit crooked, just to give them more
character. The most famous stone bridge can be found on the 5th
hole and many of the British visitors to this golf course come
here specifically for this unique feature.
Bill explained that his golf course serves a value-based market
that is composed of local residents, snowbirds escaping the
cold northern winters, and British golfers, a very loyal crowd
who refer this facility to many of their friends back home.
The Royal St. Cloud Golf Links have been rated as one of the
Top 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 simple,
however, I experienced very quickly the unique challenges
offered by the Royal St. Cloud. Traditional links golf is
played on the ground, unfortunately I still managed to find
water several times, despite the generously open fairways.
The other feature I really enjoyed were a number of the ponds
on the back nine of the course that were playing host to a
variety of local wildlife and water birds. I particularly
enjoyed watching a very 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 very relaxed, casual and
friendly feel to it and we enjoyed a tasty hot dog after our
game on the beautiful 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 easy 25 miles from the Disney
area.
(25-35 minute approximate drive time)
* Take Osceola Parkway to the Florida Turnpike
* Take Exit 244 to Hwy 192, turn left.
* Go 4.6 miles to Vermont Ave, turn right.
* Take Vermont 2.1 miles to Creek Woods Road, take a left.
* Go only .7 miles to Michigan Ave, take a right 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 more information please visit Royal St. Cloud Golf website
or call them at (407) 891-7010.
This entire article including photos is located at
http://www.travelandtransitions.com/stories_photos/orlando_royal_stcloud_golf.htm
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