A RESORT ABOVE PAR
Streamsong in central Florida is a golfers’ paradise
The only clue we were in Florida was the autumn heat.
Standing atop one of Streamsong ’s 10-storey sand dunes and looking across the stark landscape, it’s not immediately clear which slice of golf heaven this is.
The 6,475-hectare property — and the fact that the nearest gas station is a 30-minute drive away — would suggest you’ve arrived in a far-flung corner of the golf kingdom. How is it possible then that we were at the Tampa airport just an hour ago?
Welcome to Streamsong Resort, where modern destination golf meets year-round sunshine.
Golf trips have evolved over the last couple of decades. Fewer players are satisfied to simply chase warm weather and play out the wash, rinse, repeat days of 36 mildly inspiring golf holes, a chain restaurant dinner, man-soup in the hot tub and then card games in the hotel room.
Nowadays, the best golf trips are found in places where the spirit of a truly special golf course extends to the clubhouse, the staff, the lodging and even the food.
At golf destinations across the pond, where the game had a few centuries’ head start, this synergy happens quite naturally.
Here in North America, creating a golf utopia takes great land, great vision, great sums of money and, even then, a fair bit of luck.
Streamsong resort shares much of the “if you build it, they will come” optimism of Oregon’s Bandon Dunes and Cape Breton’s Cabot Links, but with the ace in the hole that is the Florida sun. Here, there is no trade-off to be made between great experience and great weather, which has helped attract a discreet but long list of celebrities, athletes and power brokers to the resort over the years.
Streamsong opened in 2012 in Bowling Green centred on two golf courses: the Bill Coore- and Ben Crenshaw-designed Red course and the Tom Doak-designed Blue course, both ranked inside the top five in Florida by Golf Digest. Somehow the group managed to transform middle-of-nowhere Florida into part giant Irish dunes and part rugged North Carolina sand hills, creating a genuinely original land for golf.
Many of the fairways are large and inviting and much of the battle is figuring out the proper angles for your next shot. The Black course, designed by Gil Hanse, was added just over a year ago and it’s even bigger and barer and is giving Red and Blue a run for their money as it emerged as the caddy favourite from the experts in my group. Hitting fairways and greens at Black guarantees nothing as the putting surfaces are among the largest you’ll ever see, including the par4 ninth’s signature 1,200-squaremetre punch bowl green requiring a blind approach shot.
The end result at Streamsong is three minimalist golf masterpieces where a proper strategy means as much as proper contact, where the fast-rolling, sand-based turf almost always gives you the option to play the ball on the ground rather than the air and where the vast emptiness of it all can begin to trick your senses.
Buildings of any sort at Streamsong stand out like planetary outposts. You will see no houses on any of the courses — or, for that matter, anywhere on the 6,475 hectares. You will see alligators, be warned of snakes, hear wild boar bellowing in the distance and be told stories of Florida panther sightings. After dark, you will be asked to use the resort shuttle service rather than walk anywhere because there are very few lights and it gets mega dark. If you want to explore what’s out there, the cosmos are a better idea than the wildlife — we suggest staying safely near the resort and looking up at the endless stars.
Just because Streamsong doesn’t have 200 years of history doesn’t preclude it from having an interesting backstory. Born out of a reclaimed phosphate mine, the resort is owned by fertilizer giant Mosaic. The area was mined in the middle of the last century and, with a stroke of luck for golfers everywhere, somebody looked at the approximately 15 million cubic yards of sand that had been stockpiled and saw golf courses.
For a sport that finds much of its inspiration in the past, Streamsong’s stark, minimalist beauty can make you feel as though you’re walking in a futurescape. The glass club house at the Black course was named best new clubhouse this year by Golf Inc. magazine and the stunning main lodge could be mistaken for an art gallery, complete with a Megalodon jaw in the hallway. The massive fossil was discovered on site and is an immediate sign that this is no regular resort.
Although golf will always be at the heart of Streamsong, the sprawling resort also offers a unique spa experience at AcquaPietra, a stunning Europeanstyle grotto where you can get pampered and massaged before taking a plunge in one of six pools ranging from wonderfully hot to bone-shakingly cold.
Also nestled in the lodge’s lower lobby is the award-winning SottoTerra restaurant, which was the culinary highlight of our trip.
If golfing, eating and being pampered isn’t your thing, you can always go bass fishing, shoot some sporting clays, hone your archery skills or simply walk through the incredible nature trails — just be sure to get back before sunset.
If you love escaping to Florida in the winter, but have fallen out of love with run-of-the-mill Florida golf, get yourself to Streamsong, where it’s Westworld meets Linksland minus the robots and the ocean.