Karoo

Karoo opened in 2023 as Kyle Franz's first solo ground-up build, after a résumé built largely on his Donald Ross restorations at Mid Pines, Pine Needles, and Southern Pines. The 7,201-yard layout in Brooksville sits on what most architects consider Florida's best inland sand, rolling, undulating, and unlike the dead-flat coastal terrain the state is famous for. The design is deliberately maximalist: huge contoured greens, split fairways, multiple routes to most pins, and some of the most extensive bunkering on a new American course in years. Golf Digest called the design philosophy 'a bold statement: a maximalist design in a minimalist age,' and Golf.com framed it as the boldest statement in Florida golf. At a $165 GolfPass-listed rate, it sits in the upper-$$ band, well below trophy resorts but in line with other premium Florida resort one-offs. The Sandhill Cranes that wander the property gave the course its name (their call sounds like a rolling 'karoo').