Southern Dunes Golf & Country Club

Steve Smyers opened Southern Dunes in Haines City in 1993, a 7,192-yard par-72 layout built explicitly as a Florida interpretation of British and Irish links golf. The routing uses the undulating, sandy, free-draining site to good effect, with mounding shaped to emulate links dunes rather than the flat-and-featureless default of Central Florida courses. Massive traditional sand bunkers and blow-out-styled waste bunkers frame every landing zone, with occasional strategic water hazards to break up the inland rhythm. Greens are large, slick, well-contoured, and rebuilt with Champion Dwarf Bermuda. Fairways are Bermuda. Peak green fee runs $50-95 depending on season, exceptional value for championship-length links-style golf with elevation changes up to 100 feet in Central Florida. Fits a Streamsong-area expansion trip as the 'second card of the morning' round when you want a different architectural voice than the Streamsong minimalist rota.