Streamsong Resort
In January 2013, Red co-opened with the Blue, the Black followed in 2017 at a separate clubhouse. The Mosaic Company owns the lunar landscape - courtesy of Phosphate and Potash mining located about 30 minutes south of Lakeland, FL, off I-4 in Bowling Green, FL. It is a marvelous land reclamation project where strip mining left water-filled scars on the earth and tailings piled high like newly ten story buildings. I knew this land from the 1970's when driving the shortcut/scenic route from West Palm Beach to Tampa, FL. There is a special tranquility to this land Mosaic is aware of the heritage and indigenous peoples. Native Americans are a significant part of the personnel employed here.
Golf Digest perennially has it in its second 100 along with the other two courses. Currently - as these numbers are always in flux we find the Red at 118, the Blue at 148 and at 169 the Black, each of the three a little lower of about the same as in the previous ranking. All three are ranked in the Top Ten in Florida.
Golfweek has the Red scored at 7.51, Black at 7.37 and Blue 7.32 for a second order of preference. Golfweek is known to have a greater preference for 'Quirk" but also as with seemingly every panel a preference for Coore & Crenshaw. Golfweek's rating system is used across several platforms to provide comprehensive guidance for golfers across Modern vs. Classic design, Public Access vs the Private clubs, Resorts, Casinos, University Courses - providing several ways to gain perspective across different sets of courses. Public in state of FL, the three courses fall into 2, 3, 4 behind the venerable TPC Sawgrass - which at almost $900 per round in season is #1. Nationally in places to play we find Streamsong at Red 18 Black 22 and Blue 24. In Modern Courses built since 1960 the rankings are Red 37, Black 50 and Blue 53.
Golf Magazine Top 100 USA has Red and Blue 86 and 92.
My personal opinion is that this is the most comfortable of the Top AmericanModern Resorts. With three truly top notch courses in the most laid back and affordable of resorts, one cannot go wrong. My two nits are - it is hard to get someone to answer the phone when calling in from the outside and the sand on the connecting paths is too much like walking on the beach - rathe tiring. Really hardcore criticisms indeed. I have gone back and forth over the courses to pick an order and I'm not going to tell you there is a clearcut 1 -2 -3 order; it will probably relate to which you played last. Red and Blue are for the architectural novice nearly indistinguishable. Blame that on the initial co-routing by Tom Doak and Bill Coore including some swapping of holes for each final 18 to some degree and also to the respect of the land not to leave too obvious a footprint behind. Black is easily the most different and is rather different for Gil Hanse although I saw echoes of at least 4 previous courses and foreshadowing of Whoopee Match Club and CapRock Club on site. The accommodations onsite are marvelous but Lakeland and Tampa are not so far away as to be much a chore and if in Tampa, one can go for the fabulous little Cuba and all Ybor City has to offer and one of the USA's most revered (if a bit of a museum piece with hit-or-miss service) steak joints Bern's Steak House. At the very least save night before heading home to have a steak and rare wine or three at Bern's.
On this trip I walked and it was too much work with all the sand on the paths pushing my cart to take any worthwhile photos. If one needs a tour or more of a look then I provide I refer you to the Bausch Collection at myphillygolf.com where Dr. Joseph Bausch has extensive, continuously updated photos of too many courses taken from the golfer's perspective.
So there are no new visuals of note today.
Overall: The courses are too slow and too wet, notably changed since 2018 and especially 2014. The greens are super massive - especially on the Black, sometimes 6-8 in one - a bit overdone and detractive to me, very much so. Conditioning is fine but it could be better. The prices of playing are more reasonable than some other famous destination resorts so I'm OK with paying a little less for less that Kinloch conditioning. Trees are never a problem anywhere and I find the outbuildings worth a study of their own with the Black Clubhouse just sublime.
BLACK
The Black was first up with a beautiful day that actually could have used some wind. It actually is the easiest walk and the most efficient routing, the second nine being a breeze. From the porch making a series of phone calls and knowing what was going on a 50's-ish Japanese fellow playing by himself and carrying walked 12-18 in 1:15 - truly THAT is "Golf as it was meant to be". I suspect he knew where he was going and easily found every shot, but that's still an endorsement!
Hanse/Wagner have always been known for half-par holes and they do them almost to a fault. Sometimes there are just too many holes (especially for the Joe/Jane golfer that are in that long 4/Par 5 range as all play a three shot holes unless the drive is perfect. The Par 5's are a nice set with#1 having strategic flexibility depending on pin position, but not much really going on. I think Hole # 4 is a superb hole with the play on both sides of the wash - cross me now or cross me later. There is some merit to playing to the end of the lower fairway as one plays into the contours of the green and the runaway ball on hitting the green is less of a problem. Hole # 10 has a lovely zig-zag bunkering pattern that allows strategic play and if one has only played a few times there is much foreshortening and deception visually. Twelve uses angles requiring you to play further left at least once from the line of charm. A forced carry on the end of the final shot is very deceptive. The 18th is a template style hitting to a near ideal spot adjacent to a water penalty area to go for a shallow green. Laying up one is faced with a very deep green to gauge the distance appropriately. Still the hole does very little for me. Par 5 holes at 1 AND 18 is a bête noire for me. Nonetheless the fives are rathe varied with three excellent ones.
Par 3's mercifully avoid the looooong tedious type opting for a much more strategic or distance control option. 211 is as long as they get. The routing does very well to wait until hole 5 for the first one-shotter. It features a gash in the earth on the right to be avoided at all costs. The green while generous is featuring contours which allow safer strategic play. One sees only a fraction of the putting surface form the tee and it a good part of that is severe slope on the right - green in name only. I love this sort of hole and Hanse/Wagner do them very well. Seven is shortish and offers a cogwheel sort of green for lack of a better name - large with a number of lobes. 15 is very short and shallow a mere slit. Short does not mean easy. Seventeen has changed dramatically since the corse got softer once one could rely on a hard left to right kick and a shot hit short to release. Thus relying on memory, expecting release and a 10 footer,, I got 30 feet instead. A massive green, this hole really evokes the last par 3 at Chambers Bay (15?) for me.
The Par 4 holes. I love the severe angle of necessity from the left to this very demanding green, but it is a one-trick pony. 95% of the fairway is there to misdirect you. Those who have played Applebrook outside of Philadelphia will remember the way to play the third. Hanse & Wagner use the cross water hazard and the outright Hell's Half-Acre often on 4's and fives, they certainly have restored a lot of them. Six functions as a bunker less Bottle hole a bit like C&C's 14th at Bandon Tails. It is challenging to hit the ball left enough to get the best angle and take the bunkers out of play. If left enough one gets to gauge th release down the fallaway green. A great take on a favorite template. Nine has the massive punchbowl. Eleven reportedly has the largest green area of any single green in the USA although Banks Forsgate #5 may have something to say about that. A generous fairway invites your hardest hit which the length requires. Thirteen now plays exclusively to the left green, the right has been deemed to unreceptive for now and while maintained is merely passed on the way to the drivable 14th with its cruel green. Love it or hate it, it's a fun Holland a pitch from hole high right is probably statistically safer than a full on drive at the green. Eagles are very rare, doubles much more common. Sixteen plays at a beautiful angle; know where to air at, left or right of the stairs and play the reverse Redan green contours.
Overall the course suffers from the lack of firmness and the excessively large greens it overall drops to third for me by a very small margin. Still, what a trio of courses.
BLUE
The biggest thing that I forgot is how much up and downhill there is in the first eight holes, add to that the extremely long finish (I'll get to the how & why of that on both Red and Blue (due to the commonality of initial routing) and Blue slipped a little in. my rankings, yet the courses are tighter overall. I'll get to routing of Red and Blue in Red as I think both courses suffered in flow due to the routing and trading of holes. Could I do better? Not my point, but Tom Doak is the master of routing from a top and many feelBill Coore is a top router - but he gets so many properties to discard (and I know he was unable to route Boston Golf Club and made a recommendation that Hanse do it). Close in to the clubhouse, certainly through hole 7 or 8 the routing is near flawless. One can argue that 5 could have been eliminated and used elsewhere but that's moot at this point. Integral to the overall plan was for each of the two designers to have a hole across the lake - coming at 7 for Doak and 16 for Coore. This is of course where things start to go wonky - returning to this spot for C&C more a problem than Doak building his hole. It's the northeast part of the original part of the property where to me some of the holes just seem to be filler. Too many par 4's in a row is a detriment to a good routing as the variety can be quite the challenge to execute and too many par 4 holes of the long variety often ensue (with or without a Par 5 thrown in - creating spots where one - when trying to reconstruct a routing post round often wavers or fails to remember the holes and routing properly. Brad Klein taught me to draw out the course routing after a round and I must admit I had done it in difficult circumstances since I was a kid awhile course design so greatly impacted me in my overall love of golf.
Par threes on Blue vary immensely and give the player a treat. Hole five could have appeared in the routing anywhere but nonetheless is clever in that the green is so long and narrow and on an angle. The diagonal green on par 3 holes is a staple of strategic design - Jack Nicklaus liked to orient said greens closer left and longer right such that it risks missing the putting surface. The opposite orientation allows an extra fudge for both the draw/pull and push/fade - more equitable or fair and applicable to longer Par 3's as a mode of forgiveness. This hole at Blue is a nifty one and very short. Seven is the photographic par three over water and the green is massive with contours to aid the player and sometimes not. The front left bunker is massive but requires walking fully around it from the bridge to enter it ... Ten is fairly straightforward as a mid iron - one must negotiate green contours and clearly pay attention to the diagonal orientation of the left bunker. Sixteen is very heroic in its very long length enhanced further by being maybe 20-25 feet uphill with 160 - 240 requiring a longer club from regular Joe and Jane golfers. Fortunately it is firm enough that a solidly topped ball (oxymoron alert) can run all the way and reach the green (the shot I unintentionally hit due to tired knees and a wait). I would mind this long three less if it weren't in such a queue of long, longer and longest holes. Par 3 holes nearly always back up play especially coupled with Par 5 holes in a sequence or especially early in a round. This one only ticks two boxes. Playing Blue and Red really teaches one a lot about routing.
Par 5's are varied and relatively interesting. The second hole evokes Ballyneal for me - a positive in itself - but the green is the star with some smaller lobulations and direction of approach able to be varied. THE second slot after a short par 4 works really well. The tee shot (blind only once) on nine over a seeming wall is a great start to nine adding even more play length but still reachable in three with a flub. Left pins can seem tucked but contours feed for you and it's a very positive feel good hole if nondescript - another function of the routing taking this part of the routing to very dull land. Doak dealt with dull land at Pacific Dunes (One of the highest ranked Modern designs) eating up the space and creating joyful green site twice and parallel, here there's just 9 as this is one lonesome end of the routing over dull land. (Par 3 10 is followed by an inserted walk to get to a long Par4 [11] with an unbunkered green).Fourteen on first glance/visit seems as if it is playing around one of these central Florida hole-in-the-ground water features but instead turns up the hill with a very nice bunkering pattern when negotiated properly allows the shortest possible route. This putting surface is the cousin of the Par 3 16th. Seventeen from back tee to back of the green is solidly over 700 yards, much of it uphill, but at this point Doak was left with a long journey back to Blue/Red clubhouse. These last 4-5 holes have always backed up every time I've played Blue and all being so long - coming when the player is either tired (us of age and arthritis) and wanting to get that first Gin & Tonic or really raring to go young bucks ready to attack. Again, the shared routing had to have something to do with this as this is not what I have seen from Doak. Sure #18 at Pacific Dunes seems 3 miles long but it's the end and the Redan 17th holds everyone up just enough to not have a wait to hit. I do have to say for such a long hole Tom made it extremely interesting with a wonderful bunkering pattern including a diagonal of bunkers at a step in the elevation negotiable at a number of points minimizing or maximizing the number of years consumed. I suppose for the Bucks and tournament play this comes at the right time, but most golfers would rather tackle such a hole in the early part of the second nine while still full of spunk. I really like this course, but its finish seems a bit unfortunate to me.
The Par four holes are of a joyous variety starting with a nicely staggered bunkering used on a short first hole (max.338) from a dune climb elevation. This climb introduces you to one of Streamsong's glaring faults even before you start - paths are like walking on the beach and it gets really old with a trolley. I don't know if they just re-sanded them but there is far too much and far too fine sand on these paths. Holes 3 & 8 are much too similar and go in the same direction, they are easy to confuse in re-creating your post round routing. Four is to me one of the finest Par 4 holes on the entire property with the green site perched atop a little cliff (In FL?) and thus semi-blind. A huge blowout on the right side of the escarpment leaves little doubt as the way to go. Putting surface mostly slopes back to front and is welcome with the elevated approach. The short sixth is another of my favorite Par 4's with the potential for drivability and a fall-away green especially if you approach from the left with a pitch that might not be spinning very much - thus approach between the large right bunker and the centrally located on is often the better choice - but not always. Eleven through thirteen is three in a row and they are different enough to make this OK, especially 11 being a narrowed landing area with an unbunkered green, twelve being a devilish set of hazards and penalty areas to be avoided and twelve a short hole with a green best hit on the front third and then controlling the runaway, I find it hard to imagine hitting this green past midway and not rolling over. Fifteen is long but fun with a semi to blind approach to a tiered (on the L) green - a satisfying par. Eighteen has an elevated ridge in the fairway to get over and a simple (if hard L>R tilted) green. The second nine fours do less for me and I think it is because the land from the shared routing gave all the good stuff to the first nine of the two courses.
RED
When there were just two courses I took a friend from Scotland to Streamsong for his birthday one December and I asked him to choose the course as we had time for only one. He picked the Red as many do, partly because he had not yet played a Coore & Crenshaw course but Bill & Ben do so few courses - just two a year - and most are for high end clients. Golfers love the attention to fairness - who can blame them. THis duo, especially in the public arena builds fair golf courses, Sand Valley being the most fair of the lot, this is likely the least. Did the simultaneous work with Doak encourage that? Sixteen may be the least fair hole they have ever built - 14 at Bandon Trails which originally caused an uproar is mild by comparison.
The Red was of course co-routed with Doak's Blue and one astute in differentiating the two's work can see what went on. The first nine starts with perhaps C&C's most stout first hole anywhere and loops around a large tailing for six holes then it sticks to the outside of the two courses for the majority of the remainder of the routing. The routing turns in on the par 3 14th to allow the par 3 16the to be part of the routing. The greens are a bit more contoured, that is LARGE contours than one generally sees, the little snake and egg contours prominent at some of the duo's courses is not prevalent. A gentleman I know who is good friends with Bill Coore once told me that Coore had told him that he had evolved beyond strategic to random at one point in his career. Designing so can make long putts slow and problematic to read just because there are so many little contours to consider. Not much of that is on the Red.
Par 3's are well-placed in the round with the first not appearing until the sixth aimed towards the clubhouse. As a result the times to play the Red are often faster or on par with the other two courses despite the pedometer showing most masters are required to complete the Red. Number 8 is the short hole - often a favorite of Ben Crenshaw's. 14 is also medium length about as #6 is and the modified Biarritz completes the set being the longest. Sadly the set of threes leaves little to solve nor remember.
Par 5's - hole 2 is an easy solve if you can carry the water, but after the demanding tee shot on hole #1, it ought to be a snap. Hole #7 is a beauty sharing some of the strategy of the boundary hole at Talking Stick North. Of interest is the fairway past the green and the placement of the green fairly hard to the penalty area left. It's a short five so the long hitter had better know what's actually there and what the green contours are or suffer misery. For the longest of hitters, this is functionally a long Par 4.Playing a bit downhill, hole 13 is enhanced by blindness of the green. Again experience is your friend but these fives are the birdie holes. Not gimmes, mind you but legitimate changes. Eighteen is uphill all the way with some staggering of the bunkers but find the actual back tee if you think it's too short.
Par 4 holes are the meat (?) with a stout starter, but it is a bit dry and safe. Three and four are more diminutive and nicely bunkered, two of my favorites. Five is along the waters edge, not exactly groundbreaking. Nine may be the best on the property, once drivable for me, not so much with that loss of distance with age. A really fine hole. 10 - 12 seems to me to be another product of the shared routing process, there is nothing but length on either course in the northwest of the combined property. An architectural editor called 15 "The best hole on the property, but it is just long and uphill, droll when it was Driver 4-iron for me, now it is just a 3-shot Par 4. Ugh, just like the long Par 3 - haven't we had enough of these in modern golf? Seventeen is a nice fallaway hole but probably not ball-busting enough for some.
So that northeast with a couple of awkward crossovers - co-routing and sharing the water feature near the clubhouse to blame. Red routes you around the horn with long Par 4's a par 5 with a mostly blind green to play a somewhat blah Par 3 followed by the manliest Par 4 (even moreso than the opener) the odd Biarritz and two finishers I often hear complaints about. The two cross-overs are very awkward - on the Blue the hardest uphill sandy walk over the sandy path (hole 7 to 8) tuckered out even the most fit in my group. Crossing back over at 13-14 on the Red with its attendant second Blue crossover create less exciting holes in my book. Looking this co-routing over and over, I tried and have tried to think what could have been better. The Red really benefited from the addition of the routing around the hill on the first five holes - land not used in the original co-routing, but I feel suffers in the northwest.
I will add a discussion of Red - Blue routing. I've been losing sleep over it and some of the original holes drawn for "Blue" that didn't get built as the land went to the current Red and that stretch is very unexciting to me.
