Orlando Golf - Course, Resort and Package Information

Already the greater Orlando area contains more quality golf courses open to the public than almost anywhere in the country, and still more are on the way. Yes, there's justifiable cause for envy, just don't hate Orlando for it.

As if the debuts of ChampionsGate, The Legacy Club at Alaqua Lakes, Magnolia Plantation, Legends of Clermont, and Mystic Dunes (are we forgetting any?) in the last 18 months weren't enough, the city now adds North Shore to its embarrassment of riches, a course that enhances an already gaudy portfolio and fortifies its southeast, the only quadrant of town lacking in superior public golf.

North Shore is the latest installment of architect Mike Dasher's ongoing coming out party. After tackling the sandy, hilly terrain of west Orange County at his much hailed debut course Highlands Reserve, Dasher went to work on the flat pastureland site of North Shore, so typical to eastern Orange County.

The course is located approximately seven miles southeast of Orlando International Airport near Lake Nona and is stylistically unique among the aforementioned tracks. It's a low-profile country course that slides around lakes and wetlands, then detours through a grove of large ancient oak trees before reemerging into the clear at the finish.

Aside from the picturesque oaks, the property didn't offer much in the way of naturally interesting features. The land for the first nine is rather common, spotted with some wetland areas but largely void of distinctive character. The second nine, on land opposite the clubhouse, wanders into the oak forest that provides scenic, pastoral frames to several of the holes.

The contrast between the two landscapes, and the question of how they would be utilized, was evident to Dasher from the beginning.

"North Shore, being in east Orange County, was a lower, wetter site obviously, but the back nine, with the big old oak trees that are down near the lake, is just gorgeous. The front nine offered its own set of challenges trying to route a good nine holes around some big cypress heads and wetland areas."

"The front nine is different than the back nine," Dasher elaborates. "It doesn't have the big oak trees but the front nine probably taxed my design abilities a lot more trying to come up with something that was attractive and enjoyable to play. I think we were able to do that."

The outgoing nine (as well as the 10th, 17th and 18th, which are of the same style) may not be thought of as pretty compared to some of the incoming holes, but it's on that side that the intriguing and more creative golf is found. Dasher, who oversaw Arthur Hills' southeastern projects from 1980 until 1996, has routed these holes to accentuate angles of play and to disguise optimum positions. The entrances to the greens are low and open to invite running shots. Mounds are frequently positioned short and to the sides of the entrances serving as bumpers as well as obstacles.