It’s no secret that Florida is chock-full of golf destinations. Streamsong, Hammock Beach, Sawgrass, Innisbrook – the list of outstanding places to play goes on and on. Add Cabot Citrus Farms to that list.
The day after the annual PGA Merchandise Show ended in Orlando, it was time to hit up Florida’s next great golf destination. Cabot Citrus Farms isab out 90 minutes west of Orlando and an hour north of Tampa. It’s not quite as desolate as Streamsong, but you do have to know where you are going to find it.
Turning into the property, there was a beehive of construction activity for a Saturday. The sound of workers busy hammering away and the annoying beep, beep, beeping of construction vehicles backing up were prevalent as we turned into the parking lot. A small, temporary golf shop serves as the jumping off point for the vast number of golfers who showed up to play what currently is the 18-hole Karoo course, the 10-hole Squeeze and the 11-hole, par-3 Wedge.
On this brilliant Saturday morning, it was former Met Golfer editor Jeff Neuman, myself and Alabama Golf News online editor and freelance golf writer Dan Vukelich teeing it up on the Karoo 18-holer.
We got directions to the first tee: Make a left out of the golf shop, another left at the main street, take a right at the end of the fence and that will take you up to the starter. We didn’t have time to hit a warm-up bucket – so we stepped up to the first tee ready to go, like it or not.
The first impression of the Karoo course, designed by Kyle Franz, is how visually intimidating it seems. Vast waste bunkers dot the course, waiting to gobble up wayward shots and even some good ones.
A line in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” famously details the sailor’s plight – “Water, water everywhere; Nor any drop to drink.” Stepping onto the first tee and looking out over a sliver of fairway, one could easily change Coleridge’s line to “Bunkers, bunkers everywhere; Nor any fairway to hit.” More
