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By Bill Sangster

Eagle Ridge Golf Club, located in Del Webb’s Spruce Creek Country Club, about an hour and 20 minutes northwest of Orlando, has provided residents of  Summerfield and The Villages a premier golf experience since 1999. There are four nine-hole golf courses here for your enjoyment: Champions, Memorial, Masters, and Heritage.

The clubhouse features a fully stocked pro shop, a full-menu restaurant open for lunch and dinner, plus banquet facilities for 250 people. The extensive practice facility includes a targeted grass driving range, four putting greens, and three other greens for sand practice and chipping.

Golf rates – the before 11 a.m. weekday 18-hole rate for visitors is $45, while weekend rates are $35. The nine-hole rate is $27 before 3 p.m., and $20 after 3 p.m. Tee times are scheduled eight minutes apart with the target time for an 18-hole round at 4 hours-30 minutes. Coolers are not allowed on the golf course.

All four courses at Eagle Ridge Golf Club were designed by Terry Doss who was determined to not make this golf course another flat and boring course usually found in Florida. Rolling fairways, large greens, pine-filled ravines, changes in elevation and magnificent vistas from all areas of the course make for a great golfing experience for both novice and avid golfers.

Six sets of tee boxes play to distances and slopes that vary depending on which combination of the 36 holes are played. This is a player-friendly course, with enough tee boxes for golfers of any skill level to enjoy. Today’s round was played on the the Memorial/Heritage combination that played the white tees at 5356 yards and the red tees at 4596 yards.

The first couple of holes on the Memorial Course played much longer than expected. The fairways were still soft from the affects of Hurricane Nichole, and the tees were placed at the back of the tee boxes. The dogleg right 4th hole had some major damage to the back half of the green that made any putt from that section impossible to play without relief. More