My original plan was to start the drive back to Dallas on Friday. I hoped to stay a night or two in the Destin area again and hit up a couple courses up there. But, Friday looked to be cold and cloudy in the Florida Panhandle. So I scratched my plans for a couple days at the beach and decided for one more day in Central Florida and a round at Candler Hills Golf Club in Ocala.

Unfortunately, the weather didn’t turn out to be much better in Central Florida! Some storms moved through last night and the forecast called for breezy conditions (60ish for the high temp) with some afternoon sun. Well, I think the sun broke through the clouds for about five minutes and the wind was annoyingly stronger than forecasted as well.

Besides the weather I enjoyed my experience at Candler Hills and the course fits in well with the many quality golf options in the Ocala area. Ocala likely won’t be a city in Florida you’ll consider for a golf vacation but the locals are spoiled with all the quality courses in the area!

Candler Hills is located in a newer retirement community southwest of downtown Ocala. The course is part of the Top of the World Community, which actually has three golf courses in it. Candler Hills allows public play while the other two courses are only for members. I played with a couple members and from what they said they enjoy this course the most out of all three.

Candler Hills is a Gordon Lewis design that opened in 2005. The course is a residential course and there are plenty of houses around it. So, if houses on a course bother you then you might want to skip a round here. However, if you can get past all the nearby homes then I think you’ll find that Candler Hills has a cool sandy look to it.

I thought the course had a members feel to it – and by that I mean it was very playable. The course’s main defense are its tough-to-putt greens. I played from the green tees which are 71.4/125/6589. The design is straightforward and won’t penalize anyone too much. There aren’t any water hazards, the fairways are wide and the greens are large.

The most memorable hole at Candler Hills for me was the par-5 4th hole. The 4th tops out at 662 yards from the black tees (620 yards from where I played) and plays uphill. To further complicate things, it was into the wind when I was there. I ended up hitting driver off the tee, driver off the deck and still had a 3-wood into the green.

I paid about $45 and the conditions were good, although everything was dormant. The course looked worse than it played because of the cloudy sky and the pale fairways – which I think were painted. The greens were slick and the sand was quality.

Candler Hills is a decent course and one I’d like to try again on a nicer day. There is nothing really memorable here but at the same time there is nothing offensive about it either. If you are in Ocala and haven’t played here before then Candler Hills is certainly worth a look.

Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):