After a chilly round on Christmas Day, I was at it again on Saturday for another day of being bundled up on the golf course. I think the high on Friday just barely got above 50 degrees and Saturday was the same way. It was all over the news that this was the coldest Florida Christmas in about 20 years!
However, instead of golfing a couple miles from where my parents live (as I did on Christmas) I headed about 80 miles south to the New Port Richey area to golf. There are so many courses I still have left to check out and Fox Hollow Golf Club – about a half hour from Tampa – is one of those Tampa area courses that I’ve heard good things about.
Fox Hollow’s claim to fame is that it is one of the final Robert Trent Jones Sr. designs. The course opened in 1994 and curiously Roger Rulewich is listed as the architect on the scorecard. I believe Rulewich worked with RTJ Sr., but it is interesting to see the scorecard credit RTJ Sr. for the design and Rulewich as the architect. In my simple mind, the designer and architect would be the same person. However, I’m not in the industry and obviously they can be different people!
Anyway, Fox Hollow turned out to be a solid course with plenty of interesting golf holes – especially on the back nine. The front nine has a good stretch from the 3rd through the 5th, but it is pinched by homes and I found it to be less interesting than the back nine. Overall, I expected a more natural setting for the course (at least in spots) compared to how things are routed.
The 5th, at 175 yards from the blue tees, was a great hole. The tees are out in an edge of a lake and you need to carry the ball completely over water to find the green. The green complex is also pushed into the water and surrounded by trouble. I took one extra club to carry the water, didn’t hit it squarely, but somehow managed to walk away with a two putt par. Nice!
The back nine has plenty of water in play as demonstrated by the 10th, 13th, 15th, 16th and 18th holes. All of these holes have an element of risk/reward to them depending on the lines you take. I thought the par-5 15th and par-3 16th were the most fun.
The 15th is 517 yards and slides right around water. Like that 5th green, the 15th green is also pushed out into the water. I hit a good drive and had 240 yards to the green, pretty much all across water. We had a bit of a wait for the group ahead and I went back and forth a couple times trying to decide if I should go for the green. I finally decided to take a big swing with my 3-wood and made it into a greenside bunker. This 15th is one example of the strategy involved at Fox Hollow.
I played the blue tees which are 73.5/135/6757 (par-71) and Fox Hollow will test you with your drives, approaches and the overall distance of the course. There is a lot of trouble here and some beefy par-4’s. Personally, I wish the 471 yard par-4 14th was an easy par-5.
I found a tee time for $60 and the price I’d certainly recommend a round here. Everything (besides the rough) was overseeded, although it was a bit soft and shaggy. In a few weeks the tees and fairways will be looking mint. The greens were smooth and rolled at a medium pace. The sand was not raked but it was a good consistency.
From my experience and what I’ve read I’d put Fox Hollow towards the top public courses for the Tampa golf scene – at least for a sub $100 green fee. The back nine has some great golf holes and created more nervous moments than I prefer! I’d say Fox Hollow is well worth the drive if you are in Tampa.
Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):