For whatever reason MetroWest was never really on my golf radar as a place to play in the Orlando area and I kind of backed my way into a tee time here. Part of the reason for that I think is that the website is not very good so I never paid any attention to the course. I have played many of the budget courses Central Florida and a friend and I wanted to keep the price reasonable so we decided to give MetroWest a try for $60 through EZLinks.com. The normal rack rate this time of year is $80 to $100 so we saved a few pennies. After the round we both ended up agreeing that we really liked the course.
The course is a Robert Trent Jones Sr. design and I was expecting a tough layout based on my past experience with his designs but my concern never materialized. We ended up playing the Blue Tees at 71.1/132/6619. The course is managed by Marriott Golf and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it is a resort course with wide fairways and plenty of space to find a wayward shot on most holes. The course has homes on the perimeter holes, but they did not bother me too much and never came into play. However, if someone is looking for a secluded round in the swamp somewhere, this is not the course to play. Even though I put together a good score, the course still could have pushed back on a bad day. Challenges came from firm conditions, rolling fairways that created some semi blind shots, quite a few fairways bunkers, and elevated greens. The par 5’s with some natural areas and water hazards were fun to play and could be scored on with a few decent shots. The 9th, a mid length par 4 that horseshoed around a lake, was my favorite hole. It required some strategy off the tee to keep it short of a tree in the fairway but allowed for a bail out right the whole way to the green. These are the type of golf holes that I love, the ones where I can go for the perfect shot for a chance of birdie or just flame it in a bailout area multiple times and end up with an outside shot for a par. The back nine climbed up a small rise with a view of downtown Orlando before ending with two very tough holes. The 17th is a deceiving par 3 that looked flat, but played a little uphill over a pot bunker and the 18th had a green guarded by water. The conditions were great as the greens were smooth and the fairways had few divots. The course was relaxing to play and only penalized really bad shots, something I think more courses should do. If someone is looking for a mid tier Orlando course MetroWest gets my vote.
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