I met up with a friend in Palm Coast for a few days and we played four rounds of golf together. Wednesday was our first day of golf and we played two short courses, then 18-hole courses on Thursday and Friday. First up was Ocean Palm Golf Club.

So, I won’t spend much time on this review. Sadly, there aren’t too many positive things to highlight about Ocean Palm right now, besides it is a good value and the course occupies a nice piece of land. Other than that, the course is going through some tough times. And maybe it has been that way for a while. I read the course closed in 2008 and re-opened in 2013.

Ocean Palm is a shorter 9-hole course that is located between the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean in Flagler Beach. There was a nice coastal breeze when we played and we saw a bird rookery to the left of the 4th tee box. Not sure what type of birds were nesting there, but that was cool to see.

Regarding the layout, the course is a par-33 that is 2,318 yards. Most of the holes run parallel to each other, separated by palm trees and mounding. There are three par-3’s and six par-4’s, with all the par-4’s being fairly short. The 6th and the 8th are probably the most interesting par-4’s because of water hazards that guard the greens. The 6th is only 250 yards and could be driven if someone can fly it onto the green. Plenty of risk doing that, so a tee shot pin high to the left would be a good idea.

Now that I’ve got all that out of the way, the conditions were awful. No other way to say it. There was very little grass on the tees and the fairways. The greens had more consistent grass coverage, but that isn’t saying much.

So, summing it up – Ocean Palm has good bones and the potential to be a fun short course. I guess any course that hasn’t closed these days is a good thing, but based on the conditions it is hard to imagine Ocean Palm attracting many repeat customers. In its current state, it is one you’ll want to skip.

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