My final round in Florida on this trip was at Palatka Golf Club, which was an out-of-the-way selection. From Ocala I headed through the Ocala National Forest, towards I-95. The town of Palatka sits along the St Johns River and there you will find Palatka Golf Club!
All in all it took me about an hour to get to the course from Ocala. I paired up with another single who lives in Jacksonville, which is also about an hour away. However, from I-95 it shouldn’t be more than 30 minutes!
Palatka is a course I’ve been curious about for a few years. The course has been on my radar because it is a Donald Ross design with some history. From what I heard Ross was there for some of the building of the course, but that seems to be based on some newspaper articles. Either way, he gets credit for the design! If any more architecturally-minded golfers want to comment below, please do.
Anyway, from what the scorecard says many great golfers have played here over the years, including Walter Hagen, John Daly and Greg Norman! I always love walking the same turf as some of the legends of the game.
After paying my $25 green fee I headed nearby to the 1st tee, where it was a zoo! Once we got going it was a 3.5 hour round, so not bad at all! The quick pace can be attributed to Palatka’s old-fashioned design. The course dates back to 1925 so all of the holes are close together and the course tops out at 6,020 yards from the blues. The rating and slope are 69.3 and 118, respectively (par-70). Palatka would be a good walking course as the tees are close to the greens.
The two things that stood out to me about Palatka were the sandy, rolling hills that the course covers and its clever green complexes. The course isn’t completely flat and has some minor elevation change to keep things interesting. Ideally, you’ll need to know exactly what part of the fairway to land the ball and you may want to shape shots to hold those landing areas. There are some semi-blind tee shots and Palatka has a nice sandy look to it.
As you’ll find at most Ross courses, the greens are the course’s most interesting feature! The greens here are small, have false edges and many look like upside-down coffee cups! That means you’ll need the perfect short iron to hold a green. You may even have to flight an approach down and try to skip it onto the surface. If your short game is good then you should be just fine around here.
I think the best holes at Palatka are going to be on the back nine. The 360 yard par-4 11th is probably the best-looking one! Some palms and oaks frame the tee shot and a waste area runs up the right side. I fanned it over into that waste area and had trouble picking the ball from the sandy lie and keeping it under more oaks!
The 13th is a 299 yard par-4 that potentially could be driven. It is one of those semi-blind tee shots and if you can hit it straight then the drive will catch a downslope and kick towards the tiny green. The green has a couple small bunkers guarding it. Of course if you hit it in the trees (like me) then you’ll have to hit a super shot to end up with a birdie putt.
Palatka was in great shape, a ton better than I expected! Everything was very green and cushiony with the overseed. I think the greens were overseeded too as they had a colorful look to them. The greens rolled nice and at a medium pace. I’m not sure you’d want to get the surfaces rolling too fast considering the overall severity of the green complexes.
The final thing I’ll say is that I think the course sets up better for a draw, so know that if you play here. There were some tough angles for me to navigate with my fade/slice. I had lots of fun during my round and would highly recommend checking out Palatka!
Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):