I left Central Florida early in the morning with the hopes of checking out something non-golf related on my drive back to Texas. My plan was to stop by Florida Caverns State Park and see if they had any cave tours that fit with my travel schedule. They did, so I spent a couple hours looking at stalactites and stalagmites. Of course, that isn’t the topic of this post, but if you want to stretch your legs along I-10 I’d recommend it.

After my cave tour I figured I had just enough time to get to Pensacola for a round of golf. I quickly scrolled through courses on Golfnow and booked a 2:30 PM tee time at Scenic Hills Country Club. The course looked to be close to the interstate and there were plenty of afternoon tee times. All I was really hoping for was to play most of the holes at a new golf course.

I paid my $40 – too much – and teed off a few minutes before my tee time. Two groups ahead were kind enough to let me play through and I finished up a bit before 5 PM. So, from a new course count the afternoon turned out great. However, from an actual golf course perspective, Scenic Hills left a lot to be desired. I say that in the nicest way possible because my experience with the staff was positive.

Even though this was my first visit, I got the impression that Scenic Hills used to be a very good course. The course opened in 1958 and the scorecard says it hosted the 1969 U.S. Women’s Open. That is something most places cannot claim. The other neat thing about the course is the land movement, which is its best quality. The “hills” part of the course’s name certainly makes sense.

The clubhouse sits at a high point with the 1st and 10th holes playing quite a bit downhill. Then, the closing holes on each nine play back uphill. Other holes have some elevation change to them as well, including the par-3 4th – my favorite hole. From the gold tees the 4th is 158 yards and plays about a club less because of the drop to the green. The green slopes from back to front and falls off into bunkers, so it is trickier than it looks.

I played the blue tees which are 71.7/130/6317. Scenic Hills is a par-71 with just three par-5’s. However, all these par-5’s are reachable and the longest is only 483 yards. The par-4’s are more difficult since they are fairly long when compared to the overall yardage. Something else that makes the course difficult are a handful of sharp doglegs. The 2nd, 7th and 9th holes all dogleg at harsh angles. The 7th is 428 yards and the best line for the tee shot is actually over a house. Hmm.

As I alluded to earlier in the post, the course appears to have fallen on hard times. The fairways and tees were playable, but not much more than that. I think the tees had a little overseed. The greens were a medium pace and rolled well. Unfortunately, there were many large bare spots throughout the course and the bunkers need to be re-done.

All I really care about when golfing on a travel day is playing quickly. So, my round here worked out perfectly. Still, I’d skip Scenic Hills for now until you hear reports it is in better shape. I think the course has potential, but it needs a lot of work.

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