On Saturday, after two days of driving into Orlando to golf, I decided to play closer to my parent’s house. My long-term goal is to play every public course in the area and I was hoping to use today to set up some options for my 950th golf course, likely next weekend. So, I wasn’t looking to spend a lot of cash on today’s round.
The Links at Spruce Creek South is 20 minutes from where my parents live and today seemed to be as good a day as any to cross it off my list. The weekend morning rate was $43 and I booked a 7:30 AM tee time to try to escape the crowds. My plan worked great as the round took a little over three hours, even after I paired up with a twosome. We played quickly!
The tradeoff for the fast round of golf is that we had to deal with the cold weather. November has been chilly in Florida and it wasn’t even 40 degrees when we teed off. Brr. Once we got to the back nine it warmed up and turned into a nice morning.
Spruce Creek is in Summerfield, between Ocala and The Villages. Like many courses in Florida, Spruce Creek is the centerpiece of a residential development and has many homes surrounding it. I think at one point there was another course here. I saw a couple skeleton holes while I was out golfing and the satellite view of the course seems to confirm my suspicion.
The course was designed by Terry Doss and opened in 1995. Doss is a local architect who has designed a few other courses in the area, including Stone Creek Golf Club which is located just north of here, in Ocala. I played Stone Creek back in 2015 and while the design wasn’t anything special, the course fits in well among the great collection of value courses in Ocala. Spruce Creek is a clear step down from Stone Creek, but I still had a nice morning adding a new course to my list.
Even from the back tees, Spruce Creek is a shorter golf course. It plays 6,406 yards from the blue tees with a rating of 70.7 and slope of 124. I played so poorly that my opinion on the difficulty might be skewed, but my initial reaction is that the rating and slope should be a bit higher. Most holes are not very challenging, but there are spots around the course that had me guessing where I should hit the ball. Mature oak trees, water hazards and a couple curious doglegs made my first time here more difficult than I expected.
For example, the 4th is only 284 yards and tempts you to hit driver up near the green. That is what I tried but didn’t hit it high enough to carry all the trees. My ball kicked back into the fairway and then I tried to hit a wait-high 100 yard shot through the oaks. That didn’t go so well either. Then, the 9th and 10th are sharp doglegs to the left. Sadly, I didn’t carry the junk on the 565 yard 9th hole and was surprised to find water close to the 10th green. The 15th is a short par-5 and I faced a 225 yard second shot from the fairway, but had to try slicing a driver under the trees that overhang the fairway. If you aren’t in the right spots then shots can get more challenging, trust me.
Regarding the conditions, I was pleasantly surprised. As things stand right now the course is in its final stages of overseeding and it was lush. The tees, fairways and greens have been overseeded and were a bright green. Everything was a little long and damp. The greens were slow and needed a big hit to get putts to the hole. A couple greens were struggling on the back nine, but from what I’ve read Spruce Creek is in much better shape now compared to recent years.
At the end of the day, Spruce Creek is designed for the locals and it serves that purpose well. It is quite playable with a handful of holes to keep a golfer honest. If you live within a half hour and haven’t played here, I say give Spruce Creek a try. However, the course shouldn’t be too high on anyone else’s list.
Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):