As you know my parents live in The Villages. A well-known secret is that residents (and apparently visitors!) get to play free golf on Christmas. While the executive courses are included in the HOA for residents, the championship courses are not. So this is a great chance for a freebie round of golf for the locals.

I’m surprised that visitors are included in the free golf, but I’ll take it! And, from what I’ve heard the free green fees on Christmas are quite popular with the residents. Apparently there are years where carts are stacked forty deep while people wait to tee off, since it is first come first serve.

Thankfully – at least from a pace of play standpoint – the weather helped. By that I mean the weather wasn’t very good at all! On Christmas Eve a storm blew through so it was about 35 degrees and windy when I teed off at 9:30am. Sadly, I think the high barely made it to 50. Apparently this Florida Christmas was the coldest in 20 years.

I showed the starter at Evans Prairie Country Club my visitor ID and headed straight to the 1st tee on the Killdeer nine. I paired up with a twosome for the 1st hole, but they encouraged me to continue on by myself. I took them up on their offer and played Killdeer quickly by myself. My next nine was Osprey and then I finished up on the Egret nine. The only waiting I did was on Egret when it sort of warmed up and everyone else came out to golf. All things considered the free green fees saved me about $90 for all 27 holes!

Evans Prairie is the fourth of the twelve championship courses in The Villages that I’ve played. Palmer Legends is my favorite so far, but for a community course I thought Evans Prairie was solid. I’d probably rank it second out of the four championship courses that I’ve played so far.

Ultimately, I thought the best nines at Evans Prairie were Killdeer and Egret. Compared to Osprey, I found Killdeer and Egret more engaging to play thanks to some clever water holes. Osprey felt a bit more bland, although it had a fun par-3.

Killdeer starts to get interesting on the 4th hole. The 4th is a long par-3 with water to the left and starts a good string of holes. The 5th and 6th also have water in play so I was happy to get through this group of holes only one over par. The 6th is 158 yards that was playing closer to 180 yards into the wind – and it is all carry over the pond! I also enjoyed the final three holes on Killdeer, which are wetlands holes and run along a natural area.

Egret is probably the most diverse nine when it comes to shots required. There are two long par-5’s, shorter par-4’s and there was some thought required while trying to work my way around the course. Depending on your comfort level you could be aggressive with driver or lay back to your favorite distance. Angles were also important while other holes had semi-blind landing areas. I thought there was a lot of variety on Egret.

Osprey has more of a residential feel compared to the other two nines and the houses seemed to overwhelm the design. The par-3 4th at 165 yards was my favorite hole on Osprey. It plays slightly downhill to a green complex with mounding to the left and a pond to the right. The green angles from front left to back right and reminded me of one of the par-3’s at nearby Havana Country Club.

Evans Prairie was in very nice shape, especially considering all the rain. Even though it was soft I could still drive the cart on the fairways. The fairways were tight and had a light green color to them. The tees didn’t look to be overseeded and some had a few bare edges to them. The greens were smooth and faster than the normal surface in The Villages.

Evans Prairie turned out to be a fairly interesting course and a great deal on Christmas. If you are staying in The Villages and looking to golf then I’d recommend Evans Prairie – especially the Killdeer and Egret nines.

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