The second nine of the day for me was over at one of The Villages newest courses. Apparently, Loblolly opened just a few months ago. My dad joined for this round and we headed down to The Village of Fenney.

Fenney is the newest “village” at The Villages and a good 20 to 30 minutes from most of town. My dad and I were over there last year to check out the putting course. Our hope was that the distance separating Fenney from the main parts of The Villages would result in fewer people golfing.

That plan worked out wonderfully as we ended up with the course to ourselves, which is unheard of at The Villages. We played in a little over an hour and had plenty of time to hit as many extra shots as we needed.

Loblolly is all par-3’s which range from 129 to 190 yards, from the back tees. It tops out at 1,452 yards, with a nice mix of yardages. It proved to be a worthy test too, partly because of the wind and partly because of the newer turf conditions. Those two things made the landing spots tiny targets.

Like many of courses in The Villages, Loblolly heads through the community. There isn’t much scenery and it is fairly spread out, with healthy distances between the tees and greens. A cart might be the best option here.

The highlight of Loblolly is likely three water holes. The 2nd, 4th and 5th have corners of water hazards which need to be carried to find the green. Those holes look good too!

The grass is newer and like all new courses, Loblolly could use some time to mature. Conditions were nice, but firm. That meant we had to allow for extra release. From my experience you cannot go wrong with any of the courses at The Villages when it comes to maintenance.

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