Background

Streamsong Resort is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, but their story starts over 50 years ago when the Mosaic Company started mining phosphate across the 16,000-acre site in Central Florida. To mine phosphate, the land must first be cleared. Next, large draglines are used to scoop up large amounts of soil. Over time, the mining process creates deep pits and massive piles of soil. After mining the Polk County site, the Mosaic Company decided to try and repurpose it into a golf resort.

When world-renowned golf course architect Bill Coore first visited the property about a dozen years ago, he was blown away, stating that the site contained “some of the most unusual, interesting and dramatic landforms we have ever encountered.” Coore convinced design partner (and former Masters champion) Ben Crenshaw, as well as fellow golf course architect Tom Doak, to visit the site. They, too, were impressed with Doak stating that “the variety of the contours created by the mining process is unique for a project in Florida— or anywhere in the Southeast.”

Their teams worked on the routings and construction of the courses at the same time. Coore drew his routing with a red Sharpie and Doak drew his with a blue Sharpie, and thus, the courses were named the Red and Blue. Along with the courses, a modern lodge was built and Streamsong opened to the public in 2012. The Red and Blue courses quickly found themselves in every major Top100 ranking, and the rest is history!

The first tee at the Blue course sits atop of one of the highest dunes on the property, overlooking a good portion of the Blue and Red courses. You immediately think to yourself, “we’re not in Florida anymore”.

Courses

Blue & Red

The Blue and Red courses share the same plot of land, as well as a clubhouse. The Blue course routes on the interior of the plot and the Red course routes along the exterior. Both courses were recently regrassed with a new, finer strain of bermuda grass called Mach-1. We found the putting surfaces at Red and Blue to be fantastic and superior to Black, which are not Mach-1. The Red course has more water in play, and we found it to be the most difficult of the three regulation courses on site. The Blue is very generous off the tee but has bite on the greens, which are highly contoured. Both courses are easy to walk and offer long views across the property. If you’re trying to squeeze in 36 holes in one day and are pressed for sunlight, we’d recommend playing the Blue and Red since they are faster to walk and on the same property (versus the Black which requires a shuttle). FYI – we didn’t see replay rates advertised on the resort’s website but they are 50% off the first round rate.

This picture shows you the scale of the “Biarritz” green, which has a massive swale cutting through the center, on the 16th hole at the Red course. All courses are very walkable but carts are available for $35 per person per round.

Black

The Black course opened in 2017 and was designed by Gil Hanse and partner Jim Wagner. It’s on a separate site about a mile from the Red and Blue courses with its own clubhouse. Black is a big course with wide fairways and some of the largest greens in the United States. The greens at Black average 11,000 square feet and, according to our database, Black is only one of 10 courses in the country to average over 10,000 square feet per green. It was the most polarizing course amongst our group because it’s so different from the more traditional Red and Blue courses. Some had it ranked as their favorite, but others had it as their least favorite. At the end of the day, we think variety is a good thing at a resort with multiple golf courses. We played the Black course first on our most recent trip, which we’d recommend if you have the option. It’s the most forgiving off the tee and a great warm up course, especially if you haven’t played in a while.

The 18th hole on the Black course is a fitting way to close out a round on one of the biggest, boldest courses in the United States

The Gauntlet & Roundabout

The Gauntlet is an 18-hole putting course adjacent to the Black course clubhouse. It starts out with a gentle handshake, but the green contours get bigger and bolder as the round progresses, hence the name. If you can make it through The Gauntlet at the end with two putts per hole you will be in great shape! It’s an energetic place to be in the late afternoon.

The Roundabout is a seven-hole, par-3 course that is right next to the driving range at the Black course. The holes range from 70 to 150 yards so you only need a few clubs. There is a large open space in the middle of the course so if there aren’t many groups out, you can create your own holes. This was a really fun and unique experience. We don’t know of too many horse courses like this outside of Prairie Club in Nebraska. There’s space for short par-4’s, a long par-4, and perhaps even a short par-5. We played match play where the winner of the hole picked the next hole and it was up to their imagination!

The 4th hole on The Roundabout is one of the best par-3’s on the property – a shortie where you must hit the green or else! We played this as a short par-4 during our round where we made up holes and it was a tester!

The Roundabout scorecard, with the proposed holes in black and the holes that we made up during our match in red!