Going for Golf

Florida’s Paradise Coast - Watch the birdies

Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Club

Naples has been chosen as the venue for just the 10th PGA Tour Superstore in the whole of the USA. The store is massive and has everything you could possibly need under one roof. It promises to bring the ‘Tour Van experience’ to the ordinary shopper – there is an indoor short game area complete with a putting green bigger than many golf clubs and even an indoor bunker to practise your sand shots.

For some variety, I recommend a visit to the town’s oldest golf course – the Naples Beach Hotel and Golf Club. Dating from the late 1920s, it is like a step back in time to an old-fashioned English parkland course. Legend has it that Scot Donald Ross – creator of Pinehurst no less – had a hand in the original design, while Ron Garl updated the design in 1980, 1993 and 1998.

In common with a number of Florida courses, Naples Beach has lost many specimen trees over time – yet it is still highly regarded and hosts the Florida PGA Seniors Open every year. It has been voted one of the top 50 women-friendly courses by America’s Golf for Women magazine, and is the perfect place for couples and young families to enjoy a round together.

The 10th and 18th holes stand out, with the former a testing dog-leg around the lake while the closing hole plays in the opposite direction.
The last, at a shade less than 400 yards, requires you to take on the water twice and the shorter the drive, the tougher the approach shot becomes. A great finishing hole. The perfect way to end the day is to go a couple of blocks down to the hotel’s beach restaurant HB’s On the Gulf, and enjoy a meal watching the sun go down over the Gulf of Mexico.

I would strongly recommend splitting your stay with a week in Naples and a week on Marco Island, just 40 minutes south, for some serious R ’n’ R with some golf thrown in too.