Category Archives: Florida Golf Trail

Spring Training Baseball Golf Trails, Fort Myers, Florida’s Minnesota Twins and Boston Red Sox

MLB’s Florida Grapefruit League has a long association with Fort Myers Florida. While Spring Training in Florida began in Jacksonville in the late 1800s, it didn’t really begin in earnest until the mid-1920s. Fort Myer’s first team was the Philadelphia Athletics in 1925, followed by the Cleveland Indians, the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Kansas City Royals who departed in 1986. Today, it boasts the Minnesota Twins and the Boston Red Sox in separate parks in south Fort Myers. at Hammond Stadium and Fenway Park South Jet Blue Park.

If you’re looking to get in a round of golf while in Fort Myers for a game, we’ve compiled a list of twelve of the best golf courses you can play from the major golf periodicals and user reviews. While there’s a total of over 90 private, resort, municipal, and public access courses in the area, it’s been whittled down to the most highly rated. Hopefully, next year, the Dunes Golf Club on Sanibel will reopen after restoration from the extensive damage caused by Hurricane Ian in 2022.

Best Spring Training Golf Courses, Bradenton, Florida’s Pittsburgh Pirates

Florida’s MLB’s Grapefruit League now boasts 15 teams playing in twelve different cities dispersed throughout the state from Interstate 4 South. The season runs from February 24 to March 31, and during this time we’ll profile the best public golf courses in the areas convenient to the stadiums.

First off, the Pittsburgh Pirates play at Lecom Park just south of downtown Bradenton and the Manatee River on 17th Avenue. It’s an ancient stadium built in 1923 and is the third oldest stadium currently used by MLB after Fenway and Wrigley. It’s a classic design as well, old Florida Spanish Mission white stucco exterior with covered bleachers-at least over the reserved seating.

There’s 60+ golf courses in the surrounding Bradenton/Sarasota area with a mix of private, municipals, or public daily fees. To save you time in finding the better courses to play, we list just eight of the best public golf courses you can play in the area which range from resort offerings to upscale semi-privates. Next year, we hope to be able to include the newly renovated Bobby Jones Municipal Golf Course where Richard Mandrell is tackling a presumably faithful restoration of a Donald Ross original design.

Yet another new golf course, open, at the moment to public play, in Florida

Stillwater Golf Club is on the south side of Jacksonville below I-295 and off I-95 at FL 210 to the west in a 55+ residential community by Lennar.

The golf course is at the upper level of daily fees in the area in the realm of the World Golf Village just up the road. It was designed by Bobby Weed, a protege of Pete Dye, whose most notes for many TPC designs while working for the PGA Tour.

Stillwater was cut out of a large forested/wetlands tract of land over generally level terrain but with rippling and mounded fairways. There’s absolutely no rough in play, but an abundance of water features and an assortment of conventional, pot, and revetted sand traps. There’s five sets of tees with the tips playing to 6,745 yards, 71.6/127, course/slope ratings.

The Florida Golf Trail

With over 1,000 golf courses, public, private, municipal, military, and resort, here’s a handy guide to the best golf courses and resorts you can play by city. Use our golf trails to find the best public golf courses and resorts you can play.

Miami Fort Lauderdale Palm Beach Port St. Lucie

Naples Fort Myers Sarasota Tampa

Destin Jacksonville Disney area North Orlando

Panama City Pensacola

If you’re looking for areas outside of the major cities, use our general Florida map page and the Google Maps function to zoom in and around the areas you’re targeting to play. Also, check out the Florida Historic Golf Trail featuring golf courses designed by many of. the golden age of golf course architects and included in our guide as well.