Florida resort adds short course, huge putting course
Photographs by Bill Hornstein
This article appeared in the July 2024 edition of Chicago District Golfer.
To read more Chicago District Golfer stories, head to our article archive.
Shown are the 3rd green (foreground), 2nd green (left) and 4th (far right) on Streamsong's fourth course, The Chain.
The Streamsong Resort in Central Florida has been open since 2012. The site of a 16,000-acre former phosphate mine, it started out with two breathtaking courses by two of golf’s great course architecture firms – Tom Doak (Blue Course) and the team of Coore & Crenshaw (Red). In 2017, the resort added a third fantastic course by Gil Hanse (Black), another of the Fab Four of current golf course architecture practitioners.
And yet when word got around that your humble servant scribe had recently visited this American golf mecca, courtesy of resort owner-operator KemperSports, to experience its new short course known as The Chain, one highly knowledgeable and outstanding local player who has been around a bit said to me, “Is that place really as good as it’s cracked up to be?”
If nothing else, such a question demonstrates the value of word-of-mouth advertising. The answer is an unqualified “Yes” when it comes to Streamsong with as many exclamation marks as you can fit on your Instagram page. Granted, sometimes the golf travel stories one reads in various publications seem a bit hyperbolic, if not just sanitized of negativity, but the truth is the world is full of outstanding courses worthy of the profuse praise they receive in publications both print and digital. Streamsong is one of them, only better.
The Red, Blue and Black courses are the reasons everyone travels to Bowling Green, Florida to play golf. Which one is best is completely a matter of taste, but, inevitably, it’ll come down to which one you score best on.
The Chain is one of those extra golf confections derived from popular short courses at Pinehurst, Bandon Dunes, Kohler and others. It’s a 19-hole, 3,000-yard mini-course built on 100 acres located an easy walk from the main resort hotel. Designed by Coore and Crenshaw, the walking-only Chain takes players through native oaks, mine cuts, moss-draped oak trees, lakes and dramatic elevation changes. It’s a match-play course intended to be played after you play one (or two or three!) of the other 18-hole courses. Or maybe you fit in a quick round before you have to leave for the airport (Tampa or Orlando) to catch an afternoon flight. Holes range from 50 to 300 yards but because there are no specified tee markers, it’s player’s choice where to tee off. Usually, the player/team that has the honor chooses the tee location. Oh, and it’s called The Chain because during the routing/excavation process, a chain-like piece of mining equipment used to hold in place a massive dragline bucket was discovered. Kinda, sorta like that Crooked Stick found by Pete Dye as he was designing his revered course of the same name in Indiana.
Adjacent to The Chain is a 2.6-acre putting layout – two 18-hole courses – called The Bucket. A jaw-dropping 22,000-pound yellow dragline bucket used to scrape phosphate from the property sits in the middle of the green. Walk into the jaws of the thing and you can hear your voice echo. The bucket itself is intended to serve as a reminder that before golf came along, the property that now hosts Streamsong could have The Chain is an invitation to walk a quick round with a beverage of choice and a few choice clubs on a layout that’s less demanding by a factor of a million. The Chain has loops of 6, 13 and 19-holes. It’s a stretch the legs, work on the short game, have a cold one and compete on a different platform kind of round, where length isn’t so important. On the other hand, should you surrender to complete exhaustion and skip The Chain, head to Streamsong’s outstanding spa. Nine therapy rooms. Six therapy pools of different temperature – one of them a cold plunge. And personal services. After playing the Red, Blue or Black, therapy might be just what you need.
Wanna bring the kids? Forget it. Streamsong isn’t for the little ones. Not a waterslide or lazy river on the property. It’s more a place for corporate hospitality, sales rewards, client schmoozing, company retreats, bachelor parties, etc. Yes, it’s pricey in season. But, if you’re a Florida resident who can handle walking in the summer heat, you can play any of the big three for $99. Resort guests $135. been an industrial wasteland or at best some kind of tree farm. Instead, the Mosaic Company, the former owner, decided on fairways and greens for its beautiful sand-based property, and, like the bucket, golf’s now firmly entrenched at Streamsong.
The hotel is uber-first class as is the food. Both are worth an entire article in themselves. Are they all they’re cracked up to be? You’ll have to trust me.
Barry Cronin is the editor of Chicago District Golfer.