Diamondback Golf Club

Diamondback Golf Club: GOLF COURSE PERMANENTLY CLOSED in 2014.

[Original Where2Golf description]: Diamondback Golf Club: Just south of Haines City and opposite the once highly fashionable Grenelefe Resort, Diamondback offers golfers a wonderfully natural, quiet and challenging round in a non-residential setting.

Carved from pristine Florida woodland this layout demands you bring your most accurate, straight-hitting, A-game if your intention is to score well while enjoying the tranquil, forested environment. Like the diamond-backed rattlers that inhabit the undergrowth here, the course can seriously bite, especially if wayward big-hitting is employed as your game strategy.

The opening sequence of holes pushes the definition of "tight" to its limit (in course design terms), with precise drives needed to find the narrow, tree-lined fairways. From time-to-time the course does provide a little more space than found on the opening sequence, but "space" remains a somewhat relative term. Where the course does open-up, things don't necessarily get that much easier, with small lakes flanking the five most open holes.

Don't ignore the advice you may have been offered to bring a plentiful supply of balls to Diamondback, and do heed the warnings to stay out of the depths of the forest and undergrowth when your golf ball disappears into the "jungle" - this is where the snakes hang-out. Although not one of Orlando's manicured best, the challenge and naturalness of Diamondback may grow on you, just be patient (and straight) at the start.