Naples Grande Golf Club

Naples Grande Golf Club: Rolling fairways, rock-filled streams, stone-fronted water hazards and two fabulous holes played to elevated, lakeside promontories are not typical ingredients for a southern Florida golf course. But these are only some of the distinctive features that grace this wonderfully absorbing Rees Jones design.

Not withstanding its dramatic finishing stretch, Naples Grande continually delivers the elegant simplicity, high standards and golfing challenges one anticipates in a Rees Jones design. The usually good-width, nicely undulating fairways are elegantly lined by tall pines and cypress trees.

Rippling earthmounds and stylish, expansive bunkering are also much in evidence, while housing is conspicuously absent. Before you reach the spectacular finale, five small lakes and ponds also contribute a watery threat, not least at the dog-legging par-5 9th and par-4 11th holes.

Naples Grande has one of the best finishing stretches in Florida, and one of the toughest should the wind be blowing. A former quarry, known as Geitz Pit, now a 30-acre lake, provides an open and thrilling backdrop to the closing three holes. The par-5 16th and par-4 18th greens are set on rocky promontories high above the lake, requiring excellently judged approach shots to hit the immaculately maintained, undulating greens. The scene is more reminiscent of Ireland's rugged Atlantic coastline than moss-laden Florida wetland.

Stay&Play at Naples Grande: nearby luxury accommodation available (6 mi), see Where2Stay section below.