Celebration Golf Club
Robert Trent Jones Sr. and Jr. carved this magnificent 6,792-yard layout, which opened in 1996, out of the wild, natural habitat of Central Florida.
The course plays to a rating of 73.0 and a slope of 135 from the tips, but there are six sets of tees, including a learner's loop. There also is a three-hole, par-3 junior course, which youngsters can play for $1.
Much of the course plays on open land in links-style, but other parts are through typical lush Florida landscape, with lakes on several holes.
John Daly holds the course record of 9-under-par 63.
Walt Disney once dreamed of building the town of the future and Celebration is it, although the Disney Corporation sold this quaint village 10 minutes from Disney World in 2004.
The golf course, which has been rated the 12th best in Florida by one publication, is the centerpiece of the town.
The front nine is mostly wide open, with a links feel, especially the par-5, 533-yard sixth hole. It plays alongside a lake that runs down the left side of the hole to a green that slopes dramatically from back to front. When the pin is up front, only the top of the flagstick can be seen over a large bunker that guards the green.
Part of the back nine plays through a heavily-wooded wetlands area. The best stretch of the course comes at Nos. 12 through 17, a secluded area where you just might see alligators, boar, wild turkey, deer, raccoon and armadillo.
Best hole of that stretch is No. 16, a scenic 211-yard par-3 that plays over a lake, and the course winds up with another challenging par-5, which plays to 566 yards, usually into the wind.
Recently a renovation saw its greens replanted with Champion turf grass.
Celebration Golf Club has been the site of the 1999 USGA Senior Amateur Qualifier, the 1999 LPGA Section Championship, the 1999-2001 Oldsmobile Scramble National Finals, the 2000 Central Florida Amateur Championship, a 2002 U.S. Senior Open Qualifier and the 2003 Florida State Public Links Championship.
OTHER COURSES IN THE AREA: The four Disney Resort Courses - the Magnolia, the Palm, Lake Buena Vista and Osprey Ridge - are 15 minutes away.
Also nearby are Falcon's Fire Golf Club in Kissimmee, Southern Dunes Golf and Country Club in Haines City, Mystic Dunes Golf Club in Kissimmee, the New Course at Grand Cypress Resort, the Legacy Club at Alaqua Lakes in Longwood, Hawk's Landing Golf Club, Royal St. Cloud Golf Club, three courses at Reunion Resort and Club, Bay Hill Resort and Club, and ChampionsGate Golf Resort.
WHERE TO STAY: The Celebration Hotel has the charm and style of a Florida resort hotel of the 1920s.
The Disney resorts -- the Grand Floridian, the Contemporary, the Polynesian, the Wilderness Lodge, the Dolphin, the Swan, the Beach Club and all the rest -- and numerous hotels in the Lake Buena Vista area are only a short drive away.
The Orlando World Center Marriott, site of Hawk's Landing Golf Club, is the largest hotel in the world-wide chain.