Golfing Streamsong

Let me start off right away and say this is going to be a long post.  Perfection takes a long time to describe.

And make no mistake, both Streamsong courses are as close to perfect as I have ever played.  After my rounds I immediately knew that I had just experienced the finest courses I have had the privileged of playing.  But I am getting ahead of myself.  Lets digress to the beginning.

My father and I got up early (like 5:30 AM early) in order to make the drive to Streamsong from our hotel near Walt Disney World.  It is about 90 minutes to drive to the middle of nowhere where Streamsong is located.  Middle of nowhere or not, I cannot stress enough it is worth the drive.  In fact, I would say it was worth the trip if I drove down from Minnesota and had to swim the last 3 miles to get here.

The first thing you see when you get to the property is the weather rusted Streamsong sign.  The sign is very fitting for the overall ruggedness that you will soon see.  Once you enter the property your drive for on a winding road for a few minutes before coming to a left turn that will take you to the gorgeous new 216 room hotel.

The beautiful clubhouse

Once there you are only about half-way to the clubhouse.  Continuing on to the rest of the way you will see parking to your left and right, and straight ahead the beautiful clubhouse.  The clubhouse is ultra-modern and blends in marvelously to the surroundings.  The clubhouse actually has three parts: the restaurant Fifty-Nine, the Pro Shop, and upstairs, 12 guestrooms.  Before the hotel was built, these 12 rooms were the only lodgings available.  I heard that if you were lucky enough to be able to rent them all you pretty much get the run of the place.  Upstairs also includes a man-cave, known as the Albatross Room, fitted with all kinds of goodies: pool tables, poker tables, etc.

Streamsong is Owned by Mosaic Company, a phosphate and potash mining company based in Plymouth, MN.  The land is a reclaimed phosphate mine.  The topography is unlike anything you will see elsewhere in Florida.  In fact the topography is what first caught my eye and made me fall in love with the place.  It is unlike anything I have ever seen.  Towering sand dunes have regrown an otherworldly mass of shaggy grasses.  The land around here seems almost alive, like some kind of weird life form.  The mines shut down in the 60s and since then this land has been reclaimed by nature into the tremendous topography you see.

Your first sample of the other-worldy topography found at Streamsong

Richard Mack, the VP of Mosaic saw the opportunity to turn this land into something special back in 2008 and did it ever work out stupendously. Here is great article on how Streamsong came to be.

The Red and Blue courses opened in 2012.  The Black course, being designed by Gil Hanse is slated to open in the fall of 2017.  When I visited they had just burned out vegetation on the layout of the black course.  It was literally black. You can make the burned out area in this photo from the first tee of the blue course:

The future sight of the Black course can be seen in the distance where the burn-out is

Layout wise, you can think of Blue as the northern most course, Red as the next one, and Black will wrap on the outside of the Red, as the southern most course.  I have heard the Black has lots of very interesting elevation changes.  From Google maps it also looks to have a lot of opportunity to bring water in play.  While the Red and Blue routings are closely mingled, the Black course will be more of a stand-alone course.  They are also planning on building another clubhouse and restaurant to serve the new course.   Early plans are also underway for a fourth course, those details and opening date are unknown.

Let's get back to the actual experience.  Upon dropping the bags off and parking the car you walk back to the clubhouse.  I just love the look of the exterior.

The entrance to the clubhouse

The interior is also nicely finished throughout, with some nice lounge chairs in the entry and the pro shop to the left and restaurant to the right.

Even the restrooms are first rate, with plenty of free sunscreen and other niceties provided

Facing the clubhouse, behind you and to your right is the practice area featuring a giant putting green/chipping area and full driving range.  A club cart takes you to and from the practice range.

Walking to the back of the clubhouse, all of the clubs were being kept in the underground tunnel due to the rains.  After pointing out which bags were ours we were loaded on the cart to head to the practice area.

The wind was into us pretty fierce off the range. We didn't have a lot of time to warm up anyways with our early tee time but we hit a few to get warmed up.

The putting green is large and the chipping areas around it would be invaluable to accustom yourself to the kinds of  green side shots you will be hitting during your round.  I discovered, like a lot of European courses, you will likely be playing a lot of bump and runs rather than high lofted lobs from off the greens.

There are also some bunkers to practice in if you have time.  Again, you likely will find yourself in one of the 8 million bunkers around the course.

We didn't have the time, so a hop back onto the buggy and we were ushered back to the rear of the clubhouse.

The back of the clubhouse with the storage tunnel leading below.

The starter's stand is located right behind the clubhouse.  Also right there is another practice putting green area.

A view of the clubhouse from atop the first tee on the Blue course.

The Red course starts just to the left of the practice green.  The Blue course is around the way to the left and starts atop an enormous hill, the highest point on the property.

We were sent off on the Red at 8:00, just the two of us.  We were the second group out following a foursome.  My father with a rickshaw pull cart, and I walking with my bag.  We didn't take caddies, so it was us on our own to experience the magic about to unfold before us.

And now onto the courses!

For the course overview, I am going to break down the review a bit different from normal, into separate postings for each hole.  That way this doesn't become too massive of a write up.  I will update this post with the links once I finish each of them.

Streamsong Red Hole 1
Streamsong Red Hole 2
Streamsong Red Hole 3
Streamsong Red Hole 4
Streamsong Red Hole 5
Streamsong Red Hole 6
Streamsong Red Hole 7
Streamsong Red Hole 8
Streamsong Red Hole 9
Streamsong Red Hole 10
Streamsong Red Hole 11
Streamsong Red Hole 12
Streamsong Red Hole 13
Streamsong Red Hole 14
Streamsong Red Hole 15
Streamsong Red Hole 16
Streamsong Red Hole 17
Streamsong Red Hole 18

Playing conclusions

We played our first round in just under 4 hours.  That gave us enough time to head to the bar for a sandwich and to sit down for a few minutes.

Then it was off to play the Blue Course.  We had a 1:06PM time.  For this round we were paired up with 2 guys that had been playing as part of a foursome behind us on the Red Course.  They both had caddies with and it was fun to talk to the caddies about the course and their experiences caddying.  One of the guys splits his time between Streamsong and Bandon Dunes.  Rough, rough life.

Streamsong Blue Hole 1
Streamsong Blue Hole 2
Streamsong Blue Hole 3
Streamsong Blue Hole 4
Streamsong Blue Hole 5
Streamsong Blue Hole 6
Streamsong Blue Hole 7
Streamsong Blue Hole 8
Streamsong Blue Hole 9
Streamsong Blue Hole 10
Streamsong Blue Hole 11
Streamsong Blue Hole 12
Streamsong Blue Hole 13
Streamsong Blue Hole 14
Streamsong Blue Hole 15
Streamsong Blue Hole 16
Streamsong Blue Hole 17
Streamsong Blue Hole 18

The Bye Hole
Playing conclusions

Conclusions
So there it is.  My favorite day golfing of all time.  Getting to play it with my dad is something I will never forget.  Overall the impression of the two courses is a very cohesive masterpiece.  Both the Red and Blue course feel very similar.  Similar terrain certainly helps lend to this continuity.  Both architects did a splendid job a fashioning a course from this rugged land while making it seem like the course was always a part of the landscape.  Having never really experienced this "minimalist" design I have to say I am a big, BIG fan.

While I have played a lot of beautiful courses, I have never experienced such a seamless integration of a course and the surrounding land. I think that is what elevates these courses to the top of my all time favorites list.

As far as recommendations, I would say either course is brilliant, but why pick one?  Play both of them!  If I had to pick any differences, it would be this:  The Red course seemed to be more challenging off the tee, while the Blue had the tougher greens and approaches.

After finishing the second round we headed to the bar to celebrate the best golfing experience I have ever had.  We watched the sun set from the bar chairs as I enjoyed an expertly made old fashion. Like the rest of the experience, the drinks were top notch.

This was the first time after a round I actually went around to the staff; from the bag attendants, the starters, to the golf shop personnel and shook their hands to say thanks for such a wonderful experience.  If my previous favorite courses had been considered 10s I would have to place Streamsong around 25 or so.  It really is that good.  Now I just need to figure out how to get back there.  I am already slating 2017 for a return to experience the Black course.

But alas, all good things must end.  It was too quickly time to leave this magical place.  Time to pack up the car and head back to Orlando.  More golfing tomorrow at the New Course at Grand Cypress.