Course Overview
As you drive down the palm tree lined lane which leads to the Heron Bay Golf Club clubhouse you can instantly feel the rush of excitement that comes over any golfer who is about to test his game against a course the pros played.
For six years (1997-2002) the PGA TOUR`S Honda Classic called Heron Bay home, crowning champions Stuart Appelby, Mark Calcavecchia, Vijay Singh, Dudley Hart, Jesper Parnevik and Matt Kuchar.
In 2008/2009 Heron Bay Golf Club will become the new permanent home of the prestigious Dixie Amateur. Previous winners include Hal Sutton (2), Jasper Parnevik, Andy Bean, Brandt Snedeker, Angela Park and many other PGA and LPGA stars. The Big Ten Match Play Championship and the VH1 Save the Music Celebrity Golf Classic are just two of many exciting events coming to Heron Bay in 2009.
Heron Bay opened in 1996 as the centerpiece of a 1,500 acre development of truly upscale homes, some might call them castles. Unlike most golf course communities golfers and the homes are all separated by large canals and lakes. The course itself is laid out over 240 acres giving it a completely different feeling from most golf course community developments. No squeezes and no tricked up holes, just 18 championship caliber holes winding along large waterways.
PGA TOUR player and Golf Course Architect Mark McCumber was charged with the task of creating a new home for the Honda Classic. In doing so he had to balance the demands of satisfying the best golfers in the world while creating a course that could be enjoyed by the public. McCumber`s philosophy that courses are brought to the championship level by pin positioning and altering course conditions fit him well for the task. Heron Bay was voted as one of America`s 10 Best New Public Golf Courses by Golf Digest Magazine when it opened.
During the Honda Classic Heron Bay`s roughs were grown and greens were sped up. These alterations helped accentuate the course`s most prominent feature, sand traps. While 10 traps have been removed from the course in the past few years Heron Bay still features over 100 extremely large bunkers. On every hole bunkers steer you around the course. If you grip it and rip it and don`t shape your tee shots bring a towel, chair, umbrella and sunscreen because you might as well have gone to the beach. Fortunately Heron Bay gives the daily golfer plenty of room to bail out with the roughs cut down. Robert Trent Jones used to design courses for easy bogeys and tough pars, and Heron Bay Golf Club fits well into that mold.
Aesthetically the course is naturally beautiful not contrived. McCumber features the region`s topography yet still moved over one million cubic yards of dirt. By using subtle contours instead of tiers and large mounding the course fits its surroundings. Water only comes into play on 3 of the 18 holes unless you really miss one. The par 3 fifth, par 5 sixteenth and dramatic par 4 eighteenth hole can nestle the pin next to the water, play it safe.
There are no forced carries on the course making the layout very playable for the lesser golfer. The blue tees at 6,700 yards are a tremendous challenge, enough so that the back tees at over 7,200 yards are not used on a daily basis.
Remember, South Florida winds can make 6,700 yards play to around 7,300 yards. Don`t bite off more than you can chew at this course, it will make for a very long day. With well over one million dollars invested in the course and clubhouse since the new ownership group took control in February of 2007, Heron Bay Golf Club has returned to its place as one of Florida`s premier facilities available to the public.