A friend of mine and I are planning a trip to the World Golf Village and I am wondering the best way to plan it out. We should get in around noon on a Friday and leave Sunday afternoon. What I do know is we want to play 2 rounds of golf and see the HoF.

What I am looking for here is some advice from people who have done this trip already, or at least know the area well.


Hotel thoughts: Should I save the money and stay at the Comfort Inn a mile away or is staying at the Renaissance (at the HoF Village) an experience I shouldn't miss? If staying at the Village, is a certain room/view something I should invest in or is it really nothing special?


Courses: Should we just do the King/Bear and Slammer/Squire courses or is there a course in the area we should play? I looked at the price difference for playing TPC Sawgrass and that is a little much. I read an older thread here about the area and one person mentioned Cimarrone and St Johns as possibilities.

Also, how much time should be set aside for other events? HoF Museum, see the area, sitting by the pool :-)

I was surprised to see AAA had a "stay and play" with 2 nights at the Renaissance & 4 rounds at K&B and S&S courses and breakfast for $250/person. Much better than the 350+ offered right on the HoF website. Only extra cost would be the HoF tickets at $23 as they are included with the HoF stay and play. Is there another, better, way to book if we were to wind up wanting to play a course other than the ones offered in the packages?

Anyway....ANY input would be appreciated.

Thanks.

wow...I guess not too many people have actually made the visit to the WGV? I suppose it isnt very central to many across the country.

I should be booking this Monday or Tuesday...any input before that would be great.

I can't really speak on playing the WGV, but another course in the area you should definetly play is St. Johns Golf and Country Club. It is in great condition right now.

WGV has a reputation for being overly priced for what it is, so there aren't really many Florida residents that I know of that are dying to play the courses. From what I have heard, they are in great shape, but not sure if they are worth the price.

You should definetly check out the new Batman movie on the IMAX at WGV though!!

I do have to say that if I were from out of town, I probably would have gone to WGV several times by now. The whole area is like a golfers paradise. Its funny how when you live by something you never really want to go to it, lol. Guess thats why Disney gives Florida residents a big discount!

On a side note. The main St. Augustine exit is 5 miles south of the WGV exit, and there are more hotels down there. You may be able to find a better deal staying at one of those.

The only way I would actually stay on the WGV site is if they offered some kind of golf package that made it cheaper.

thanks for the info blues. i dont disagree with you on the whole "being a tourist near where you live" thing. I never go to Busch Gardens or Disney. However, WGV is about a 3 hour trip for me, so can I call that a vacation destination? Please!! :-)

I just booked our weekend and will be doing the standard "stay and play" package at the Renaissance with King/Bear (Saturday afternoon) and Slammer/Squire (Monday morning). it is about $75 cheaper through AAA than the WGV website. I noticed the other day that Batman is playing in Imax there...of course, i just saw it opening night in Imax! wow what a movie!!! I might be ready to see it again by then though.

we are thinking we might play one more round on sunday, and i was looking at St Johns GCC along with Cimarrone (closed for a few months per their site) or South Hampton. All of these are at that same exit. Or we might actually make the 40 mile drive down to Ocean Hammock in Palm Coast. That looks really cool and probably has some breezy weather.

I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

Of the three listed, I would suggest

1. St. Johns G&CC
2. South Hampton

I really don't recommend Cimaronne to anyone it's a quirky layout, tight up against houses for the most part and theres a 50/50 chance it will be in crappy shape. Plus they are just plain "not nice" most of the time. I just played St. Johns and it's in fine shape. Played SH about a month ago and it also is in good shape.

Ocean Hammock would be a step up from the ones listed above (and some would say from WGV also). But it will be more $$ than the St. Johns or SH...

I would LOVE to play Ocean Hammock, but I tried everything I could to get on that course without staying there. I was practically trying to bribe the head pro.

I've played WGV twice but both times stayed at a friends house up the road so can't help on hotels. King and Bear is nice, but the Squire and Slammer is average. I'd skip it and play St. Johns, which is nice also. Very nice greens. TPC Valley is nice if the Stadium is too much.

Well...had my trip up to the WGV last weekend and had a great time. First thing that surprised me was how empty the place was! not sure why i was expecting it to be crowded, considering school was about to start right after and no snow-birds down here yet. so we pretty much had the run of the place, with empty courses and everyone really catering to us and being ultra friendly.

arrived saturday around 1130 am. was wearing my University of FLorida, very bright orange and blue Nike Fit golf shirt and this cute girl at the counter said "i saw you walking in and hoped you would come to my station. i told myself id you did i was giving you an upgrade" so we got upgraded to a room with a view of the S&S course!

up to room and then down to our 2pm tee time at K&B...got out early and noone around. 2 of us eplayed it in about 2.5 hours or less. what a beautiful course! Caddyshack for dinner Saturday and out to St Augustine to shoot some pool saturday night. S&S sunday morning with a few more people on the course. much more "boring" course, and a little easier. not in as good a shape either, but had a great time and very nice to just have a quick chauffered cart ride to the room. walked the HoF in about an hour, saw Batman Dark Knight (again) at the IMax theater there that night.

St Johns G&CC monday morning (VERY nice course!) and then a 3 hour drive home to Tampa. thanks for the recommendations on that course guys. would have loved to play Ocean Hammock or TPC but couldnt get on Hammock without staying there, and TPC is just a bit too much $$.

Overall a great experience. Rainy weekend, but only a couple holes of rain on Sunday morning. otherwise it was in the evenings.