The community of Southern Dunes Golf and Country Club was first established in 1993, it is located approximately 8 miles south of I4 exit 55 on State Route 27. It is a community of approximately 700 homes located around the multi award winning Southern Dunes Golf Course and is approximately 20 minutes drive from Walt Disney World.
Southern Dunes is an established and peaceful gated community comprising of a mix of vacation homes and owner occupied homes. There is an active residents association focused on maintaining and improving the community. The roads are pretty quiet so its safe to walk or jog around. As you enter the community there is a lake to the right and trees lining the roads and edging the golf course, all of which give the area a ‘country’ feel
Within the community there are 3 swimming pools, which are larger than the private pools attached to villas, so they are useful if you want to swim lengths. There are two tennis courts and small children’s play area with swings and slides. The lake has a small crocodile and I have seen people fishing there.
At the end of the main road (Southern Dunes Boulevard) is the golf club which has a bar and a restaurant. The club is open to anyone (i.e. you don’t have to play golf) for Breakfast, Lunch, or Dinner or simply for a drink in the afternoon/evening.
Just outside the main gate to the community are two large supermarkets, Winn-Dixie and Wal-Mart which will have everything you need (Food, Pharmacy, Clothes etc). Wal-Mart is open 24 hours and has a petrol (gas) station.
The things I like about the community are its peacefulness and convenience. In the morning before it gets too hot I will jog around the community. We will walk around the community to get ideas for changes to our house, watch the golfers or admire the scenery. Locals and residents are very friendly and will normally greet you. The closeness to the shops means I can walk to Wal-Mart to pickup freshly baked bread and British newspaper (Daily Mail) or a freshly roasted Chicken for a picnic by the pool. In the evening we will walk to the Club House for a drink (no need to worry about having to drive back). And, of course, there is the golf course
The golf club and course is open to the public and, in addition to the golf course there is a driving range, putting green and shop. To play a round it is advisable to book in advanced as it is a very popular with tourists and locals.
The golf course, designed by Steve Smyers, is unusual for Florida in that it is built on a hill and has 100 feet of elevation changes. The course has won multiple awards, for example 4 and a half stars (out of 5) from Golf Digest Places to Play (2002-03), America’s Best Top Daily Fee Courses (Golf & Travel 2001.
The course has fast, undulating greens with more that 150 bunkers of varying shapes and sizes. There are various other hazards of shrubs, and trees, but little water. Each hole has 5 Tee’s (Black, Blue, White, Yellow and Red) to indicate yardage and slope, if you use the Black Tee’s the total distance is 7,227 yards, Blue 6803 yards, White 6298 yards, Yellow 5633 yards and Red Tee’s 4987. The course gives something for golfers of all abilities/handicaps the choice of distance to match their game.
I’d suggest that you buy a yardage guide which provides aerial views of each hole plus tips to help save strokes. The scorecards provide diagrams of each green with depth and pin placements.
One of our villa guests said of the course…. “The course is very very good quality. Only a little water, but lots of sand. It’s not a very difficult course, the greens are hard to read
We had a really good three and half hours of golf followed by a couple of pints in the bar. A thoroughly good day.”