Southern Hills Plantation

Southern Hills is a definite "must play" if visiting or living in Florida. It's a first rate track, excellent condition, fast greens, great practice facilities with lots of tee box options for all levels of play. You know a course is great when I have talked about it with friends 10 times in the last 2 days.

I recommend every golfers to play there. It's a PGA course . No doubt about it.

The staff was super! Nice people! The greens were recovering from aeration not to long ago, so they were not the best but acceptable. Highly recommend and I hope to get back there soon.

Surprised by the elevation : turn off one major hwy to get to the cours, and it was if we turned into another world.
Very use to playing many of the local Tampa courses from private, semi, to public. No better value.
Course was in excellent shape considering all the rain. Greens may have just been AR and where scheduled to be AR again writhin the week.
Can drink was 2 bucks that was even more impressive!
Surprised by the elevation : turn off one major hwy to get to the cours, and it was if we turned into another

We were there for the second time as we were previously rained out. It was cart path only this time and the fairways are vast, making it quite a hike to the next shot. I want to play again when the conditions are better (dry).

Greens were very slow for a 5 star course. Fairways were excellent.

First time playing here, and found it to be a great course. I was the first player out after a shotgun outing , playing as a single, had the entire place to myself. Finished in 2 1/2 hours. Overall the course was in great shape, with the exception of the greens were recently airated and sanded. Would have liked to have been aware of that before I went out, and would have appreciated a rate reduction. Staff was very accommodating. Would definitely like to come back at peak conditions.

Best course in the Tampa Bay area. Challenging and beautiful. Very undulating and plenty of bunkers make this very much like playing a northern course. The par five 16th is one of my favorite and most picturesque holes around. You kind of hit a blind tee shot and then when you drive over the hill of the fairway, boom ! The awesome looking dog leg left very challenging par 5 is absolutely astounding. Also, plenty of wild Turkey around to see.

First let me say that the greens were aerated a couple of days before we played. The green super did a great job in laying down just enough sand to let the greens roll smooth. They also took $30 off the rate.

As for the course it is a fantastic Pete Dye layout. He used a great piece of land with elevations up to 250 feet. That is like a mountain in Florida, This elevation is at its highest on a beautiful Par 5 on the front. As with most Dye courses he gives you some wide fairways to hit but protects his greens with devious deep bunkers and tricky greens to read.

But it's a Pete Dye course without railroad ties anywhere to be found. I have played a lot of his courses (Kiawah, Whistling Straits, Harbour Town, Brickyard) and this is right up there with say Bulle Rock in Maryland which used to host a women's LPGA Major.

You got to play it now because its a private club during the busy season and only open up play during the summer. I think you can play it on the exec card as well.

Friendly staff and excellent practice facilities. Course itself has a lot of character and is fair. It gets tougher once you're on the greens. Reading putts is pretty challenging, but the speed is really good.

One of, if not, the best course in Tampa Bay area. The layout is adventurous and fun and not like any other florida course I have played. Fairways are somewhat wide and very hilly. 'SoHilly' offers a unique challenge each time played.

Consistently high quality conditions, impeccable greens and superior layout with elevation changes unusual in Florida. A must play track.

My favorite track in Tampa Bay, Fairways to Greens, with Elevation, Shorter Drive than World Woods from Tampa, Design on same level regardless of Top 100 Rank, awesome time to golf in tampa bay, comparing Fazio and Dye Courses which are fairly priced and open to the public... it could be worse

Only Complaint:
Some Member felt that even though the Round took 3.5 Hours and my group (3) Played from the Tips, (NEarly 7600 yrd thanks Pete) we were somehow slowing the pace of play because of the Tees we choose, even though we arrived at the par 3's with the group in front of us (2) on the green and played almost a hole ahead of the group (3) behind us (White Tees) so if club members aren't hitting greens in Reg behind you they may complain about the public players.