I had time for a morning round somewhere along my drive into Orlando. The Monarch at Royal Highlands is right off U.S. Route 27 so I figured what the heck.

If I’m honest, I didn’t plan on playing M... Continue »

I had time for a morning round somewhere along my drive into Orlando. The Monarch at Royal Highlands is right off U.S. Route 27 so I figured what the heck.

If I’m honest, I didn’t plan on playing Monarch. I don’t mean that disrespectfully either. In a state with an overwhelming number of golf courses, Lake County lags behind many other Florida counties in that regards. Anyway, I hadn’t heard of Monarch even though I’d driven past the course and community countless times.

But, I’m glad I stopped to check it out! I found some recent reviews which indicated that Monarch was in good shape. That was my experience as well and I was pleasantly surprised by the conditions! The fairways were cut down and the greens were nice. For the $30ish green fee, Monarch turned out to be a good deal.

The design turned out to be more interesting than I expected. The course is set back into the community, well away from the highway and the front nine runs along the edge of some wetlands. The back nine at Monarch has a different feel to it, as it is more hilly.

Probably the one knock against Monarch is that it is a short course. From the “tiger” tees it is only 6,018 yards. Monarch won’t compete with the attraction courses closer to Orlando, but it has a bit of funk to it and is fairly playable! And, those two things add some value to the course.