I forgot to leave a review about Southern Hills Plantation. I played here on 11/30/17 after my round at another nearby course. From my research I knew that Southern Hills was an upscale facility and ... Continue »

I forgot to leave a review about Southern Hills Plantation. I played here on 11/30/17 after my round at another nearby course. From my research I knew that Southern Hills was an upscale facility and I figured it had to be in great shape. As soon as I passed through the security gate I realized that this is an elaborate club. You turn right at a "T" intersection after passing through the security gate and there you see the massive clubhouse off in the distance! As I expected, the conditions were excellent. For $80 it seemed like a good value too this time of year. The conditions are the reason you'll want to play here in my opinion. Everything except the tees were cut down and I never had a bad lie. The tees were being overseeded, which isn't uncommon for late November in Florida. The fairways had super tight lies so that made it easy to clank one, especially around the greens. Beautiful though. The greens were firmer and rolled so smooth. As far as the design, Southern Hills is a newer Dye creation with some elevation change. The course opened in 2006 and works its way through an upscale community. I'm sure the club was private at one point, but now it has some public exposure. Honestly, the course wasn't a complete a bear to play. I played the Oak tees (73.7/14/06962), which were a bit long for my game but I managed to have some par looks after my squirrlley shots. I'm not sure if Dye has gotten softer in his old age or if he needed to design a course for members to play, but this wasn't the traditional beating that I've come to expect from Dye. There is very little water in play and I didn't see one railroad tie! You do get a volcano bunker on the 16th hole though. There is an incredible amount of slope in the fairways, so much in fact that you might have to worry about your ball ending up in a divot. Everything seems to collect in certain pockets in the fairways. The Dye mounding means you will have all sorts of stances and lies so getting an iron close takes some skill or luck. The greens don't offer many good bounces, no surprises from Dye there. I'd say that Southern Hills is a tolerable Dye design. Think along the lines of TPC Louisiana or the Dye Course at Barefoot in Myrtle Beach. It almost seemed like Dye compromised too much by not making the course more brash.