By Tim McDonald
With its abundance of top tournaments, millions of people around the world are familiar with the classy TPC Sawgrass layout, with its famous island green and equally-famous stretch of difficult closing holes.
Yet with all the publicity Ponte Vedra Beach's TPC Sawgrass gets, many people – even Florida residents – don't realize the state has other TPC courses in Florida. Five, in fact. Of the six, three are private and three are what the PGA Tour events in Florida calls resort/destination. All of them are maintained to lofty PGA Tour standards so you always know you're getting a rare golf experience, just like the pros. Here they are:
-- TPC Blue Monster at Doral is the latest course to earn the TPC moniker. It's a resort course, one of the most famous in the world.
-- TPC Tampa Bay is another resort track. It was designed by Bobby Weed with Chi Chi Rodriguez as player consultant. It's a beautiful layout routed around wetlands, ponds and lagoons.
-- TPC Treviso Bay is a private course in Naples, designed by the elegant Arthur Hills and Hal Sutton. This is a thinking man's course, where your noggin is as important as your driver.
-- TPC Prestancia is in Sarasota, a private 36-hole facility. The Stadium course is modeled after its namesake in Ponte Vedra and the Club course is generally considered the more difficult of the two layouts.
-- TPC Eagle Trace in Coral Springs is another private facility and another Arthur Hills beauty. Players rave about its greens. The facility hosted the Honda Classic for nine years, so you know the pros loved it.
For more information on TPC courses in Florida or to book tee times, click here.
Click here for a video of TPC Sawgrass.