Golf Guide: Pensacola - FL

Gateway to northwest Florida's panhandle, Pensacola is home to more than 10 golf courses in the immediate area and several more stretching along the coastline east and west. Some are well established and private like Pensacola Country Club while others are centerpieces for real estate communities like the Lost Key Golf Club designed by Arnold Palmer who took full advantage of the beautiful landscape of Perdido Key.

Green fees for the majority of Pensacola courses are quite modest, usually under $50 including the semi-private Scenic Hills Golf Club, part of the Emerald Coast Golf Trail running from Pensacola Beach to Destin Beach. Unlike most courses in the area which are pretty flat, Scenic Hills enjoys some elevations and pine-lined fairways. Host to the 1969 US Women's Open, Scenic Hills was updated by Jerry Pate in 1992 and again in 2006 while its $3.5 million clubhouse was opened in 2008. Green fees are a bargain at around $30.

And prices are right at courses like Marcus Pointe Golf Club, Osceola Municipal Golf Course, A.C. Read Golf Course, Carriage Hills Golf Club, Seaside Golf Development, , and Perdido Bay Golf Courses, course which may not come with a designer's pedigree, but nevertheless provide a fun day of golf for all levels.

Keep in mind as temperatures are generally cooler in the northern part of Florida, better prices are often available from mid-August until March. For all these reasons many tour pros make their winter home here and Florida is the only state that has it's own PGA Tour swing beginning in early March when things really ratchet up with the Masters just six weeks away. Pensacola is also home to the National Aviation Museum, an interesting diversion off the course.