Destination Golf Global (Spring 2020) * | Page 19

Hills Course, LPGA International © Daytona Beach Area CVB
New Smyrna Golf Club, in New Smyrna Beach, is also
by Donald Ross and on the Florida Historic Golf Trail,
opening in 1953 and revamped in 2016. Like its historic
near-neighbour, it is player-friendly but challenges
golfers with the designer’s famed upturned saucer-
shaped greens as well as numerous doglegs and
plenty of water.
The third historic course on the trail is Riviera
Country Club, in Ormond Beach. It opened as a nine-
hole layout in the 1930s with the second nine added
in 1953 by the family that still owns and runs it.
Also in Ormond Beach, Halifax Plantation Golf Club
plays through centuries-old oak trees and features
generous fairways but large and tricky greens.
DeBary Golf & Country Club, in DeBary, is a US Open
qualifiers venue built in 1990 on what was once an
orange grove. The undulating fairways, lined by live
oaks, produce uneven lies – unusual for a Florida golf
course.
Co-designed by Arthur Hills, Cypress Head Golf Club
is a high-quality municipal course owned by the
City of Port Orange and managed by KemperSports,
which operates more than 130 golf facilities across
the US and Mexico including renowned golf resorts
Bandon Dunes in Oregon and Streamsong in Central
Florida as well as US Open venue Chambers Bay in
Washington State. The course opened in 1992 and
was renovated in 2015. The generous fairways wind
through thick stands of trees, wetlands and water,
the design presenting golfers with plenty of risk/
reward options. High-season 18-hole green fees
for visitors cost just $30-$45, including buggy but
excluding sales tax, depending on the time of day.
Hidden Lakes Golf Course in New Smyrna Beach is
a 1974 layout by William Amick, who also designed
Halifax Plantation. This short, 5,454-yard par 69 plays
along a river estuary and makes an ideal first course
to play on a Daytona Beach golf vacation.
In contrast, Victoria Hills Golf Club is one of the
area’s longest courses, at 7,149 yards from the back
tees. The DeLand layout, designed by Ron Garl and
opened in 2001, is set on naturally rolling, sandy
terrain through pine trees with 80 feet of elevation
changes, reminiscent of North Carolina’s Pinehurst
Sandhills area.
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