Great Golf Magazine Sep/Oct 2017 September October 2017 | Page 70

Florida.qxp_St Enodoc 28.09.2016 13.15 Side 5

South Seas Island Resort

Spanish conquistadors in 1565. We visit the ancient, seafront
Castillo de San Marcos, America’s oldest masonry fortification,
moving on to the St Augustine Distillery, newly opened in
Florida’s first ice manufacturing plant. A tour is followed by
tastings of Florida Mule, the distillery’s Floridian slant on the
traditional Moscow Mule, mixing soda water, syrup, lime juice
and ginger juice with its own cane vodka and served over crushed
ice. A great way to forget the day’s poor shots and putts.
It seems a shame not to stay longer in St Augustine. But we
need to press on and hit the road for Orlando’s neighbour,
Kissimmee, where we will be staying at Reunion Resort.
Although right on the doorstep of Walt Disney World,
Kissimmee also offers a taste of Florida’s wilder side. An hour’s
drive east the next day takes us to Harmony Golf Preserve, a
Johnny Miller signature course managed by Troon Golf that is a
certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary and incorporates
wildlife-rich natural wetlands. Every hole is edged by ponds, most
with resident alligators. Besides the course’s signature bird, the
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red-capped sand crane, you can also see many other species,
including red-shouldered hawks, wild turkeys and vultures, as well
as the footprints of deer, bobcats and raccoons. The bat house,
near the 250-yard mark on the par-5 8th hole, is home to 500
bats which stream out at dusk to feast on mosquitoes. But slap on
the insect repellant anyway - there are plenty the bats miss.
THE EVERGLADES. Wild Florida, our next stop, is a wildlife park

on the edge of a large lake forming part of the Everglades
headwaters. After getting up close and personal with a baby gator
and watching feeding time for some of its huge adult cousins, a
storm breaks as we are about to board an airboat and we take
cover. When the rain eases, we are welcomed aboard by our
skipper, the aptly named Captain Kirk! And for the next hour, he
takes us on an exhilarating ride through the lake-edge marshes,
boldly going where -- it feels -- no man has gone before, and
showing us sights including an alligator nest with baby gators and
a swimming snake.