The Streamsong Experience by Andrew Matthieson

The annual golf trip is the new national pastime. If you’re a busy husband and a father of young kids, these trips seem to come at the perfect time on the calendar. With 2 sons under 3, I’ve been especially looking forward to our annual trip and getting a little bit of a break. For this year’s version, 11 friends and I made our way down to Bowling Green,
FL to check out Streamsong. After a 30-second discussion with JRS, he and I wanted to give those of you who haven’t been yet, a review and guide of this slice of heaven on earth.

A quick background, Streamsong is on land that used to be mined for phosphate. Law required mining companies to turn the land into something usable when finished rather than just leaving it behind when done mining. No Laying Up did a really nice video explaining the background and experience.

This isn’t your typical family resort that just so happens to have a golf course, this is a golf resort featuring 3 courses at the moment: Red, Blue, and Black with more tracks in the works. Courses were named by color simply because that was the color pen used during the sketch and routing process. I’m excited to give you a breakdown of each course, the resort itself, the experience, and recommendations for your next trip.

Our trip was a Wednesday-Sunday. On Wednesday afternoon, we hit the Black course for a quick range session and couple of loops around their 7-hole par 3 course. If you’re planning a trip to Streamsong, no need for a travel-only day. We could have easily gotten a round in on Wednesday afternoon. Everyone talks about how the course is in the
middle of nowhere and while I won’t argue that point, it was a fairly easy hour and ten-minute drive from the Tampa airport. If you’re in the metro Atlanta area like most of our crew, there are tons of early morning flights out of Hartsfield to Tampa. Thurs-Sunday would have been a MUCH easier sell to the Mrs. Our rounds were scheduled for Black on Thursday, Blue on Friday morning, Red for Friday afternoon, and Black for Saturday morning. Here’s a breakdown of each course and my thoughts on the experience.

Red: Designed by Coore and Crenshaw, this one seemed to be the slight favorite over blue and black in our group. The first hole opens with a tough, long par 4 with an uphill approach into a massive green. Some other holes that stood out to me were the par 3 6th where you hit into this little shoot between dunes and plenty of water short right.

The par 4 15th, playing 474 from the back tees is a beast and one of the more memorable 2 shots from Red. Our caddy Kevin’s favorite, 16 is a par 3 that is all carry over a penalty area with a green with a huge dip in the middle of the green. Think if Tony Hawk were to design green. Lastly, the finishing par 5 18th was my favorite. All 3 courses had amazing finishing holes, this one was no exception. The course was fun, fair, and perfect.

This one, if I had to pick was my slight favorite.

Pictured above: Your finishing shot into the Red course’s par 5 18th hole.

Blue: The most memorable part of Tom Doak’s Blue course is the opening tee shot. All 3 courses are very links-y but for this opening tee shot, you’re teeing off a massive dune for the only real elevated tee shot I recall from the weekend. The driveable par 4 is an awesome intro into the round. Our foursome had everything from birdie to double. My
favorite approach shot of the weekend was on Blue’s par 4, 4th hole. It plays a healthy club uphill over an enormous bunker. The 7 th hole is a par 3 over water you’ll remember and the finishing 2 holes will challenge anybody. The par 5 17th played nearly 600 yards from the “one-up” black tees and the par 4 18th played 450+.

We were ready for lunch after these two. Blue was excellent and a nice return to what felt like “normalcy” after we got our faces kicked in by the black course in our opening round of the trip. It was also arguably the most “scenic” of the 3 with the way the course carves through the property.

Pictured above: the Par 3 7th at Blue. If you squint closely, you might see my ball in the front bunker.

Black: Our caddy told us the black course’s designer, Gil Hanse was told “do something different” and he listened. This was our opening round on Thursday and the first time several of our guys had ever walked with a caddy. The course has MASSIVE green complexes and the course layout itself is something out of an early 2000s Tiger Woods
video game, in a good way. I appreciated the course much more on our second try at it on Saturday morning and shot 10 shots better than I did on Thursday. Even with a caddy, I don’t think anyone is firing a personal best during their first 18 on this course.

There were several blind shots but this is where I thought you could have the most fun using the contours of the greens in your approach shot and in your short game. The greens on black were a touch slower than Blue and Red and when we asked our caddy about it, he told us that’s because “if they were faster, no one would finish the round.”

The most memorable holes for me on Black were the par 5’s, especially the 1st and 18th. One opens into a massive fairway and is reachable but is super undulating. Probably unfair of me to say, but the 1st green sort of reminded me of 5 at Augusta. If you’ve been a patron, you’ll see my point, hopefully. 18 is also reachable but you’ll have to clear a huge penalty area where you’re bound to see a couple of gators. 18 has that perfect finishing approach right into the clubhouse.

Other highlights at Black include the practice area which was hands down the best on the property compared to Red/Blue and the 7-hole par 3 course. If it wasn’t 90 degrees, we could still be out on that par 3. This isn’t your muni par 3, the course conditions are just about as good as the main courses. The clubhouse looks like it was made for a Bond Villain and the food here was excellent. Lastly, the 18-hole putting course behind the Black clubhouse was a perfect Happy Hour or post-round spot.

Pictured above: If there were ever a signature hole on a par 3 course outside of ANGC,
it’s the 4 th hole at Streamsong.

All in all, Streamsong is an epic experience and they have it completely dialed in. When you arrive, shuttles are running constantly from Red/Blue to Black to the main lodge. We rarely had to wait on a shuttle and didn’t use our rental car between arriving and departing. The staff are experts on the property, they’re nice, and enthusiastic and act like they have a vested interest in your good time. The restaurants are great. For dinner, we’d recommend the Canyon Lake Steakhouse but the Italian restaurant, SottoTerra was very solid. Assuming you’ll be staying over a weekend, would definitely recommend you make a reservation, especially at the Steakhouse. We had a spontaneous idea for
round 2 at the Steakhouse on Saturday night only to find them booked up completely.

The pool and bar area are excellent. We happened to be there during the Kentucky Derby and that was a non-golf highlight of the trip. If 2 Phils had pulled it out, a couple of our guys might still be in FLA.

All in all, I couldn’t recommend Streamsong enough. Think of a blend of Bandon Dunes and Kiawah but in a resort where you don’t have to lift a finger. You’d finish your round and the staff would have your clubs cleaned and ready to go at the next course on your itinerary, even overnight. The food was great, the clubhouses were modern and clean, an all around great trip. Our next trip will be tough to top Streamsong, now I think we might just go back.

Pictured above: Patio at Canyon Lake Steakhouse at Streamsong Red/Blue

Pictured above: Streamsong Black clubhouse and restaurant, Bone Valley Tavern

Andrew Matthieson is a dear friend and a much better golfer than me.  However, he’s EXACTLY who you want to share a cart with.  He’s one of the good guys.