Orlando area trip, 2/17-2/23

After getting stung by some cold weather in MB the last two years in mid-March, and since I was living in central Florida at the time I started the planning for our 2019 trip, I decided to switch gears and plan an Orlando area itinerary for mid- February.  Temps are generally mid 70's and it's the Florida dry season so I knew we wouldn't be freezing our asses off again.

After the planning started I relocated to the Charlotte area so I wasn't able to save myself the travel even this one time.  🙂  I added a couple of courses north of Orlando to help with the overall cost even though it added some driving and thankfully I got early tee times every day since it was even warmer than normal while we were there.  When we finished the last day it was about 90° at 12:30.

Got in an extra round at the front end of the trip at Orange Lake Reserve course  before checking in at Bahama Bay resort in Davenport.  Being this close to Disney wasn't ideal but we were traveling early every day and once we realized we needed to plan ahead for dinner, no big deal.  The lineup was Royal St. Cloud, DeBary, Providence, Black Bear, Mission Inn El Campeon, Championsgate CC, and Southern Dunes.

I chose RSC for the first day and a Noon tee time to allow a couple of guys to fly in that morning.  RSC is only about 30 minutes from the airport, plus it's wide open and a great first day course, especially when a lot of the guys hadn't yet played this year.  DeBary, Black Bear, and El Campeon all required 45-60 minute drives but no issues since we could stay out of I-4 traffic. 

The overall best track was El Campeon.  The service, layout, conditions, and greens were all top-notch, plus it has a lot of history.  Really nice resort and we paid a fair price for it.  Championsgate CC had the best greens but all the construction on the front nine takes away from the experience a bit.  I've played Southern Dunes a few times before and knew the guys would enjoy it but they had some greens issues that affected play and I was a little disappointed that we finished up there.  Providence was just OK, we enjoyed the unusual layout at Black Bear even though some of the greens are smaller than my living room, and DeBary was a solid track at a reasonable price.

All in all a pretty good trip.  As time has gone on, I thought it would be easier to get everyone to commit and attend as kids grow up and leave the house and everyone generally gets more time off from work or even is retiring.  The opposite has been the case and I have struggled to get solid commitments and then lots of cancellations after committing over the past few years.  Even the draw of guaranteed warm weather didn't translate into a big turnout; this was the smallest group I've had in 10 years.  Bottom line is that 2019 was my last year in organizing this type of trip.  It's been a good run since 1995.  Now that I live much closer to MB I'll take advantage and visit at least a couple of long weekends every year but it'll just be me and my wife.  I'll try and visit at least a day or two of the forum outing as long as it keeps going.  Hope to see some of you later this fall.

Rog