Baytree National Golf Links

Special remarks:     

This is your chance to experience the best of Florida golf and the best of Gary Player.

"Baytree National Golf Links will be perhaps one of Florida's best golf courses, and it was an honor to bring a Gary Player Signature Golf Course to Brevard County."

-Gary Player

This par-72 course at Baytree National was built in 1992 and was laid out by the PGA's famous Black Knight, Gary Player. He created generous and playable fairways for this Signature Course, mounded on the sides with moguls in a link style. No fairway here is lined up right next to another one. You're not going to have players on parallel fairways hitting into you at Baytree.

Playing at almost 7,200 yards from the tips, Baytree is peppered with 82 white sand bunkers and the unique red shale coquina waste areas that have helped make Florida golf famous. The greens are of varying shapes and sizes that allow difficult, as well as easily accessible pin placements. This course will definitely test your shot-making skills. You will walk away feeling that you have to return until you can conquer those lakes and wetlands on Player's exciting layout.

Your round will get off to an innocent start on a par-4 (421 yards from the back and 286 yards from the front) that offers many of the obstacles that have made Baytree famous in Brevard County: water in play on the left, a large waste bunker on the right, and thick native shrubs and grasses threatening to swallow a wandering ball. Aim your drive down the right side toward the palm trees. The green will run away from you on the second shot and is guarded by a large bunker.

The 5th hole, a long risk-reward dogleg-left par-5 (555 yards from the tips and 403 yards from the front) offers a risk-reward shot, according to general manager and director of golf Scott Davey.

"If you can get a birdie here, it will be a catalyst for your round," Davey says. "But the tee shot can be tough."

Grip your club tightly and concentrate on No. 6, an absorbing par-4, with a split fairway that may puzzle you at first. A long stand rough divides the fairway in two, the long way on this hole (364 yards from the back and 247 from the front). But this is an easy driving hole, says Davey.

Take your choice, either way is OK, he notes. "You can either go down the right or the left with the rough in-between."

The second shot is the toughie because pin placement can require a change of clubs. If you come up short on your approach, you might have to deal with a series of sticky bunkers and two grassy hollows.

The par-4 9th (411 from the back and 295 from the front) is ranked as one of the hardest on the course, but Scott Davey calls it "a great little hole." There is a tricky pond to the left of the tee boxes and the green is protected by bunkers on the right and a dangerous oak behind.

"You need a good tee shot (drive toward the cupola on the clubhouse)," he says. "Then you take your approach shot to a green that's on the other side of some wetlands. You don't want to miss the green to the right; but you can miss left and chip it up."

The heart of this course is found in the last five holes that reach a robust crescendo you'll remember forever.

The 14th, a par-4 that measures 416 yards from the tips and 286 from the front, "is a fun hole that can wreak havoc on your score" says Davey. "Or it can be a short risk-reward experience."

The hole is something of a double dogleg that goes right first, then left, then right again. Off the tee you can head right and end up with 125 to 150 yards to reach the green on your approach shot. Or take your tee shot to the left, carry a marsh in front of you and end up almost reaching the green, if you're a long hitter.

Accuracy is imperative on 15, where your challenge is a very long, straight, and tough par-4, 447 yards from the back and 297 from the front tees.

Beware of the long pond to the left of the tee boxes that in some cases requires a shot over water to reach the fairway. "There's a coquina waste bunker all down the left side of the fairway," says Davey. "The green has no bunkers, but it's two tiered and slopes from back to front."

Another risk-reward set-up awaits long hitters on the 16th, according to Davey. This par-5 measures 554 yards from the back and 408 from the front. Water threatens on the left hand side of the tee boxes, but if you go too far right, you could land in some treacherous fairway bunkers. But a long tee shot can get you past the trouble so that you have a shot at a birdie. Be precise heading into the green which is flanked by bunkers and has water behind and off to the right. "There's no room to bail out," Davey says.

The 17th (209 yards from the back and 78 from the front) is a great par-3," says Davey. "It has a three-tiered green with a low front, plateau in the middle, and back that slopes away from you. There are also pot bunkers in the front as well as coquina."

The final test is a par-4 (454 yards from the tips and 289 from the front) that has a wild reputation with the locals.

"They say it's the hardest hole in Brevard County," according to Davey.

Among other thrills, a lake that runs down the right side of the fairway turns into a marsh and continues to the green.