The fruits of the work were evident on a recent visit to attend the International Network of Golf spring conference. The resort now has an expanded Osprey Clubhouse, serving as the guest registration center with a pro shop for the North and South Courses plus a sports bar and restaurant.
There are three other specialty restaurants, including the Packard Steakhouse at the Copperhead clubhouse. There is a separate clubhouse for the Island Course, too. Other amenities include six swimming pools, a fitness facility, a tennis center with 11 courts and a new 20,000 square-foot Indaba Spa with 12 treatment rooms. Three meetings areas with 65,000 square-foot of space are great for conventions like the one I attended.
The 609 guest accommodations range from deluxe rooms to one and two bedroom and executive suites in 28 lodges, named after other famous golf courses, spread out to provide tranquil settings. More renovations are planned for the accommodations, too. Missing are elevators, making the bellmen’s tasks a little harder.
If you do not arrive in a car, don’t worry. Innisbrook has a very efficient shuttle service that was Johnny-on-the-spot every time I called since my room was a long ways from the meetings and the two courses I played.
The main attraction remains golf with 72 holes, featuring rolling terrain different from other Florida courses.
The Copperhead Course, where the PGA Tour players play in March at the Transitions Championship is the featured course. It’s long even for the pros at 7,340 yards, but it’s also a thinking man’s course with rolling terrain and tall pines framing the fairways that are more like North Carolina than Florida.
Most golfers shouldn’t even attempt to go back to the tips, sporting a 76.8 course rating and a slope of 144. The green tees at 6,725 yards with 73.7 and 136 numbers are enough for the lower handicappers, but I would enjoy it more from the whites at 6,180 and 130. It’s still a little too long for women at 5,605 from the reds with 73.6 and 130 numbers.
The Island Course, the first to be built back in 1970, may be more difficult with tighter fairways bordered by moss-draped trees and plenty of water hazards, especially after a $2 million facelift that stretched it 350 yards to 7,310 with a rating of -76.4 and slope of 143. The greens were all rebuilt and lowered and replaced with TifEagle grass, just like Copperhead, but approach shots definitely need to be kept under the holes for the most part on the undulating putting surfaces.
Playing it at 6,816 yards with 73.9 and 141 numbers, I found it difficult to get home on many of the longer par 4s. My advice is to move up to the whites at 6,280 with 70.9 and 135 numbers if you don’t drive the ball more than 250 yards. It’s too long for most women at 5,515 with 77.1 and 144 numbers.
While I did not get to play the other two courses, opened in 1971 as the Sandpiper, it seems obvious they are more player friendly based on the lengths, course ratings and slopes. Who doesn’t like making more pars and a birdie every once in a while? With water hazards, both can be challenging.
The North, which also under went some renovations to add length, will remind you of the Copperhead—nine holes were part of Copperhead’s 27 holes—and so it has some of the same characteristics, but shorter. There’s one stretch of six straight holes with water. It plays to par 70, measuring 6,325, 6,070, 5,580 and 4,955 from the four tees.
The South starts out and ends like the others, but there is a stretch in the middle (5-13) where it opens up and is largely devoid of trees. Higher handicappers will enjoy it more as it plays to par 71, measuring 6,620, 6,340, 5,900 and 4,975 from the four tees.
As an extra attraction during the summer when more families come calling, the resort sets up the Fox Squirrel walking course after 4 p.m. It measures only 1,236 yards on holes 1-4 and 14-18 of the South or the back nine on the North when the South is closed.
Larry Packard, 98, designed all the four courses, and still lives at Innisbrook. His trademark double doglegs are evident at Innisbrook just as they were elsewhere.
While some more work, especially on the greens, is needed, Innisbrook does appear to be making an effort to move up a notch or two among America’s premier golf resorts.
