Daytona Beach in Florida has evolved into a chic and stylish destination, and with year-round sunshine and several highly-rated golf courses to play, what are you waiting for?
Daytona Beach in Florida has evolved into a chic and stylish destination, and with year-round sunshine and several highly-rated golf courses to play, what are you waiting for?
As the “birthplace of speed” and home of NASCAR motor racing, it’s tempting to think that Daytona Beach is somewhere that’s strictly for the boys. Far from it.
It might still attract petrolheads and racing fans for its strong motorsports heritage but it has far more to offer visitors, from its famous, wide beach to shopping and sophisticated restaurants and nightlife. For those interested in of a different kind, Daytona Beach is also great for golfing getaways with several highly-rated courses to play.
The weather is perfect for golf year- round, a key reason why the Ladies Professional Golf Association moved its HQ there from Houston in 1989.
It’s also easy to get to, as direct flights from several UK airports serve Orlando, with flights taking about nine hours, and at just over an hour’s drive to the north-east from Orlando, it makes for an ideal twin-centre holiday, either with Orlando’s theme parks or combined with golf on the plethora of courses in Central Florida. Flights also serve Daytona Beach International Airport from gateways including New York, Atlanta and Charlotte.
WHERE TO PLAY
The LPGA International features two challenging signature designs - the Rees Jones and Arthur Hills courses that opened in 1994 and 1997 respectively - as part of a huge complex set in more than 650 acres.
Formerly called the Champions Course, the Rees Jones layout has hosted LPGA Tour events and final qualifying tournaments for the tour. It has links echoes but in a Florida setting and winds around natural marshes, lakes, native vegetation, and pine and palm trees, with strategic mounding, undulating greens and extensive bunkering.
Popular with tour players and low handicappers while still eminently playable for less accomplished golfers, it has been ranked as the most women-friendly course in America by Golf.com and measures just over 5,100 yards from the red tees and 6,240 yards from the whites.
The Arthur Hills Course, renamed from the Legends, threads through narrow stands of pine and marshland areas with plenty of danger if you miss the fairways. The small, fast greens make difficult targets for approach shots. From the red tees the 121 slope rating matches that of the Rees Jones, while its 5,155-yard length is marginally longer of the two. Play from the 6,339-yard white tees and the ladies’ slope rating of 144 highlights the challenge for low handicap players and compares to 139 for the Rees Jones.
Both courses have four par-3s and four par-5s. Practice facilities include six putting greens with several having bunkers, a three-hole practice academy, a dedicated short-game area and a bunker reserved for fairway bunker shot practice, in addition to a 360-yard, double-ended driving range.
Forty-five minutes’ drive north of downtown Daytona on the Palm Coast, Hammock Beach is a luxury resort boasting 36 holes of golf by another two notable designers.
The Jack Nicklaus-designed Ocean Course has six holes directly on the Atlantic, four of which form a thrilling oceanside finish named by the Golden Bear himself as the Bear Claw. Before that, marshes and lakes edging the course serve up hazards to negotiate on most holes.
The Ocean Course underwent a major restoration project after devastating damage from Hurricane Matthew in 2016 that left it under seawater for seven days and killed off the grass. It reopened in November 2017 with all tee boxes, fairways, bunkers, greens and rough revamped and all the grass replaced by salt-tolerant Paspalum Platinum.
Designed by Tom Watson, the Conservatory Course is the longest in Florida from the back tees, measuring a monster 7,776 yards. Ladies tees are red and green, the reds coming in at 5,235 yards with a slope rating of 126 and the greens 5,995 yards long with a 137 slope rating. Riverine coquina shell waste bunkers snake alongside a number of fairways and form part of the course’s 140 bunkers, three of which are sod-faced in homage to Watson’s five Open Championship links titles, while the course also features waterfalls, veneered stonework and water on 14 holes. Visiting golfers can stay in a boutique lodge or villas overlooking the beach and ocean.
Daytona Beach Golf Club also offers two courses. Its South Course is a Donald Ross design dating back to 1921 that is largely true to the great man’s original layout. There is little water compared to most Florida courses but the tall pines and Florida oaks dripping with Spanish moss ask searching questions of approach shots.
The North Course was designed by head professional and club manager Slim Deathridge, who also supervised its construction in 1946, and is a tougher prospect than its older sibling, with more water, a tighter layout lined by mature trees, and contoured greens. All tees, bunkers and greens were rebuilt in 1997 and a five-month renovation of its greens has been undertaken over the summer ahead of a planned reopening in October.
Among other Daytona Beach area golf courses are DeBary Golf & Country Club, halfway towards Orlando and often used for US Open qualifiers, and nearby Victoria Hills Golf Club, a Ron Garl design set amidst oak hammocks and Augusta pines.
WHERE TO STAY
A range of accommodation is available for visitors, spanning the spectrum from condominiums and villas to hotels large and small.
The Hard Rock Hotel Daytona Beach opened on the beachfront in spring 2018 with 200 rooms and suites. Accommodation options range up to Rock Royalty suites offering VIP concierge services. Hard Rock’s The Sound of Your Stay music amenity programme allows all hotel guests to borrow vinyl records or Fender guitars free to play in their rooms while the Rock Spa & Salon puts a musical twist on treatments that include the music-centric Rhythm & Motion massage using special massage tables vibrating to bass beats.
The art deco Streamline Hotel is a restored 44-room boutique hotel with a glorious past that reopened in late 2017. The National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) was born at a historic meeting at the hotel in 1947, launching the motor racing series. The lime green hotel features a rooftop lounge, bar and terrace.
The luxurious, 145-room Marriott Autograph hotel The Daytona and the 105-room Fairfield Inn & Suites Daytona Beach both form part of ONE DAYTONA, a new entertainment and dining complex opposite the Daytona International Speedway.
Other hotels include the 744-room Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront Resort and the Residence Inn by Marriott Daytona Beach Oceanfront.
To find out more, please visit daytonabeach.com
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Daytona Beach in Florida has evolved into a chic and stylish destination, and with year-round sunshine and several highly-rated golf courses to play, what are you waiting for?
Daytona Beach in Florida has evolved into a chic and stylish destination, and with year-round sunshine and several highly-rated golf courses to play, what are you waiting for?
As the “birthplace of speed” and home of NASCAR motor racing, it’s tempting to think that Daytona Beach is somewhere that’s strictly for the boys. Far from it.
It might still attract petrolheads and racing fans for its strong motorsports heritage but it has far more to offer visitors, from its famous, wide beach to shopping and sophisticated restaurants and nightlife. For those interested in of a different kind, Daytona Beach is also great for golfing getaways with several highly-rated courses to play.
The weather is perfect for golf year- round, a key reason why the Ladies Professional Golf Association moved its HQ there from Houston in 1989.
It’s also easy to get to, as direct flights from several UK airports serve Orlando, with flights taking about nine hours, and at just over an hour’s drive to the north-east from Orlando, it makes for an ideal twin-centre holiday, either with Orlando’s theme parks or combined with golf on the plethora of courses in Central Florida. Flights also serve Daytona Beach International Airport from gateways including New York, Atlanta and Charlotte.
WHERE TO PLAY
The LPGA International features two challenging signature designs - the Rees Jones and Arthur Hills courses that opened in 1994 and 1997 respectively - as part of a huge complex set in more than 650 acres.
Formerly called the Champions Course, the Rees Jones layout has hosted LPGA Tour events and final qualifying tournaments for the tour. It has links echoes but in a Florida setting and winds around natural marshes, lakes, native vegetation, and pine and palm trees, with strategic mounding, undulating greens and extensive bunkering.
Popular with tour players and low handicappers while still eminently playable for less accomplished golfers, it has been ranked as the most women-friendly course in America by Golf.com and measures just over 5,100 yards from the red tees and 6,240 yards from the whites.
The Arthur Hills Course, renamed from the Legends, threads through narrow stands of pine and marshland areas with plenty of danger if you miss the fairways. The small, fast greens make difficult targets for approach shots. From the red tees the 121 slope rating matches that of the Rees Jones, while its 5,155-yard length is marginally longer of the two. Play from the 6,339-yard white tees and the ladies’ slope rating of 144 highlights the challenge for low handicap players and compares to 139 for the Rees Jones.
Both courses have four par-3s and four par-5s. Practice facilities include six putting greens with several having bunkers, a three-hole practice academy, a dedicated short-game area and a bunker reserved for fairway bunker shot practice, in addition to a 360-yard, double-ended driving range.
Forty-five minutes’ drive north of downtown Daytona on the Palm Coast, Hammock Beach is a luxury resort boasting 36 holes of golf by another two notable designers.
The Jack Nicklaus-designed Ocean Course has six holes directly on the Atlantic, four of which form a thrilling oceanside finish named by the Golden Bear himself as the Bear Claw. Before that, marshes and lakes edging the course serve up hazards to negotiate on most holes.
The Ocean Course underwent a major restoration project after devastating damage from Hurricane Matthew in 2016 that left it under seawater for seven days and killed off the grass. It reopened in November 2017 with all tee boxes, fairways, bunkers, greens and rough revamped and all the grass replaced by salt-tolerant Paspalum Platinum.
Designed by Tom Watson, the Conservatory Course is the longest in Florida from the back tees, measuring a monster 7,776 yards. Ladies tees are red and green, the reds coming in at 5,235 yards with a slope rating of 126 and the greens 5,995 yards long with a 137 slope rating. Riverine coquina shell waste bunkers snake alongside a number of fairways and form part of the course’s 140 bunkers, three of which are sod-faced in homage to Watson’s five Open Championship links titles, while the course also features waterfalls, veneered stonework and water on 14 holes. Visiting golfers can stay in a boutique lodge or villas overlooking the beach and ocean.
Daytona Beach Golf Club also offers two courses. Its South Course is a Donald Ross design dating back to 1921 that is largely true to the great man’s original layout. There is little water compared to most Florida courses but the tall pines and Florida oaks dripping with Spanish moss ask searching questions of approach shots.
The North Course was designed by head professional and club manager Slim Deathridge, who also supervised its construction in 1946, and is a tougher prospect than its older sibling, with more water, a tighter layout lined by mature trees, and contoured greens. All tees, bunkers and greens were rebuilt in 1997 and a five-month renovation of its greens has been undertaken over the summer ahead of a planned reopening in October.
Among other Daytona Beach area golf courses are DeBary Golf & Country Club, halfway towards Orlando and often used for US Open qualifiers, and nearby Victoria Hills Golf Club, a Ron Garl design set amidst oak hammocks and Augusta pines.
WHERE TO STAY
A range of accommodation is available for visitors, spanning the spectrum from condominiums and villas to hotels large and small.
The Hard Rock Hotel Daytona Beach opened on the beachfront in spring 2018 with 200 rooms and suites. Accommodation options range up to Rock Royalty suites offering VIP concierge services. Hard Rock’s The Sound of Your Stay music amenity programme allows all hotel guests to borrow vinyl records or Fender guitars free to play in their rooms while the Rock Spa & Salon puts a musical twist on treatments that include the music-centric Rhythm & Motion massage using special massage tables vibrating to bass beats.
The art deco Streamline Hotel is a restored 44-room boutique hotel with a glorious past that reopened in late 2017. The National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) was born at a historic meeting at the hotel in 1947, launching the motor racing series. The lime green hotel features a rooftop lounge, bar and terrace.
The luxurious, 145-room Marriott Autograph hotel The Daytona and the 105-room Fairfield Inn & Suites Daytona Beach both form part of ONE DAYTONA, a new entertainment and dining complex opposite the Daytona International Speedway.
Other hotels include the 744-room Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront Resort and the Residence Inn by Marriott Daytona Beach Oceanfront.
To find out more, please visit daytonabeach.com
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