Cabot Citrus Farms Review: Florida's ultimate golfing playground

Cabot Citrus Farms Fact File

• Location: 80 minutes north of Tampa
• Year Established: 2022 (in its current guise)
• Par: 72 (Karoo), 72 (Roost)
• Length (yards): 7,562 (Karoo), 7,200 (Roost)
• Green Fees (weekdays): $395
• Signature Hole: The 292-yard 3rd on the Karoo is special but the sink hole that sits in front the Roost’s 14th might top it
• Website: cabotcitrusfarms.com

This is very much the new kid on the block but the courses have been in situ for some time. World Woods opened in the early 90s in the boom time of new courses and this had the added bonus of having been laid out by Tom Fazio. He would design two courses – Pine Barrens, which was based on none other than Pine Valley, and Rolling Oaks, which had mature oaks and similarities with Augusta National. So these were lofty aims and the former was very well received and ranked in the Top 100 listings.

The problem is that this property is a 50-minute drive from Tampa and 80 minutes from Orlando so not in the catchment area of many of the other Floridian courses and the golfing traffic would fall away.

In 2022 the Cabot Group and its CEO Ben Cowan-Dewar bought the courses and surrounding land and we now have another addition to the Cabot Collection which include Cabot Links in Nova Scotia, Cabot Cliffs in Canada and Cabot Highlands (formerly Castle Stuart) in Scotland.

Now we also have Cabot Citrus Farms where the local economy is agriculture, hence the name. And, following the recent trend for getting away from the norm of 18-hole courses, we have a 10-hole course, an 11-hole par 3 to go alongside the revitalised pair of 18-hole layouts.

Cabot Citrus Farms Review

For once we're going to concentrate on this as a 57-hole experience, rather than single out one course from the other. The centrepiece to Citrus Farms' offering is likely the Karoo. This takes place on the site of the former Pine Barrens course and takes its name from the sound made by the Sandhill Cranes that are known to dance and sing their way around the fairways. Kyle Franz, who is known for his work in North Carolina, is the designer and there are similarities here and this features rugged aesthetics, wide and occasionally triple fairways, no forced carries, short grass recovery shots and multiple routes to the pins. It's been labelled 'Adventure Golf' due to the fun nature as well as the obvious test that lies ahead and, complementing the playability, there are five lots of tees.

"Even if you want to bomb and gouge out there, you're at least going to make some sort of cognisant effort to consider which side you're going to be in. So we've really tried to make a bunch of holes where you have a really great opportunity to play to one fairway or the other one. And we've set up the greens to where they're big and burly, and they're really fun and easy to get onto in general because they're so big for the high-handicap player," explains Franz.

"They're going to hit a lot of greens out there, but you've got to hit the right sections of greens to score. And that really allows us to really spread out and diversify the hole locations, and that works perfectly for the multiple fairways and the multiple different places to play to out there. We're just trying to build the coolest, funnest golf courses we really can. Stuff that we really like to play."

The Roost is the second 18-holer here and opened afterwards. Again Franz was involved but this is a co-design with Mike Nuzzo, Rod Whitman and with help from Ran Morrissett. This sits on the land formerly known as Rolling Oaks but this capitalises on different environments – sandy scrub, rollin meadows with flowering dogwoods (think Augusta) and even a 40-foot-deep sinkhole which sits in front of the par-3 14th green. The oaks are dressed with Spanish moss and you will encounter wild turkeys which is where the name comes from.

Unlike the majority of Florida courses this features big elevation changes which lend itself to the game played along the ground, like a UK links. Again, there's a big emphasis on enjoying the game.

"We believe that the game starts at the ground. The magic of the game is when the ball hits the ground and then making all the contours sing once that happens," adds the Director of Agronomy, Steve Blake.

"When you get around the greens, there is about every option you could imagine, from wedge, putter, hybrids, 7-irons, 5-irons and that's the interesting part. Definitely had an intent of being able to keep the ball on the ground as long as you wanted. So there is a lot of room for the average player, and we are always looking to help the average player, help them along, make it more interesting, more enjoyable."

Final verdict

Many will point to The Squeeze as the most fun that you can have at Cabot Citrus Farms. Here we have a scorecard of under 3,000 yards, 60 acres and a collection of half pars and all sorts of brilliant quirks. Mike Nuzzo designed the 2nd green based on the corrugated metal tin roofing found in miniature golf while the 5th presents an optical illusion where the bunkers appear to be adjacent to one another when instead there is a fairway in between. There's room for a par 5 and a tough 4 and an hour's brilliant entertainment.

Sitting on 20 acres is The Wedge where, as the name suggests, needs just that and a putter. The 11 holes add up to a neat 1000 yards but it's not as you might expect with huge waste areas and slopes and there is the added bonus that this can be floodlit and played at night.

This is known as the 'Nature Coast' and, away from the golf, is opportunity to fish, bike, canoe, kayak, paddle board and eat at one of the many restaurants.

Cabot describe this as Florida Golf, Reimagined and, if you can make the shortish trip away from the usual visits, you'll be rewarded with a resort that offers something very different and very fun.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars ️️️️️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️