Streamsong Black

Streamsong is in Florida where The Mosaic Company has established 3 courses on a piece of land formerly used for phosphate mining. Usually the courses in Florida are located on the east of west coastline, but this is in a remote area about 1 1/2 hours drive from Tampa. The golf courses and resort has received many good reviews, so I was looking forward to the experience and especially with the new Gil Hansen course. I played Black and Blue on the same day and Red the day after.

You drive slowly through the area and get a feel for what is to come. I went to the hotel first and had a quick coffee before heading to the Black clubhouse.

driving range and short game

The tee times were delayed due to an earlier accident at the resort so we were sent out on gunshot starts, which meant that I started on hole number 4.

the course

Streamsong Black 4th hole is a par 5 slightly uphill with a split fairway. I took the easy route down the right hand side and hit a hybrid second shot onto the other fairway which left me a short pitch to the green.

An opening par after a good approach shot.

Difficult par 3

5th hole is a fantastic par 3 severely uphill and with a huge bunker/waste area on the right hand side. As our caddie suggested the miss is left and I hit a really good shot on the green

Made par and felt that it was 1 stroke gained on the field.

A short par 4 and I went with driver which left me with above pitch to the green.

I pushed my shot left and made a great up and down for par – so far a good start to the round

9th hole at Streamsong Black was playing to the wind and a long hole. I hit driver, 3 wood to the green. It is difficult to see on above picture, but the green is shaped like a bowl leading most balls into the middle of the green. Mine ended up pretty close to the hole and I converted for a really good birdie on a tough hole.

Short par 3, but well protected by bunkers. I hit a tee shot over the back into the bunker and made bogey.

favourite streamsong hole

18th on Streamsong Black is my favourite hole on all of the Streamsong courses. A really well designed and risk/reward finishing hole. I hit a decent drive and had 190m to the hole.

I went for the green in my second shot and was a little bit long which left me with a tough bunker shot. The greens slope towards the water so I still had a long putt for birdie. Made par and shot 80. Back nine was not great, but I was happy the score.

My experience

Streamsong Black course was in really good shape and greens were firm and fast. I think Gil Hanse has designed a good course in a unique landscape. It is a “big” course with lots of space and for most parts wide fairways with large greens. The waste areas designs are well thought out and gives the course character. It is obviously a very open course and it was windy when we played which made it a bit more challenging, but you can get away with poor tee shots and will in most cases have a shot to the green anyway. It is not a particularly difficult course, but you still need to hit greens and putt well to score low.
I think Streamsong is a good golf destination and should be on the bucket list. I wouldnt be surpised if one or more of the courses will end up on the world top 100.

My score