Cabot Citrus Farms - Brooksville, FL
An excursion to Florida in the fall combing with a round at Cabot Citrus Farms and getting to watch The Tampa Bay Buccaneers host the Baltimore Ravens? Sign me up ten times out of ten. A great friend of mine invited me to join them down in Tampa for a Monday Night Football game followed by a round on the Karoo Course as well as The Wedge. This made for an incredible trip that I hope to replicate in the future.
From Charleston, SC, I drove down to Jacksonville, Florida where my buddy Joe lives. We got in the car together and continued our trip down to Tampa where we saw a high scoring game between the Buccaneers and Ravens. Frank, another college friend of mine who currently lives in Tampa joined us for the game as well. This was a really fun match up to watch with Lamar Jackson throwing for five touchdowns and Baker Mayfield throwing for three. The next morning following the game, Joe and I made our way up to Cabot for a day well spent on the course.
Cabot is a golf hospitality brand that has cemented their name amongst some of the top resort locations, starting with their first course in Nova Scotia, rivaling some of the Oregon coast or even Scotland. Now with seven distinct properties in their portfolio, they do not leave any stones unturned in providing a world class experience from the moment you arrive on property.
From the sugar cookies at the starter's stand and blowtorch-melted cheese on their comfort station hot dogs to the private label-branded cocktails, golf is not the only part of the experience where Cabot capitalizes on the opportunity to add their expert level of touch while on the property. Privately owned cottages are available for rent should you choose to stay on property.
Cabot Citrus Farms was built on the former World Woods golf course located in Brooksville, Florida, about an hour north of Tampa. Kyle Franz designed the Karoo course that I had the chance to play. Many of the greens presented quite the challenge if your approach shot did not land on the proper tier that the pin was cut in to. Some are critical of this, wanting an automatic two putt if you hit the green. I thought it added to the overall strategy of the course and enhanced the challenge as a whole. Not every course should follow the same model in my opinion. There will be some that love the course and some that the course doesn’t quite fit their preferences. I found the Karoo course to be a thrilling adventure and would like to play it again after having seen it once now.
Before your round begins, there are numerous ways to start your warm-up process. The driving range has trackman launch monitors and displays at each hitting area for accurate practice and fine tuning before your round. There is a Himalaya style putting course adjacent to the range to word on speed control and to serve as a small taste of what is to come for the sometimes wild undulations of the greens found on the course. There is an eleven hole par three course (The Wedge) and a ten hole course (The Squeeze) with distances ranging from 100 to 500 yards. These are great ways to get the juices flowing (pun intended) for the main event on either the Karoo Course or the Roost Course. We ended up starting at the range, followed by the putting course. Then we played the Karoo course, and we made a loop through the Wedge after our round. The Wedge is aptly named as the only club you need to play it is a wedge and a putter, and the logo is an orange wedge. The Wedge was the perfect way to reflect on your round on the Karoo as you make your casual stroll around the eleven holes with a wedge in one hand and Cabot Light Lager in the other. The Wedge is also lit at night so no worries about rushing through your round. Keep the loop and the good times going long in to the night.
The branding team at Cabot delivers on all levels. The pro shop was one of the most well stocked I had been to, with all the various logos proudly displayed on their various merchandise. Cabot Citrus Farms overall logo is an orange, honoring the surround area and Florida’s rich history of citrus farms. As mentioned, the Wedge course has an orange wedge logo, and The Squeeze course logo is a glass of orange juice. The Karoo course logo is a Sandhill Crane. Karoo is the official sound a Sandhill crane makes. The Roost course logo is a Turkey, and a roost is where turkeys and other birds sleep or rest.
The new clubhouse construction is underway. For the time being and hopefully following the conclusion of construction as well, there is an outdoor lounge area near the practice facility and the Wedge where a pizza truck and a mobile bar are stationed. This is the perfect place to hangout before and after the round on a nice day.
The Karoo course provided one of the largest variety of holes that I have experienced lately. From blind shots and split fairways to forced carries and risk/reward optionality, the course was one you would never get tired of playing. With short grass running out to sandy waste areas, the ground game was equally as important as your shot trajectory. You were able to use designed funnels and banks to help navigate your golf ball, depending on the pin location. The course is wide in general, but this does not mean you can be all the over the place and still score well. The pin location determines which side of the fairway you should play to, or in the case of hole number 4 which split fairway to play to.
I highly recommend making the trip to Cabot Citrus Farms for the golf, camaraderie, and great provisions offered. I am excited to checkout some of the other Cabot properties in the future and hope you get a chance to as well!
