Tiburón Golf Club (The Gold course) Est. 1998

Tiburon enjoys two excellent and challenging golf courses laid out by Greg Norman. Although this Floridian forested wetland setting has little in common with Britain's windswept sand dunes, Norman designed the courses to have some of the playing characteristics of a British links layout. That explains the crisp fairways; firm, fast and expansive greens; steep-faced bunkers and slick run-off areas that can carry your ball away from the putting surface and into tight-lie, bump-and-run areas. This always challenging layout demands several precision tee-shots to be made, often down corridor-like avenues of palms, pines and olive trees. The absence of conventional rough and limited mounding alongside the good-width fairways, means there is little to stop slightly wayward drives running off the fairways into thick, hole-lining vegetation. Accuracy, and especially straight driving, is the key to scoring well at Tiburon. Several small lakes and ponds allow the course to open-out from time to time, but also brings water dangerously into play on over half the holes. Coquina shell waste bunkers occasionally provide a safer-haven for offline shots, less penalising than the water or abundant native flora. With housing generally tucked away behind the tree-line, many attractive holes are included in the two nine-hole loops. Water defended par-3s at 12 and 16 are two back-nine gems. The long par-4 9th and 18th holes, with water flanking both sides of the 9th and left side of the 18th, bring you back to Tiburon's impressive clubhouse and adjoining Ritz-Carlton hotel.