Crooked Cat Course Orange County National, Winter Garden Florida.
Wednesday morning (1/12/11) I find myself standing in a deep sand trap right in front of the 16th green of the Panther Lake Golf Course in Winter Garden Florida. My ball is setting in a depression left behind by,….what it looks like, the track of a pretty good sized cat. When I say pretty good sized, the track is the size of a softball!
The tracks went from one side of the trap through to the other.
As this registers my first reaction is to take a quick look around, like a 360 degree look around! I look over at my playing partner and say, Chuck, come over here and tell me what you think this looks like?
He walks over takes a look, and immediately does the 360 scan like a knee jerk reaction! Second, he looks at the hat I have on that has a cat paw print on it – looks down – looks up at my hat again – looks down, he looks up and says,” Man, it looks like a cat to me! A big one! I hope he’s gone or you could be brunch!”
I look back at him and say, “Not me partner, you” “You smoke, I know I can out run you!”
True Story.
We cracked up, then moved on, at just a bit faster pace!
What a spectacular golf vacation to Florida.
One of my friends, Chuck, and I spent 4 days last week at Orange County National Golf Facility in Winter Garden Florida. This is the facility that hosted the 2010 PGA Qualifying School this past December. If you are a golfer, this place is a meca!
Orange County National offers up 2 – 18 hole championship courses. Crooked Cat is a links style course that is pretty open though it is peppered with sand traps and an ocean’s worth of water. The sister course, Panther Lake, is a more traditional loop with much tighter fairways and mounds everywhere. Very seldom are you fortunate enough to have a flat lie.
For not having picked up a club in 3 months I felt I played pretty well. In comparison,. Billy Mayfair won the 6 round Q-School Tournament in December at an average of 2 under par. Not and easy turn! I shot near my handicap of 12.6, after taking into account the increased difficulty.
I would go back in a heartbeat!
Captdhd's Blog 
Posted by TNT Man on January 19, 2011 at 4:59 PM
Driving into the entrance roadways to the FT Meyes airport is a sign – not one of deer crossing – but of those BIG cats crossing – WTF.
Sounds like a great vacation.
TNT Man