Number of executive courses south of 44
 

Just a bit of info to you new home buyers coming south of 44. They have not built any free to play executive courses near you new house since 2019. If you do not include the little pitch and puts, there are 45 holes available (Lowlands, Red Fox, Gray Fox, Longleaf and Loblolly) that are reasonably close. Since 2017 there have been over 13,000 new homes sold. If you buy in St. Catherine those above mentioned courses are the only close executive courses available. Unless you want to do the 1 hour golf cart ride to the "north" side. It may be time to remind the sales people that you really can't sell them as a golf community if you can never get a tee time close to your new home! They built a championship course down this way, but I pay $165 per month to play executive courses for "free". Done with the rant just a heads up!

Good thing you're not a Golfbum.

:1rotfl::1rotfl:

We have no problems getting tee times. I can also be at Mangrove in 30 minutes from my house in DeSoto.

If you watch GoldWingNut's videos, you'd see that more executive courses are coming...

I know it doesn't help "now", but it will down the road...

And that's one of the reasons we bought a resale in Osceola Hills. Still a newer home (only 4-5 years old), but close to many, many, executive and championship courses...

Soon we will be the center of TV...

To me 30 minutes in a golf cart is TOO long. TV is/was a golfing community and they are not but building enough golf courses for the newer residents.

I think the areas South of 44 are being built with a different recreational agenda in mind i.e. not just a golf community but an outdoor activity/health oriented community...golf is secondary. I don't think this is going to change much in the immediate future so if you want more access to golf, you have to buy a used house North of 44. Also the area North of the highway from 470 all the way to Warm Springs Blvd appears to only have 1 championship course and that "putting" course(Blah). Buyers beware.

There will be an exec course on the other side of the turnpike from Southern Oaks championship course to start, after the bridge is finished. Then others to follow. Southern Oaks was $73 one morning so avoiding it for now.

And this is just being figured out now? There is as much golf now in the little area that makes up the Nancy Lopez area, including 27 holes of Championship golf and four nice Executives (and they are building a miniature golf course at the new First Responders Rec area), than there is in the entire area south of 44. Bottom line, the north area is a retirement golfing community, the new southern area is a retirement community that happens to have a little golf available. Did ya notice in the golf magazine included in the daily sun a couple days ago that Southern Oaks is called a Golf Club, and the other 12 Championship courses are called Country Clubs? As far a golf goes, the new business model has changed significantly.

Wife and I walk all Execs.
We play where ever booking system sends us.
Our rule is.
Golf cart travel up to 30-40 minutes away.
Any longer journey, take car.
Works for us.

You actually misquote the cost of the exec courses/month. that is the amenity fee which includes the swimming pools(most all throughout TV....care of the bathrooms, golf courses amongst any repairs to rec centers, billiard tables...the list goes on...if you're going to rant(and there's nothing wrong with a good rant), but at least include all the facts.

the rant is very misleading. is it just you and your wife? do you invite guests(any group with a guest gets a tee time after all groups without a guest)? what time slots are you putting in for? even traveling 30 to 40 minutes by cart is still closer than most people who play golf elsewhere go that far by car.

30 minutes is half as long as an hour.

If you don’t like the southern area, buy a house in the northern part. Problem solved. Please stop bashing the southern area. It is not going away.

Someone here looked at the history and found the rooftops per hole of golf has remained relatively constant.

Plenty of holes completed/in work and planned south of 44.

To me 30 minutes is way to far. I don't play anything further than 15 minutes. I have 19 executives and 7 Championship within that time frame.

15 minutes 7 champs??

The “someone” referred to in the above post is completely clueless!

Access to golf courses was important to us too. Fortunately, they all are built and there’s a map of them (both north and south of 44, the Villages are not hiding anything). I am 5 minute golf cart ride to 27 exec holes and 54 championship holes.

IReply
 

Just me and the wife or maybe another resident couple. Just tried to get a tee time at lowlands on Monday and NONE are available. You have missed the point entirely. They brag about 700 holes and we have 45 close to March Bend. That's my point. They people buying down here will go to the courses closest to me before they travel 45 minutes by cart.

Love all these arguments. Myself and my neighbors golf as much as we want… have no problems with executive courses.

What was the window on the request?

Good Evening All,
My wife and I have sold our home in the panhandle and are renting a home in the Villages for the month of May. Our question is about the southern end of TV. We have heard good things and not so good things about the south end. I love tennis and play 3 times a week, USTA 3.5 - 4.0, my wife is a solid 3.5. Love the game. Also played 2 man beach volleyball back in the day and want to get back into it! We are active and are looking for that type of environment. Is the south end a good choice or not? Virus or not we have made up our minds that TV is where we want to be. Give us some honest opinions if you have time and some info!!! Thanks!!!!! Tennisbum

3/2020
No mention of golf.

From my experience, it is much easier to get on a tennis court than a pickle ball court and much easier to get on a pickle ball court than a golf course.

Buyers remorse? :shrug:

We play red, grey and lowlands about once a week. Rarely have a problem getting a time unless my window of time if very small

We played at El Diablo and 2 folks from the new Villages I think they said St. Catherine and said they rode their golf cart over an hour to play there.

Choosing tee times 7 days in advance usually get close to what you want if you choose 1or 2 courses only luck of the draw , new Villages limited by small choices to play at.

It’s 30 minutes from Duval to St Catherine and less than 20 to El Diablo, so that’s about right. Depends on cart traffic, and how many times you stop to help out the lost person stopped off on the grass

And even for those willing to pay to play Champioship courses, they have built only 1 since I have been here yet the population has increased by 40,000 people. That doesn't seem right either.

We live in Bradford south of 44. I would buy here again. There are pros and cons to every area. Pros to south of 44 are that we have wonderful, extensive, scenic multimodal trails for walking and biking everywhere. There are lots of gorgeous, brand new rec centers with courts for Pickleball, tennis, etc. homes are new, and often less expensive than pre owned homes. There will be a new type of entertainment and shopping/dining experience very soon at Sawgrass Grove. There are cute and unique places to go and see, such as Edna’s, Fenny Grill, Hogeye path, etc.. finally, when you move into a new area the folks are all in the same boat and it is super easy to make friends! Cons are that it is a longer drive to some executive courses, we are not as close to the existing town squares, and there is not great shopping down this way. So it is a trade off. I chose this area because I knew I wanted walking trails, and I use them every day. I don’t mind long golf cart rides to executive courses, and I know the new bridge and development south of here will bring even more access. I wanted a new home. But there are fantastic homes and amenities everywhere. Have fun looking!

The original message if WAY off. I live in Silver Lake and it takes ME an hour to get over Rte 44 to “the other side “. You are so wrong. You have
Palmetto - Sandhill - Turtle Mound - Volusia - ….those are ALL south of 466 a. You ride can’t be more than 30 min or so to most of them. Easy answer as my idol Judge Judy says….if you don’t like where you are…MOVE!!!! OR maybe ask The Villages if they can build you your own private course. When you bought the house, you had to know what was being done. Again MOVE!

I've been told the St. Catherine's are where Sawgrass Grove is, will be the new center of The Villages, not Osceola Hills. I guess looking at a revised map might help clarify this.

Well , us that live south of 44 don’t have a problem going to play golf , north of 44, so your rant is meaningless, and useless information

Glenview has the best tennis in The Villages. Check it out.

I would look more closely at that map if I were you, because St. Catherine's as the center isn't even close. Probably Dunedin or Charlotte fits that bill once construction is finished all the way down to Center Hill

Every yes is a thousand nos, and we have so MANY yeses we get to say!
 

Hi BeckyLou, CindyLou here!

This is the proper attitude with which to choose where to live in The Villages. Every yes in life is a thousand nos. Nowhere have I seen a place (much less created for a single age/lifestyle populace) with SO many yeses!!!

We bought a rental home and lived in it several weeks of the year for three years before making the big decision on where to live. I HIGHLY recommend renting first for this reason. We already had an idea when we bought the rental that we wanted in the “golden circle” (between morse and buena vista and 466 and 466a).

Those five years of being down here often, checking out lifestyle clubs, fitness facilities, golf courses, indoor and outdoor rec amenities, shopping, doctors, vets, restaurants, proximity to surrounding towns, amusement parks, state parks and both oceans all mattered to us. We are big fans of enjoying the state you reside in, and florida has wonders galore…natural and man made that we are enjoying every single month. Highly recommend getting National and state park passes as well.

We were so torn when Fenney and the southside boomed. We are from Lousiana and the Marsh Bend Hogeye area called to our swamp loving hearts for sure. We love to do nature walks. However, we also love convenience in our day to day lives. It takes at LEAST 10 years after The Villages moves into a new area for basic retail, medical, hair, vets, etc to move in and stabilize the commercial and retail sectors. The Villages is just now filling a vacancy in brownwood for the first time that has been there for almost a decade!

We figured with a 10-15 year life expectancy in our new chapter and location, we needed to be realistic about the NOW and near future. What do we do daily? What has us running the roads the least?

We ultimately chose to be almost literally in the dead center of the golden circle and are thrilled with the choice. We chose a wonderful tiny 10 home culdesac with amazing neighbors, mature landscaping, and peace and quiet. Half of our neighbors are in 80s and the other half of us are young 60s, nixing the rumor that everyone in center and north is “old” (which is irrelevant here where most people are active). It is a great mix! We are surrounded by golf galore (we can walk to starter shack in less than five minutes) and have three rec centers/pools/amenities within 5 minute walk. We have three great regional rec centers within a 5-10 minute golf cart ride and dozens of exec and championship courses in that same 10 minute drive. We are midway between Sarasota and Arnold Palmer and use both regularly for practice and lessons. No driving range or good practice facility in entire southside was deal breaker for husband. And Sarasota is ridiculously crowded year round now because developer hasn’t put practice greens, golf school or driving range on south side (which is truly inexcusable IMHO)

The GREAT news is there were hundreds of villages and lifestyle choices we could have made that would also have been great!
We drive down to Edna’s and Hogeye and the Fenney boardwalk (and looking forward to the new nature boardwalk opening soon as well) frequently. These are our “hometown” outings, our field trips, our explorations of our great community that has so ridiculously much to offer. I try to not to laugh when we comment that something is so FAR away. We are retired. We have 16 waking hours a day available every day. The journeys here are all a lovely relaxing golf cart ride away. We are GRATEFUL to be here!!!!

The Villages has gotten too big to pick a homesite that puts you near EVERYTHING. There is simple too much everything for that to be possible. What an amazing conundrum!

ESPECIALLY when I think about my friends retiring across their various hometowns who spend most of their days in their houses, in front of tv or media, with very few offerings on affordable recreation, fitness, sports, etc, and certainly no lifestyle type clubs to explore new interests and passions, no easy access to live music for free at three lovely outdoor venues etc…much less a short walk or relaxing breezy golf cart ride away. My friends who are aging in place are frequently in neighborhoods surrounded by busy young families who don’t have the time or same interests as most retirees. This creates a terrible sense of isolation and boredom amidst a crowd and requires that they get in their cars and drive substantial distances to connect with other retirees with the same interests.

P.s. My favorite unexpected joy so far is being able to hop in the car, drive one hour due west, meet the fishing boats at the Crab Plant on Crystal River and have a great seafood lunch outside on the water, watching manatees and coastal life. After lunch we head out with our fishing rods and a short 10-15 minute drive further we are on a pier in the gulf at Fort Island. We swim, we laze, and we throw perfectly good shrimp in the water in hopes of a good return on investment! We stay til the sun goes down and then enjoy spectacular stargazing lying on a remote dark beach. An hour away!!! Woo hoo!

Good luck to all choosing their next home. Wherever you choose, you will find GOOD people, GOOD health, GOOD lifestyle choices. Amazing!

I don’t think the poster was trying to bash the southern area but just making a statement that there are less golf courses per home compared to the other areas and with the influx of new residents playing golf the tee times are difficult to get

We have lived in the northern part of TV and now south of 44. Consider renting before you buy. Lots of pros and cons to every part of this place. We are very happy to have a newly built house in a newly developed area.

Respectfully, I disagree. Lots of bashing going on around here.

Winter time is always a tough time for tee times. I was talking to a starter at Lowlands yesterday. She said there are 1500 unfulfilled requests for tee times daily. Once the winter visitors head back home, this will ease.

It is difficult to make a profit or break even with a golf course. Between the maintenance expense and the property taxes the operating costs are very high. In addition people seem to be more health aware now and are going for other activities such as walking, biking, running, etc. I believe The Villages is trying to strike a balance between golf and other activities in the new areas.

I don’t play either, but Everglades Rec center has tennis courts, and Riverbend Rec center has sand courts for volleyball. Both south of turnpike.

We would not buy anything south of 466A. There is a great difference in the proximity of amenities. North of 466A you have access to all 3 squares, every championship course, 100s of holes of executive courses, pools and rec centers galore and plenty of shopping. ALL AVAILABLE BY GOLF CART!