With its' superb conditions and beautiful wetlands setting, the Golf Club at Cypress Head in Port Orange, Florida, is a Public Course that offers a private and tranquil experience as you face the Fairways and Greens.
Noted designers Arthur Hills and Mike Dasher created this course in 1992, and it has stood the test of time environmentally. Hills is known for Renaissance in Fort Myers and Mirasol in Palm Beach Gardens; Dasher is the designer of the North Shore Golf Club in Orlando.
It’s evident that the architects laid out Cypress Head Golf Course amid the cypress forest and natural Florida wetlands in Port Orange with great care for the land. “On most of the holes, you’re going to find beautiful backdrops behind each green setting,” Dasher said.
Although the site for the Cypress Head course was relatively level, the architects used moundings and contours to give players the feeling of elevation. In general, players find a lot of tree-lined fairways and a plenty of water obstacles here. Fourteen of the 18 holes play over the water. And as you play, you’re working over or around ponds, preserved wetlands and natural vegetation.
The course is owned by the City of Port Orange, but is widely praised for its excellent management and its course conditions. It is maintained as well as private clubs and big resort courses, but still has reasonable rates. Cypress Head is often described as "THE PUBLIC COURSE YOU'LL WANT TO PLAY AGAIN AND AGAIN."
This very popular course is also known for having some of the best greens in the county. They’re difficult because they’re fast and they have a lot of contours that make them challenging. They’re very characteristic of Arthur Hills’ work.
The course is medium-length (6,832 yards from the back tees and 4,909 from the forward). But you can tell from the rating and slope (73.1/139 from the back tees and 69.3/123 from the forward) that this will be a challenging round. The course can also play very differently from day to day depending on the strength of breezes coming in from the ocean, 10 miles away. So after playing one round, you’re going to want to return to see how you’ll do the next time.
The opening hole, a medium-length par-4 (346 yards from the back tees and 275 from the forward) is a nice easy start for your round. It’s a good, solid par-4 with water in front of the tee, but it’s not a serious problem. You can loosen up on your first swing and hit a driver.
On the par-5 No. 2 (522 yards from the back tees and 405 from the forward), the course really starts to get your attention. For one thing, it’s the most picturesque hole on the course, but then again, it’s also a tough test – the low-handicap hole on the course. This is a very demanding tee shot needed because you’re firing out of a chute with tall trees on the left and right and a canal of water in front of you..
It’s a driver hole if you’re hitting from the back tees, but on the forward tees, you may have to downsize your club a bit. Left, right, short and long, you can get into trouble here.
After hitting onto the narrow fairway that zigzags through trees, you have to lay up to the front of a wetlands area. From there you take your third shot over wetlands to a deep, elevated green.
On No. 4, a par-4 that’s 396 yards from the back tees and 277 yards from the forward, you’re playing over a pond. You cut it at an angle and we like to say that you bite off as much as you can chew. How much water do you want to cross? If your answer is conservative, the hole plays a lot longer.
After a demanding tee shot, you take your second shot over a canal. Watch out for that pine tree in the middle of the fairway that could make it tougher to reach the green. You have to go around or over this obstacle to get to your target.
On Nos. 6 and 7 you deal with back-to-back par-3s. Cypress Head has one of the best collection of par-3s in the state. They are four really, really good holes.
No. 6 (197 yards from the back, 117 from the forward tees) plays over wetland areas and then ends with a beautiful green with white sand bunkers. The contrast between the raw, natural vegetation and the green and sand is striking.
Another hole that offers great natural beauty is the par-5 No. 8 (526 yards from the back tees and 439 from the forward). You need to hit from 200 to 250 yards to get close to a pond and then must take a very dangerous 80-yard second shot across water.
Everyone who plays Cypress Head tends to remember the par-4 No. 14 (474 yards from the back tees and 335 from the forward). This hole, a long dogleg left around a lake, requires a tee shot over water. From the tips, players have to carry the ball about 250 yards; from the mid-forward tees, it’s about 175 yards. If you tend to be conservative and you bail out on the right, it becomes a very long hole. Furthermore, the water runs along the left side of the fairway almost up to the green. Amazingly enough, some long hitters from the back tees can drive very close to the front of the green. A lot of people consider this our signature hole. The par-3 at No.16 (178 yards from the back tees, 55 yards from the forward) has one of the toughest greens on the course. That’s because it has “an elephant buried in the middle,” according to some golfers, so that every ball flows away from the hump. On top of that, there are two sand bunkers in front of the green with a narrow opening between them. If the flag is in the front, your ball could trickle down away from the hole. If you land your ball beyond the flag, you’re going to have one tough downhill putt.
Just as you had two back-to-back par-3s on the front nine, on the back nine, you find yourself with the unusual circumstance of playing two back-to-back par-5s on the back, Nos. 17 and 18. For those with friendly wagers, the outcome of a close match can be determined on those par-5s.
