Panhandle - Niceville

Accommodations:

Bluewater Bay Resort

Location:

Golf Overview
Your golfing experience at Bluewater Bay Golf Resort can be most accurately described as variety at its best. Bay. Marsh. Lake. Magnolia. Four courses designed by world-renowned golf architects Tom Fazio and Jerry Pate, each with a unique layout to take advantage of the terrain and natural surroundings. Play along the shoreline of Choctawhatchee Bay and then move through southern woodlands followed by a journey through a pristine wetland area. Your senses will come alive in this true golfer’s paradise. The complex has all of the combinations of Tom Fazio and Jerry Pate. Two nines were built by both of them working together and each did a nine alone. Add to your stay a visit to nearby Shalimar Pointe and you have completed a great little weekend of golf.

The Bay Course
was the front nine to the original 18 holes, which opened in October of 1981. Tom Fazio with Jerry Pate working on it as a consultant designed the Bay Course. This nine is the shortest of the four nines but it is also the most narrow. As with the Lake course, the greens are very small and very well bunkered. The fifth hole is where the golf course truly begins. The double dogleg right par five makes the hole play longer than the true yardage. The drive needs to be in the middle to left side of the fairway for a clear 2nd shot. The second shot needs to be on the left side of the fairway to avoid tall pine trees short and right of the green. The green is long from left to right but very shallow. Another favorites is the par 4 sixth and the most photographed hole of the complex. This medium length dogleg right hole has a lake guarding the left side of the fairway from the tee to about 250 yards off the tee. Large fairway bunker in the left side of the dogleg only comes into play for the longest hitters. The second shot is played to a green with a small creek in the front along with bunkers on the right and left sides. Making the second shot prettier but more difficult is Choctawhatchee Bay, which sits directly behind the green. One of the best vistas found anywhere.

The Lake Course
is the original back nine to the original 18-hole track. Fazio with Pate again working as a consultant also designed this nine. This layout offers some of the same characteristics as the Bay Course but longer. The Par 4 third is the start of a 5-hole stretch of great holes. This slight dogleg left hole features a fairway bunker on the left side of the fairway 240 yards off the tee. The second shot is played with a medium iron over a narrow lake to a green that sits into a hillside surrounded by four bunkers. A ridge, which runs down the center of the green from back to front makes playing the hole as though it has two different greens. Don’t go long on the second shot because the green is sloped severely from back to front. Another toughie in this string of holes is the 6th; the longest par four on this course. The shot is hit to a downhill fairway so the player cannot see the ball stop. There is a small fairway bunker in the left side of the fairway 240 yards off the tee. Two small lakes, one on each side of the fairway, 260 yards off the tee narrows this fairway down at the bottom of the hill. The second shot is played uphill to a large two-tiered green protected by one bunker on the left side and two on the right side. A very narrow entrance to the green is usually approached with a long iron or fairway wood. A very tough par four!

The Marsh Course
was the third nine built at Bluewater Bay. The course designed by Tom Fazio and opened in October 1986. The overall course is a little more forgiving than the Bay and Lake Courses. The fairways are wider; the greens are a little larger and not as bunkered in front. However, the par 4 third can be a bear. This slight dogleg to the right has a large oak tree in the right center of the fairway 240 yards off the tee. This makes the player play the tee shot down the left side of the fairway very close to OB stakes. The hole generally plays into the wind making it play longer than its true length. Second shot is slightly downhill to a good-sized green with a large bunker to the right of the green. Just over and left of the green is a large marsh. So make sure you don’t go long on this hole! The most difficult of the par fours on this nine is the 394-yard 7th. The tee shot is hit to an uphill fairway with a waste area stretching the entire left hand side of the fairway. This hole always seems to be playing into the wind because Choctawhatchee Bay is behind the green. The second shot is played to a long narrow green with a large green side bunkers off to the left of the green to catch any hooks. Par on this hole is a feat.

The Magnolia Nine
is the newest of the four courses. It was designed by Jerry Pate and opened in 1992. The Magnolia is the most forgiving of the four nines, but may be the most picturesque. The greens are modeled after the greens at Pinehurst #2. With their tortoise shell design, you must be very accurate with your approach shots. The tee shot for number 1 is hit into a fairway, which has a lake down the entire right side. There is a fairway bunker on the left side of the fairway 240 yards off the tee making the player aim a bit to the right. The second shot is hit to a deep elevated green. The green is also crowned so that the approach shot hit on the left edge of the green rolls down into a deep swell left of the green. Also approach shots hit on the right edge of the green will roll into a large green side bunker, which may just tick you off if it happens to you. The 4th is a beautiful par five with large wetlands down the entire right side of the fairway. The hole doglegs to the left off the tee and doglegs right on the second shot. The second shot has to be played to the left side of the fairway to avoid a fairway bunker down the right hand side. However, you must guard against hitting the second shot through the fairway because of three fairway bunkers starting 120 yards short of the green. One bunker in the front guards the green, that is the most crowned of them all. The 8th is a brute of a par three. This 201-yard hole generally plays into the prevailing wind so the hole plays longer than the distance. Isn’t that just great! The big green with mounds to the right and left of the green to help balls funnel onto the green, if you get there.

Shalimar Pointe Golf Club
is another collaboration of talents; Joe Finger and Ken Dye. Golf Week raved about this 1986 design, "...one of the best courses in the U.S. you never heard of - until now". Also situated on the banks of Choctawhatchee Bay, Shalimar Pointe is bordered by rolling white dunes and dense hammocks of pine, oak and magnolia. The course blends beauty with the beast. Heralded by Links magazine as having "Two of the Hardest Holes on the Emerald Coast," the 6,765-yard course highlights the famed 11th and 17th holes. The pesky 149-yard eleventh features an elevated tee and a forbidding water hazard. A tough grass bunker and lake to the right, and a drastic down slope to the left increase the degree of difficulty. If that is not enough, the par-4, 455-yard 17th hole offers an unforgiving dogleg left. With a stretch of sand and heavy woods to the left of the tee, an immense tree on the inside corner of the dogleg and a deep grass pit to the right and lake to the left of the pine-bordered green -- the hole give you one choice … hit a drive that finds the fairway and make sure you have an accurate approach shot. Simple!