Biltmore Hotel - Florida - USA

I played the Biltmore about 4-5 years ago. Not all Donald Ross courses have aged well. This one certainly has not. However, do not ye despair! Silva was doing a redesign in 2018 and the new Biltmore either has or is about to be relaunched. It is not a long course and surprisingly for Florida there are not a lot of water hazards. It is extremely flat.

The first hole is a welcoming par 5 that should get your round off to a good start. You young stallions can get home in two. The second is a mid distance par 3. To Ross's credit he did not include the mandatory Florida par 3 with carry over water on any of the par 3s that range from 160 -229 yards. The par 4s 3rd and 4th are pretty darn straight and excellent birdie opptys. The 5th is a big bender right. You can, perhaps should, cut the corner as there are bunkers on both sides of the elbow. I think the dogleg left 7th is the best hole on the course. Water down the left off the tee. Your approach must then carry the water hazard which then parallels the hole through the green. A par on 7 is earned. The 9th and 10th are both doglegs left. Very similar in yardage both greens protected with bunkers on the left and one has a fairway inside the elbow and the other on the outside. The 13th is a long par four that bends a little left with fairway bunkers on the leftside. The last 4 holes are the Biltmore's strength. The 15th is a good par five, definitely a 3 shotter with the approach over water. The 16th bends left and has a very narrow long green. The 17th is the number one handicap hole. Slight dogleg right with a water hazard splitting the fairway on a diagonal. Off the tee the left hand side of this hazard is in play. The further right you go the shorter your approach. The 18th is not a difficult par 5, you should be able to end your round on a high note. Dogleg left, possible but not probable to reach. Those would be two very good shots, but there is little downside.

Overall, pedestrian. I am hopeful for a resurrection.

The course sits on a flat piece of land, which is cut in half by a Canal. The Giralda of the Biltmore hotel can be seen from far away.

Like all Florida golf courses, the Biltmore has to deal with a large amount of rain from May until October. Unfortunately the course does not drain well. Punches and bump and run chips are immediately stopped in the soggy grass. Reducing a Donald Ross course to the air game is not ideal. The green complexes are rather generous but not as undulated as the ones at Sara Bay Country Club for example (another Florida Donald Ross course).

Many holes are forgettable but there are some very good strategic holes. The 5th hole is a sharp dogleg to the right with a deep green-side bunker on the right. The 7th hole features risk-reward characteristics due to the canal. The tee shot on the 10th hole has to be hooked around the trees. The 17th hole is the highlight of the course. On this long par 4, the tee shot (usually into the prevailing wind) has to be placed between the trees and the canal. The creek must be carried on the second shot to a green that slopes steeply from back to front.

The Biltmore golf course is pleasant and playable. However, it does not have a "wow" factor. The Donald Ross characteristics are not as pronounced as on other courses. Not enough emphasis is put on the ground game. The golfer will leave perfectly relaxed but not stunned. He will have forgotten half the holes soon after.

I stayed at the Biltmore in September 2006 and played the course twice – I was less than impressed. Clearly this review is based on the layout prior to Brian Silva’s $5 million restoration – I’m sure the uncovering of seventy or so bunkers must have immeasurably improved the aesthetics of the layout. However, I found nothing particularly inspiring about the course apart from a couple of boldly bunkered greens as shown in the photograph. Pancake flat topography doesn’t really get my golfing juices flowing and I’ve seen plenty of better courses in Florida, many of which don’t yet feature on the Top 100 website. I didn’t recognise anything even remotely Donald Ross like about the design – even the greens I thought were ordinary. Would I return? Yes I would. The hotel is exceptional and I thoroughly enjoyed my stay, even though it cost a king’s ransom. I’d like to see whether the restoration has returned the very dull course that I played in 2006 into a classic gem. It also remains to be seen whether the Biltmore makes the Florida Top 100 at some future point.