Grand Cypress (North & South)

The Grand Cypress Resort sits next door to Walt Disney World in a very central location for golfers on vacation to Orlando – not that the German pairing of Bernhard Langer and Torsten Giedon were engaged in too much holiday golf when they won the 2-man World Cup team event here back in 1990!

Designed by Jack Nicklaus, the original North and South nines were completed in 1984, the East nine followed two years later before the 18-hole New course completed the 45-hole complex in 1988.

Renovated in 2007/8, the North-South combination was a thinking golfer’s course with doglegged fairways and well protected plateau greens setting a reasonably stiff test of golf. The more forested East nine holes were a little less demanding, with fewer greenside bunkers, allowing more wayward shots to go unpunished.

The most difficult hole on Grand Cypress’s toughest nine, the 432-yard 7th on the North, was a par four that doglegs around a lake to the right, with a long fairway bunker running along the edge of the water. Once a pinpoint tee shot had been executed, the approach to the green had to be equally precise, especially if the flag was positioned back right of the putting surface, when water had to be carried for a second time.

Sadly the North, South and East courses closed in November 2019 to make way for resort expansion. However, the New course is still in place until 2023, after which time a new Nicklaus Design 18-hole course will be re-laid over the top of the former courses.