John's Island Club (West)

John’s Island Club is located on the Atlantic east coast of Florida, a few miles to the south of Palm Bay. John's Island itself is a huge 3,000-acre Intracoastal Waterway barrier island, situated within the quaint town of Indian River Shores in Vero Beach. The private and exclusive John’s Island Club is home to a unique Tom Fazio design called John’s Island West and opened for play in the early 1990s. Additionally there are two other 18-hole courses (North and South) designed by Pete Dye and Jack Nicklaus.

Unfortunately few people will get the opportunity to appreciate the West course at John’s Island but it’s worth doing your very best to befriend a member. The golf course is routed across delightful terrain with tall sand ridges which rise up some fifty feet or so from the property. Many tees and greens have been thoughtfully placed on the higher ground and the fairways routed across the flatter areas of the property. This technique was used extensively in the Golden Age of golf course design and has stood the test of time from the perspective of both playability and aesthetics.

The opening hole at the 6,819-yard John’s Island West gently breaks you in before the stern golfing examination that follows. Avoid the lonesome pine on the right side of the fairway and the solitary bunker on the left side of the green and walk off with a par or better on the 1st. Then brace yourself for a thrilling strategic test of golf where sand traps and pine-flanked fairways focus the mind. The par five 4th is a great example, playing through trees and acres of sand to a high green perched atop one of the several sand ridges that make John’s Island West such an enjoyable and unique Floridian golfing experience.