Remington and Kissimmee Bay
Two Different Challenges That Go Great Together
One is generous off the tee, one plays peek-a-boo with centuries’-old oaks. One invites you to step back into golf’s great history. Both invite you to play-all-day challenge you with water on nearly every hole and the two go together like Fred and Ginger, Fred and Barney, Fred and Couples.
Welcome to Remington and Kissimmee Bay, two amazingly different, yet similar clubs located on the west bank of Lake Tohopekaliga in Kissimmee just 15 minutes down the Florida Turnpike south from downtown Orlando and just 10 minutes from Orlando’s International Airport. Each course offers something unique, yet are similar in that every time you play either one of them, you’ll play shots you’ve never played on them before.
Remington is primarily a daily-fee course that’s been a local favorite for years. Kissimmee Bay is semi-private, but its members love to show off their course to visitors and also have privileges at Remington. One of the things both share is a commitment to conditioning that goes as far as having the greens walk-mowed, a subtle touch that has been forgotten at many courses, but according to Director of Operations and part-owner of the two properties Mark Farrow, is an essential statement of the attention to detail you should expect at both courses. Another difference worth noting is that both courses are completely over-seeded in the winter, keeping the roughs green and lush all twelve months of the year.
One of Central Florida’s premier architects, Lloyd Clifton, has left his mark on both courses as designer of Kissimmee Bay and co-designer, along with his son George and Ken Ezell of Remington, which opened in 1996. Clifton came through the ranks as a horticulturist and superintendent first, and his love of landscaping is evident in both courses. You’ll notice when you play both layouts that Clifton’s also extremely efficient, getting the most out of a limited amount of real estate and often using the ponds and lakes that dot each course to challenge you more than once. Every hole at Remington and 15 of the 18 at Kissimmee Bay have marshland or water intruding on play, offering a wonderful variety of risk-reward opportunities.
Remington bills itself as the “friendliest course in town” and attempts to prove it even before you drive up to their classic clubhouse with their renowned “All You Can Play, Practice and Eat” policy that’s not just an occasional promotion. It’s always there and regularly taken advantage of by the loyal local clientele. It’s also a policy that’s good for pace-of-play, and for the quality of the golf. You’ll see more players on the aqua-range at Remington than many other courses, and you’ll see the ones who want to play more than 18 playing a bit quicker too.
Remington features five sets of tees that stretch the par-72 course out from just under 5,200 yards to over 7,100. The difference is especially notable early-on with the tees strategically-placed around the lake at the par-3 second, giving the longer player much more water to carry at 192 yards than the shorter hitters have at 88 yards. The toughest hole on the scorecard is the long par-4 fourth that measures over 400 yards, up to 469 at the tips. It might look particularly daunting after you’ve played the monstrously long and terrifyingly narrow par-5 third. If 614-yards from the tips weren’t enough, you’ve got to hit not only a long second shot just to have a chance to get there in three, the narrowest spot on the hole between water on the left and a bunker on the right is probably your target, 220 yards from the pin. Enjoy threading that needle. Clifton’s design offers generally generous landing areas off most tees, but he loves to tuck his greens around bends in lakes. Tie-walls abound near the greens of the middle holes as approach shots at hole #5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 all have to go over, or around the corners of ponds. The 17th might be the most intriguing on the back side as players off three tees have to contend with a forced-carry off the tee, then water from two different lakes on the left and right sides of the approach to a two-tier green. You can take out your frustrations, and maybe get back a stroke on the far-wider mid-length par-5 finishing hole.
Interestingly, though less than a mile from Remington’s front door, Kissimmee Bay offers a very different look right from the first tee. Players must contend with gnarly old oaks at the sharp dogleg left on the par-5 first. Curiously for a course that has water on 15 holes, the toughest hole at Kissimmee Bay is one of the three that’s dry, the long (up to 443 yards), narrow par-4 third. You’ll also notice at the third, fourth and fifth one of the signatures at Kissimmee Bay, the huge, white-sand bunkers strategically placed on the fairways and in front of the greens. Kissimmee Bay is a par-71, but you certainly don’t get cheated on the three par-5’s. All are over 500-yards long from the white tees that measure under 6,000 overall. Number nine wraps around one lake to the left off the tee, with a second lake right for your second shot, then another sharp left-turn to the green, over the water of a third pond. Though #11 is straight away off the tee, its up to 567-yards long, requiring two well-hit shots just to get in position to carry your chip over water to a sharply-contoured green. The next four holes (12, 13, 14, 15) are great shot-making holes as Clifton shapes three par-4’s and a par-3 through four lakes bounded by Lee Janzen Drive (Janzen lives in Orlando and went to school in Lakeland, the street was named for him even before he won the first of his two U.S. Opens). The view off the tee of the par-3 16th across Lake Tohopekaliga is breathtaking. After finishing the well-bunkered 18th, take time to stroll through the clubhouse and view the marvelous history of golf at the landmark Langley Golf Museum, an eclectic collection of more than a thousand pieces of golf memorabilia from antique clubs and balls to historic photos and colorful postcards from courses around the world.
We’ve all learned the great restaurant lesson that to find the best food, look where the locals eat. Orlando-area golf is no exception. You’ll more than likely meet a large contingent of Kissimmee’s loyal regulars when you visit Remington and Kissimmee Bay, because, in the words of the designers, it’s “a test for the best, but fair to the rest.” The two courses offer a differing set of challenges, but are similar in their commitment to the golfer. It is called “value” and its on display, every day, at Remington and Kissimmee Bay.
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