Camp Creek Golf Course
Panama City Beach, FL (FL Panhandle, "Emerald Coast")
2002, Tom Fazio
'03 Fees: $50-$95
Golf Magazine Review: This semi-private Florida panhandle club is a "dunescape-with-wetlands" design, marked by large bunkers and waste areas. The front 9, routed near the Gulf Coast, is nearly treeless and linkslike. The back 9 is open but more wooded. The signature hole is #16, a long par 3 over a pond to a green nestled in a sand pine forest. Walkers welcome. Excellent practice facility. A 2nd Fazio course is planned.
Golf Magazine Readers Comments: "Among the best Fazio designs I've played. Great service and pace of play. Wicked if you hit it left. . . Best Course on Emerald Coast. . . Astounded by how good it was. Numerous tee choices were good for me and the wife. . . Slated to go private in a couple of years."
Golf Magazine Readers Ratings:
Conditions 4.0/5.0
Pace 4.8/5.0
Service 4.6/5.0
Value 4.6/5.0
Overall 4.6/5.0
Per the Travel Channel, for 11 months of the year, Panama City is a semi-quiet little beach town of 35,000 with a laid-back, party atmosphere. You'd have to be living under a rock not to know it also becomes a spring break mecca for college kids every March, when the population swells to nearly half-a-million as all those crazy kids descend on Panama City's 19,000 hotel rooms. Serious partiers might look to join the throngs of spring breakers, but serious golfers might want to try the fall instead, to avoid both the summer heat and the Girls-n-Guys Gone Wild. The rest of the year showcases Panama City as an affordable family beach with miles of amusement parks, family restaurants, and water-themed attractions.
Best Bar Nearby: If you're over towards Pensacola, head a little further west to the Alabama state line for the legendary Flora-Bama Lounge, a funky, rambling complex awash in local color, which has inspired songs from the likes of Jimmy Buffet, and was named Best US Beach Bar by Playboy. However, I did see a news piece showing that Flora-Bama had sustained some pretty serious damage during Katrina, so you may want to call ahead and make sure it's still in operation. Per the Travel Channel, "Club La Vela (8813 Thomas Dr, www.clublavela.com) is the largest nightclub in the US. It has 11 different theme rooms for partying including the Pooldeck, The Underground, The Darkroom, The Pussykat Lounge and an area for concerts. The daytime fun starts at 10 am at The Pooldeck. The lagoon-shaped pool area holds thousands of people and is the home of the famous Ms. La Vela Bikini contest, the Wet-N-Wild Wet T-Shirt contest and the World's Gym Male Hard body contest."
For something a little more civilized, Bud & Alley's (850-231-5900, Seaside, the picture-perfect village immortalized in the Jim Carrey film The Truman Show) is where the cognoscenti head for the rooftop deck for sunset views per T&L Golf. Or hit the WaterColor Inn's Beach Club, a maritime-themed bar where the signature drink shifts according to the prevailing sea conditions. When seas are calm, the resort flies a green flag and the bar serves up a pina colada blended with midori and rum ($8).
Where To Grub: FL panhandle cuisine typically has a distinctively spicy Cajun influence reminiscient of New Orleans, and seafood rules. US Air Attache' magazine digs Capt. Anderson's Restaurant & Waterfront Market (5551 N Lagoon Dr, Panama City, 850-234-2225). T&L Golf likes Fish Out Of Water Restaurant at Water Color Inn (Seaside, see 'Where To Stay' below) as the local's fave. Check out Criolla's (850-267-1267, Grayton Beach), a hotspot noted for Creole-Carribean fare. Lake Place Restaurant (850-267-2871, Dune-Allen), where a down-home meal makes an above-par finish to a golf day. Cafe Thirty-A (3899 E County Hwy 30 A, Seagrove Beach, 850-231-2166) is named for the area's main thorofare.
South in Apalachicola you'll find FL's premeir oysters at Boss' Oyster House (125 Water St, 850-653-9364), served countless ways from BBQ to Asian-pesto baked to the house-specialty "Texas Oysters", ice cold and topped with tequila, lime juice, and Tabasco. OR, it's hard to get a bad meal at Julia Mae's Seafood Restaurant (1558 US Hwy 98 E, Carrabelle, 850-697-3791).
West in Pensacola hit Flounder's Chowder House (800 Quiet Beach Rd, 850-932-2003), or Trigger's in Perdido Key (12700 Gulf Beach Hwy, 850-492-1897).
Where To Stay: Panama City features miles and miles of motels, upwards of 20,000 of 'em. For upscale, US Air Attache' magazine recommends Edgewater Resort (11212 Front Beach Rd, Panama City, 850-235-4044). T&L Golf loves Water Color Inn (866-426-2656, Seaside). Designed by renowned architect David Rockwell, the Inn is set on environmentally protected dunes, just steps from Seaside, the picture-perfect village immortalized in the Jim Carrey film The Truman Show. Decked out with wrought-iron doors, exposed rafter rails, trellises, lime green shutters, and a dune-side pool, the airy 4-story inn greets visitors with a lobby whose centerpiece is a low-rise brown leather game table. 60 cabana-like rooms with colorful furnishings, CD and DVD players, and ocean views that guests can enjoy through the windows of their walk-in showers. OR check out Seaside Cottage Rental (2311 Scenic County Rd 30 A, 800-277-8696). If you gotta be in the middle of the action come March, spring breakers head for the oceanfront Holiday Inn in Panama City, but make reservations at least a year in advance.
Best Beaches: Hit the 26 miles of glistening white sand from St. Andrew's State Park to Phillips Inlet.
Other Area Tracks To Play: Golf Magazine's Travelin' Joe says one that's worth the 20-mile drive is Windswept Dunes ($56-$65; 850-835-1847, www.windsweptdunes.com) in Freeport.
See Also: Seaside FL Golf Weekend and FL Panhandle Golf Weekend