Jonathan’s Landing Golf Club - Match Course at Old Trail

First of all, this course is actually called the Medal course, not the Fazio course, so golfadvisor needs to to update the name of the course to avoid confusion.
I've played at a handful of Tom Fazio designs. This one ranks up there with his best work. I was able to play here because I partiipated in a SFPGA Golf Outing, otherwise you'd have to get a member invite to play here. The practice facilities were quite nice, as expected of a private course. Overall the course was great, in excellent shape tee to green. I give it a four star because in my opinion there are better courses of this kind in South Florida. This would be a 5-star among municipal or resort style courses, but ranked against other private courses it's a 4-star. I wish I could have had the chance of playing the other Old Trail course, as it was designed by Gil Hanse, and I tend to like his designs better. The one thing that was unique about this course was the undulations all over the course, especially in the fairways, which made the round quite challenging, so be ready to play from all sorts of different lies. One thing that I found sort of annoying is that although there was a nice GPS on the cart, some of the holes had hidden water features that were not displayed on the GPS, and my ball found its way to those hidden hazards. Also there were nuissances about the course that you'd have to play it a few times to know. All to say that the first time around you play this course may not be as enjoyable, but for those who get to frequent the course, this course could turn out to be great fun, after you get familiar with where to place your shots.

I played the Fazio Course in the first round of the Palm Beach County Golf Association's Palm Beach County Amateur today on a scorching South Florida summer day. Old Trail is an enjoyable spot because it features core golf, as opposed to the many area communities where hundreds of homes back up to most holes, if not all of them. For that reason, it's a noteworthy spot in the area's public golf scene.

The course, however, left me wanting a bit more. It was renovated pretty thoroughly in the last couple years, and while many concessions seem to have been made to playability - enlarged greens, expanded fairway chipping areas around them, some reconfigured bunkering - I am wondering if the course has lost a bit of soul as a result. The guys in my group (fellow scratch players, to be fair) had all played it in the past and agreed that the departure from the original 1980s Tom Fazio shaping - with some abrupt and playful ridges, if past photos and aerials are any indication - was a bummer.

The individual holes are certainly competently designed and built, and the course is in predictably excellent shape. Just don't be surprised if after playing it, it starts to blend together with other Florida layouts in your memory.

A traditional Fazio design lots of bunkering and relatively narrow fairways. Unusual for south florida is the contured fairways lined with lakes, pines and wetlands. Superb conidtioned course. Very challenging layout with the exception of the ordinary par 3 holes. Visually appealing course. Because the course is out of the way to get to, you feel like you have your own private club within a private club. Jump at a chance to play this club.