Scouting a Course for a Golf Trip 3.0
- bgtriptips
- Dec 15, 2024
- 8 min read
Updated: Dec 16, 2024
Published date: December 15, 2024
3.1 Mission Inn Scouting Trip
Mission Inn Story
If you are looking for a weekend stay & play golf option for a twosome, a foursome or even a golf group, I would start with Google Maps. Use your mouse to shrink or expand the map to the area you are interested in going to. For example, it could be your entire state (like Florida) or perhaps Central Florida or maybe the Southeast US. In the Search Box, enter Golf Resorts. This will pull up all the Golf Resorts in the search area. If you scroll down to shrink the search area it will pull up even more golf resorts.
In using the Google Map search tool, I was able to find several golf resorts that were near me in Florida, and I was completely unaware of them. One of those golf resorts was the Mission Inn Resort & Club at Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida. Not kidding folks, the town is named Howey-in-the-Hills. Once you read all of this post, you will come to understand the in-the-Hills part. And for those interested, here’s the Mission Inn story:
The Mission Inn Resort sits on the banks of Lake Harris which at over 15,000 acres represents one of the largest lakes in Florida. For the boating enthusiast, Mission Inn offers a boat ramp, and day slips to dock your boat. I’m told Lake Harris offers some of the best freshwater fishing in the state. Interestingly, nearby Tavares prides itself as the Seaplane Capital of America, the large lake area representing a great landing and takeoff runway for seaplanes.
In 1925 William John Howey purchased 60,000 acres of land with a vision of miles of orange groves and a shipping hub to supply the United States with fresh Florida Fruit. Mr. Howey built his own personal residence there which still stands proudly today as the Howey Mansion.
Mr. Howey also added a golf club to the property, originally called Chain-O-Lakes Country Club, in 1917. Unfortunately, Howey went broke during the Great Depression and today only the Mansion and Town retains his name. Over the years, the property changed hands several times until in 1964, it was purchased by Illinois businessman Nick Beucher, who restored the golf course and built the Mission Inn Resort which opened for business in 1970.
After transitioning though various owners, the resort and golf club was recently acquired in January 2023 by Mississippi based MMI Hospitality Group. MMI currently owns several hotels and restaurant properties in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida and is looking to expand their footprint in the South.
The Scouting Trip Begins
Intrigued by the story and photos on their web site, I contacted Mission Inn and shared a possible interest in bringing my golf group there. Their Director of Tournaments & Golf Sales, Michael Bowery, responded to my inquiry and was gracious enough to invite me for a scouting visit to see what Mission Inn has to offer. We agreed on an early December/2024 date for the visit and that I would bring my friend Kevin to photograph the resort and golf courses.
Kevin and I arrived on a Sunday morning and had a chance to walk the grounds of the resort taking photos and checking out the offerings.
We did find they seem to have something for everybody. Note, the Lawn Chess for any non-golfers!
After about 30 minutes, Kevin proclaimed, “this place is awesome.” At the time, we had no idea just how awesome it really is. Mission Inn reminds me of my travels to Spain and Italy and the architecture of the past found there. The entire resort has that Pinehurst Vibe if you have ever been there.
Champagne Sunday Brunch
We had read on their web site about two massive buffet offerings. Saturday night features a Seafood Buffet (which we missed) and on Sunday they offer a Champagne Sunday Brunch. We completed our grounds walk just in time for the Feast. Brunch includes any breakfast item, lots of seafood, meats, veggies, salads and desserts. Also included is all the champagne and mimosas you want to drink. Brunch easily features over 100 food items and is a meal not unlike a Thanksgiving or Easter Buffet at the TPC. Somehow, we each managed to devour 3 full plates before giving up.
Stuffed as we were, we managed to make it to the Clubhouse and our 1:00 pm tee time. Mission Inn now offers two golf courses being El Campeon and Las Colinas.
El Campeon
For our first round, we elected to begin with the original course, El Campeon.
The Starter on hole one will give you much of the standard "starter speech".........like watch the cart tv screen and don't cross yellow lines, no carts on fairway of par 3's, etc., etc. He also cautioned us about the elevation changes and suggested we play one tee box up from our normal tees. As we normally try and play around 6000 yards, we opted for the White tees at 5970 yards. WRONG!!!! Next time we will play the Gold tees at 5546 yards.
The first hole on El Campeon is the flattest you will find anywhere on the course. Without consciously thinking, your brain registers, hmmmm.....this is going to be a nice, normal Florida golf course. Kevin and I both missed short putts for par, but thought nothing of it, assuming we'll get lot's more opportunities for par. Little did we know that we would only make One Par Each for the entire round.
Be advised up front folks, this course is not for the faint of heart. After the first nine holes we both are thinking, damn this course is hard. So, now you are asking, what’s so hard about it?
Yes, the course has some water, but not too much. The fairway width is adequate and not unusually tight. The difficulty comes with the greens and course elevation changes. Many of the holes have 40/50 foot elevation changes. If your drive makes it to the 150-yard marker, and the approach shot is uphill, you will need to play a 170/180-yard club to reach the green. Being forced to play the longer irons into the greens makes the course feel and play much longer. The tee markers we selected at 5970 yards felt and played like 6900 yards.
Once you get to the green, that’s where the real fun begins. Most of the greens are like tilted saucers. If you are putting above the hole, your ball may wave at the flag as it rolls past and off the green. If you are putting from below the hole, you may find your next putt is further away than your first putt, as the ball stops and rolls back past you. I doubt you could use a Stimpmeter to register green speed, as that requires a flat spot on the green. I don’t recall seeing any flat spot on a green. If I had to guess, I would think green speed is around 12 or 13.
Many of you have read my last post about our October golf trip to Kinderlou Forest CC. The El Campeon course is Kinderlou on Steroids. But please don’t let my comments scare you from visiting this course. Yes, the course will play very difficult for anyone who is not a single digit handicap, but the sheer beauty, quality and design of this course far overshadows any score on the card.
Just imagine if you had the opportunity to play August National, would you really care that you didn’t break 100? Like Augusta, from any hole you can see several other golf holes. I recall standing on one green and because of the varied elevation changes, you could see parts of 12 holes.
I’ve lived and played golf in Florida for about 30 years, and I can attest there is no other course in the state like El Campeon. The topography is very similar to that found on mountain golf courses in North Carolina.
If you live in Florida or visiting here and want to experience the best golf Florida has to offer, you will find nothing better than El Campeon. This course is truly one of a kind in this state. It has anything and everything you could ever imagine a golf course having, including Big Boy who guards the 18th green. And no, I left my golf ball right where it lays.
And certainly, no course in Florida would be complete without its very own island green.
Walking off the 18th green, I think Kevin summed up our round perfectly with, "that's the hardest golf course I've ever played." To which I concurred with, "I totally agree."
The Hotel and Dinner
The resort hotel is currently in the process of being updated and remodeled. We spent the night in one of the recently updated rooms and found it to be excellent accommodations. The room included a screened patio overlooking the golf course.
We had dinner and drinks at Lake Harris Hideaway, which was advertised as a “biker owned and operated biker bar & restaurant that caters to bikers, boaters, motorist and airplanes. You can drive your boat or seaplane right up to the dock and get out to have a beer. It’s a charming place with beautiful scenery, but it closes at 8:00 pm. Yep, bikers beware, you are only welcome until 8:00 pm. Go figure?
Breakfast Buffet
The next morning, we were obliged to partake in the Breakfast Buffet, which again offers anything you might desire in the way of breakfast food. Kevin and I both started with the All In Omelet which included everything and was delicious. My other plate included bacon, sausage and roasted potatoes covered in sausage gravy. And yes, if you prefer the healthy version, they have all the usual fare of fruits, nuts and grains, which we avoided.
Las Colinas
Once again stuffed to the brim, we barely made our 10:00 am tee time for their second course Las Colinas. This course reminded me very much of the Kinderlou course. At first glance Las Colinas appears more inviting for scoring, but it also includes the same elevation changes and Disneyland greens.
Sadly, we fared no better on scoring at Las Colinas. Do not be lulled asleep. This course seems to say, "hey, I know you got beat up yesterday by El Campeon, but I'm easy.....let's play!" Don't fall for it. This course is just as difficult.
Las Colinas was designed by Gary Koch and built in 1992. Like El Campeon, the fairways are lined with oak trees planted then and surprisingly they are large and mature to only be 30 years old. Still, they pale to the 100+ year old oaks on El Campeon. Spanish style houses line the fairways of about half of the holes but are far enough back to never interfere with a golf shot. It looks like a wonderful place to live if you are a golfer looking to retire in Florida.
Both of the golf courses are used by the PGA for US Open qualifying and by the NCAA for collegiate tournaments. I can certainly see why. If you want an Augusta like golf experience, you won’t find anything better in Florida.
Completing our two-day scouting trip and armed with this story along with a couple hundred photos, we headed home to share the results with our golf group. All the Brew Crew is now excited and ready to head South to Mission Inn.
Some of us couldn’t wait, so we have quickly planned a mini trip for 8 golfers to return in early January/2025. Once we have completed that trip, I’ll add another post to the blog with those stories.
As always, please share my blog with fellow golfers and leave me a message in the Comments at the bottom of the blog page. Oh, and put El Campeon on your bucket list.
And remember, every golf shot makes somebody happy!
Great review, this was very helpful!
Can’t wait to play the courses in January. Great recap of your trip.
Looking forward to the trip! Have played and stayed before and loved every minute.
Looks like a hidden gem