The Golf Trip to Mission Inn Resort after our Scouting Report 4.0
- bgtriptips
- Jan 12, 2025
- 11 min read
Updated: Aug 25, 2025
As reported in post 3.0 on Scouting the Mission Inn Resort, many of our group were eager to head South to check out the place themselves. After getting several immediate trip requests, I reached out to Michael Bowery, Director of Golf Sales at Mission Inn and he quickly provided me with a great rate quote if we could come in early January and on 3 weekdays (M,T,W).
While the proffered weekday rate limited some of our guys, we were able to assemble a small group of 8 players to make the trip on January 6, 2025. Some of us simply could not pass up the pricing which included 2 nights room, 3 rounds of golf w/range balls and a breakfast each day.
Proper Planning
Being the proper trip planner that I am, I always create a spreadsheet that includes most of the golf trip information that will be needed to keep the players informed as to when. where and what we will be doing. I then send this Trip Sheet to each player via phone text so that it's easily accessible when needed.
Below is the Trip Sheet I sent to our guys for Mission Inn:
While the Trip Sheet is compact, it provides much needed information that all players will want to know and be asking me each day for the plans. Truthfully this only solves half the problem as about half the guys either don't read it or forget the information and will still ask me......"what's our tee time tomorrow?" My standard answer is always....READ THE TRIP SHEET!!!
For readers who may be planning future trips, I'll point out information on the Trip Sheet that may not seem important prior to a trip, but I promise you will be asked to answer every one of these questions:
>When is the trip, again? >>See Trip Sheet, it's Jan. 6,7,8
>How much are we betting? >>See Trip Sheet, it's $30
>What's the wager payout? >>See Trip Sheet, its $50/1st & $30/2nd
>What if one team wins all the money? >>See Trip Sheet, 1st place winners lose HC strokes
>What tees are we playing? >>See Trip Sheet, we will play the Gold tees
I could go over the rest of the information, but you get the idea. You will be asked a question by somebody about every piece of information on the Trip Sheet.
My efforts to provide as much information as possible in the Trip Sheet was noted by MikeW in our trip debrief. Mike in photo and his comment below:
Mike's assessment of our trip:
"I understand the work and detail in planning trips and I have to admit it was smooth and easy the way you did it. Just enough communication and detail to not overwhelm us but enough to make sure the experience was perfect. I especially liked that you spent the time putting together the excel sheet that had our groups, starting times and games that we were playing. this was a great touch." Mike
Monday, Jan. 6th - Day One
When traveling to a distant golf trip site, it's always good to carpool and travel together if possible. Fortunately, our good buddy and golf trip companion Lance recently purchase a Mega Truck. You know one of those that looks like a Cadillac inside and requires a step ladder to climb into. Kevin, Tony and me all tossed him a $20 each for gas and rode in comfort to Mission Inn.
Speaking of golf trip travel, for those of you who have followed all my posts, you may recall in my first post, I suggested a small carry-on luggage for flights and long golf trips. For shorter golf trips, I have always preferred using a mid-sized duffle bag or gym bag. Sadly, on this trip my trusty duffle bag that has made many trips with me, has died. However, I quickly found a new replacement from Amazon. The bag is called .......Fitgriff® Gym Bag for Men & Women with Shoe & Wet Compartment - Duffle Bag. The bag costs $37,99 for the medium size which I ordered. I really like this bag as you can see in the photo it has a slip in compartment for your golf shoes and it's fully protected from your clothes. The bag also has a zippered pouch with a plastic liner for wet clothes and/or shave kit.
These bags are great on automobile road trips as they easily bend/conform to be smashed in on top of all the golf clubs. If you don't have one of these, I recommend ordering one. It will easily accommodate clothes for a 3-day golf trip.
We all arrived by 11:00 AM to have lunch prior to our 12:30 PM tee time.
Lunch at Nickers in the Golf Shop Building was a perfect start to the day. We always take a measure of who's food "looks" the best and the clear winner appeared to be the Mission BLT, piled high with Applewood Smoked Bacon.
After lunch, the Pro Shop easily checked in all 8 players at once handing me a receipt for 8 buckets of range balls and a ticket for the Starter. This was all done in one smooth transaction to be posted on our master billing and made for a much-appreciated quick exit to the golf course.
To start our golf rounds, we elected to play the easier course Las Colinas. I say easier, because it only looks easier. IT"S NOT! Do not take this course for granted. Most of the greens offer downhill putts from front to back and you can easily blow a putt 10 feet past the hole.
Las Colinas was built in 1992 and has a "newer" look and feel. The course winds among many Spanish Colonial homes that are beautiful and would make great retirement homes for an avid golfer.
My partner for this and many past golf trips was Dr. T (TonyP).
Tony is our Brew Crew resident golf historian, now retired after a couple of brief jobs in the golf business (Historian - World Golf Hall of Fame for 6 years and Curator of Golf Collections, St Andrews University, Scotland for about 20 years).
Tony and I have made many golf trips together and played as partners many times in events; however, our first golf round at Mission Inn on the Las Colinas course was simply a joy to watch. Admittedly, I did not carry my weight for any of our rounds on this trip but my partner Dr. T put me on his back and soldiered on.
For our first round Tony carded a round of 74 which is no small feat for a Bonafide 13 handicap. In 10 years, it's the best round of golf I've ever seen him play. As a team, we delivered a 14 under par Net Score, besting second place by 5 strokes. We won 1st place but lost a stroke on our handicaps for the second round. (we do this to try and level the field)
Kind words were offered by Dr. T as someone who knows a little about golf....."this was an amazing trip, the accommodations and service were first class and the golf courses, although challenging, were great. The food, fellowship and competitive golf made for a perfect time away."
I would be remiss not to note that our group finished exactly one hour prior to the arrival of our second group. Normally when this happens, we always blame it on Slo Play RichR (not to be confused with Fast Play RichS). However, this time I think all players were guilty.
Slo Play Rich seen in photo below staring down his tee shot and taking one of his normal eleven practice swings:
Dinner that night was a 15-minute drive to The Oakwood Smokehouse in Leesburg, FL.
Once again taking note of who ordered the best-looking meal, the hands down winner was the rack of baby back ribs. Not having ordered them, Lance shared a couple of ribs with me and they were falling off the bone good. For anyone making the Mission Inn trip, we highly recommend this place. Group dinner photo below:
Tuesday, Jan. 7th - Day Two
A full breakfast was included in our group rate so we started by filling our bellies with hot food in preparation for the colder day we would face today. A buffet breakfast is offered all days except Monday and Tuesday. On this day, we were offered the pick of the menu, meaning order everything you want off the breakfast menu and it's included.
Kevin/KDawg being a brave soul Zero'd in on the El Campeon, advertised as....... Crab Meat on a Poached Egg with Blistered Tomatoes and Arugula, topped with a Citrus-Tobiko Hollandaise on a Toasted Croissant (did we just get transported to France?). Not only did the Crab-O-Muffin take best in class for looks, KDawg raved about it for the next two days and concluded after the trip...."the people we met and the food we ate was icing on the cake."
I think he was more interested in the "cake" than the golf?
Arriving at the Golf Pro Shop, once again I checked in the group with ease getting tickets for 8 buckets of range balls (which nobody used). This day was cold. About 45 degrees with a 15 mph wind. If felt like 35 degrees.
Most of us only made a few practice putts and headed for the first hole where the Starter awaited. Like most Starters at high-end golf courses, this Starter for the harder course El Campeon, will give you his canned spiel......no carts off the paths on par 3's, watch the TV screen and if you cross the yellow lines, the cart will stop, etc. etc.
Many of you know the speech and can recite it by heart. The one part you should pay very close attention to is where he speaks about "make sure you are playing the right tees, so you can enjoy your round."
When KDawg and I made our Scouting Trip there, we heard the same speech. Since our target tees for The Brew Crew is always whatever is close to 6000 yards, we naturally assumed our best tees would be the White tee at 6073 yards. WRONG!!!
Because so many of the approach shots into the greens are uphill, the White tees play more like 7000 yards.
For this golf trip, I made an Executive Decision that we would play from the Gold tees at 5624 yards, offering any brave souls the chance to play the White tees if wanted. (none did) The Gold tees will feel like 6400 yards and make for a much more enjoyable round.
The first 3 holes on El Campeon play like a normal golf course.
The fun (or lack of) only begins at the 4th hole. From the Gold tees, the 4th hole only shows as 335 yards. Photo below is my view of the tee shot on hole 4. I managed to keep the shot just left of the fairway bunker finding my ball near the 150 marker. However, my rangefinder with slope adjustment indicated 179 yards to the pin.
The green on hole 4 is typical for El Campeon. Note the left side slopes down into the left bunker. The right-side slopes down into the right bunker. If you hit over the green, it's impossible to stop a chip shot from rolling to the bottom of the green. The good news is.....okay there is no good news. The approach shots and greens just get more diabolical on farther holes.
Probably the second hardest hole we faced on El Campeon was hole #13, which plays exactly like hole #4 except the tee shot is across the lake, down the hill and then back up the hill. We all will forever remember this hole as no one could keep a putt near the hole.
In the photo below, you will note both groups are on this green. We all waited to see if anybody could get close to the hole. None did!!
RichS is normally a quite soft spoken guy but even he allowed after the round...."I liked the place and golf was good except some of those pin placements were nuts!" See Rich missing a putt below:
The acknowledged most difficult hole on the course is the signature hole #17. When your cart arrives at the tee box, you are greeted by the following sign:
Hole 17 is a par 5 playing 498 yards from our Senior Tees. The tee shot is not menacing and straightaway. For your second shot, all you can see is the fairway bending left and sloping downhill. Having played the course before, I knew what was coming, but Scott had never played here and was curious as to what/where he was hitting into. I watched him jump into his cart and drive down the hill to see what awaits. As he passed me driving back to his ball, I could see him shaking his head and saying......."this hole ain't right, it just ain't right." And I happen to agree with Scott, it ain't right, it's absolutely genius. This hole should be as memorized as the 13th hole at Augusta.
As you clear the crest of the hill and begin your downhill drive, sitting dead center of the fairway guarding your 3rd shot into the green is a massive 100 year old oak tree. Your options for shot 3 are around the tree left or around the tree right or over the tree.
Oh, and did I mention your shot must carry a lake to an uphill sloping green like hole 4.
My buddy Scott did however, somehow make it to the green. His approach shot landed about 20 feet above the hole and knowing there was no way he was going to stop that putt from rolling down into the lake, I set up my phone camera for video and recorded his putt. Me thinking his ball is going to miss the hole, roll into the water and he will go nuts.
Surprise, surprise....he rolled it right into the middle of the cup.
In our after golf debrief Scott's description of El Campeon was..."Nice place and thoroughly enjoyed Mission Inn, had fun playing golf but some of the golf was just unfair, even comical if you are not a serious golfer!" Welcome to El Campeon, Scott.
The 18th hole plays as a long par 4 wrapping around the lake. It's a difficult hole to make par on, made even more difficult with the cold wind whipping across the lake. Normally the guardian of the green Big Boy is laying on the bank getting a sun tan, but even he was absent on this cold day.
Drinks at Nickers after golf made for great fellowship and fun watching KDawg tell stories and harass the locals after having about 3 too many shots of tequila
Dinner that night was again off premises at The Fish Camp at Lake Eustis, which we all enjoyed very much. Photo below:
All that is except The Dawg, who allowed that his fish tacos did not meet his high standards, as a foodie connoisseur. And being himself, attempted to talk the waitress into not charging him for dinner. Once again, I'm sure a half dozen shots of tequila had nothing to do with the flavor of the fish tacos.
Wednesday, Jan. 8th - Day Three
On our final day, we once again attempted to assault El Campeon. The El Campeon welcome sign happened to catch my eye, noting this course was built in 1917. My guys will tell you that I must have been there for the build out, but even I'm not that old. Think about it folks, 1917 was before tractors. This course was built with a mule and a plow. Yeah, I know, you Millennials are asking, "what's a mule?" Oh well, never mind.
Golf on Day 3 was a little warmer but not much. As a group we all played slightly better on the second day with Mike and Rich taking first place honors with 5 under par Net.
If I have painted a scary picture of El Campeon, let me assure you this course is one for your bucket list. The sheer design and beauty of the course is a marvel and will make you forget about any score you may post. (Fast Play RichS did post an 82 with a 10 handicap so scores can be had)
Overall, it was a great golf trip. Even as challenging as the courses were, the only complaint I heard was. "let's come back in the summer when it's warm."
We loved it so much; we've already booked a return trip for August/2025. I guess my guys will complain about the heat then.
(p.s. We may have a couple of spots open for that trip. Let me know if you are interested?)
If you live in Florida or coming to Florida looking for a Great Golf Outing and a Superior Resort to stay at, please consider The Mission Inn Resort. For more information about the Resort, please read my prior post on Scouting a Course for a Golf Trip which features Mission Inn.
You won't be disappointed!
And always remember, every golf shot makes somebody happy!
Great blog. Really enjoyed the details regarding the Brew Crew.
Looks like a lot of fun!