Wanamaker Course at PGA Golf Club

Even though I find the Dye Course to be the best-designed of the three golf courses at PGA Village, the Wanamaker serves as the facility’s flagship course. Ahead of 2025 PGA Professional Championship hosting duties, it just reopened from a summer-long renovation project that brought all new turf and reduced the bunkering by some 40% while giving the course a cleaner, more crisp overall presentation. Members are impressed by the changes, and while I certainly understand the impulse to give that new sheen to a course that will be on TV, I find myself missing some of the more rugged aspects of the course in its previous iteration.

Aesthetic preferences aside, the Wanamaker remains well worth playing, and PGA Golf Club remains one of my favorite golf places for its practically unmatched culture and membership of retired and active PGA professionals. It still accepts public play, and is well worth visiting.

This course is super nice and in immaculate condition from tee to green. I've played at more than a handful Tom Fazio courses, and this is by far his best design. Out of the three courses at PGA village, I rank the Dye and Wanamaker top 1 and the Ryder course a more distant second. Ryder is just meh, but Wanamaker and Dye are South Florida's best courses. I would say that Wanamaker is a little more forgiving off the tee than the Dye is, as well as the approach shots to the green. Both layouts are uniquely designed and beautiful. The only negative is that the course had an 88 player shotgun outing on our course, so when we reached the group it was slow as molasses, so poor planning on the PGA village golf staff. However, the course was so nice, I'll let it pass.

This course requires the experience of playing it a second time to get the best strategy down to make approaches work for you.

The contours of the green complexes are challenging.

Great conditions and great place.

My favorite course that I have played in Florida. Unfortunately we didn't get there this year. The facilities here are second to none. Great staff and practise facilities. Course is spectacular and has always been in pristine condition.

Many multi-course facilities seem to exhibit a hierarchy among there layouts. There's usually a clear choice for #1. At the 54-hole PGA Golf Club, that's not the case. I personally have Wanamaker as the #2 course on property, just a tick behind the Dye Course. But you may well prefer the Wanamaker, and I think there's an argument for it. Tom Fazio gave the course a really nice mix of longer and shorter holes, and there turn out to be a bunch of legitimate birdie opportunities for players of all skill levels. Collection areas border many of the greens, as do some typically scooped-out Fazio bunkers. The shorter holes like 7, 8, 12 and 15 tend to be the best of the bunch, with rewards for taking on some of the danger on offer.

I've played at PGA village many times during the last few years and was looking forward to returning monthly for a round or two this summer and fall. Unfortunately, Wanamaker was in poor condition. The greens were like concrete--impossible to hold and very difficult to putt. There were large swaths of burned out fairway on many holes. While you can adjust to these issues by changing your strategies, you can't adjust to the horrendous pace of play. We were plus 45 minutes at the end of 18 holes. There were three groups on every par 4 and par 5. There were no rangers or warnings on the in-cart GPS. Apparently PGA has closed Ryder for the remainder of the year, so overcrowding is going to be a problem until next season. I have to recommend finding somewhere else to play for the rest of 2017.

Played the newly re-done Wannamaker Course and must say the changes were worth it. The course was in as good of shape as anywhere I've ever played, greens were immaculate and rolled true, rough was long, but not so crazy that you couldn't play out of it, sand was nice and fluffy. Also, I played well there, so that always helps.

Aside from the golf, the staff was very friendly and the food was excellent The restaurant and porch has a great view of the 18th hole and looked like a great place to watch a game. Had a great time and I'd definitely go back again.

Took a nice stroll down from Orlando with some buddies to see the newly re-sodded Wanamaker Course and new member facilities (locker room, restaurant, etc.).

It was a terrific day and a good time was had by all. The course was in great shape and the greens were as good as anything I've played in this state all year.

While I enjoyed the whole layout, I was particularly fond of the par 3s and the variation of shots/clubs you could hit into each - you could hit anything from a 7-iron to a 3-wood.

Next time down I'll plan to have more time and take a look at the other two courses on the property.