There is often a stigma attached to municipal courses, but golfers are well served to dispense with any preconceived notions before arriving at Cypress Head Golf Club.
Located in Port Orange, Cypress Head is a muni that delivers a premium experience. Designed by famed architect Arthur Hills, the layout is operated by KemperSports, a management company that counts Streamsong, Chambers Bay and Bandon Dunes among its family of courses.
The commitment to quality and service that has made those facilities among the nation’s best, is at the heart of Cypress Head’s appeal for players taking a Daytona Beach golf trip.
Cypress Head is a player-friendly layout with few onerous forced carries and ample room to hit the ball off the tee. The course, which underwent a renovation project in 2015 that included the installation of new greens, stretches to 6,805 yards from the black tees and provides ample challenge for low handicap players.
The blue tees at 6,312 yards and whites at 5,775 are the most commonly played, providing fair but firm challenges for mid-handicappers and seniors.
The opening hole, a 332-yard par 4 (blue tees) provides every opportunity to get off to a good start with layout’s toughest test rising quickly on the horizon. A dogleg right, the 371-yard third hole, the course’s most difficult, offers plenty of room off the tee, but the approach to a narrow green with water looming is fraught with danger.
Cypress Head’s signature hole is the 14th, a beautiful dogleg left that leaves golfers with the ultimate risk-reward decision: how much of the dogleg and the lake do you want to challenge? The decision could swing a match, but it’s a great one.
In addition to the quality of golf, Cypress Head allows kids 16-and-under to play for free when accompanied by a paying adult, a program designed to help introduce people to the game.
Cypress Head is one of the Daytona Beach area’s best public courses and one that needs to be on your radar.
