Go for birdies and dodge those sand traps and swamps at the 18-hole, Arnold Palmer-designed Lost Key Golf Club on Perdido Key, delivering some of the Pensacola area’s premier golfing. Though it offers membership and has the vibe of a private club, Lost Key is a public course open to day visitors and guests of the associated gated resort.
This 71-par, 6,801-yard course has a rating of 74.3 and a slope rating of 144. Originally opened back in the late 1990s, Lost Key Golf Club was redesigned in 2006 by the lauded Arnold Palmer Design Company. The renovation included the planting of more than 2,000 native trees and complete resurfacing of the course’s tees, fairways, greens, and rough. It’s an absolute joy driving, chipping, and putting on the Sea Dwarf Paspalum Grass, with handsome pines framing the fairways.
The course has earned accolades for its ecologically conscious design. In fact, the Lost Key Golf Club was the first golf course in the Sunshine State to be awarded Audubon International Silver Signature Sanctuary status, which reflects a course’s sound environmental planning, long-term habitat management, and focus on sustainability and stewardship.
No question this is a tricky course, with a number of tight plays, several dogleg fairways, and an abundance of tricky bunkers and red-staked, ball-vanishing wetlands. The signature hole at Lost Key Golf Club is the 13th, a par 3 that sees you teeing off across a water feature to an undulating green.
However your round goes, you’ll appreciate the refreshments and eats on offer at the Lost Key Golf Club’s clubhouse, which serves daily breakfast and lunch as well as Wednesday evening dinners. The burgers and the club sandwich are among the highly recommended entrees. (Meanwhile, strap yourself in if you go for a mimosa or Bloody Mary, which here are mixed nice and strong.)
Whether you’re a lean, mean scratch golfer or more on the bogey side of the handicap spectrum, you’re sure to enjoy the caliber and beauty of the Lost Key Golf Club, plus the pampered service and friendly hospitality. Throw in its proximity to the delights of downtown Pensacola and no shortage of gorgeous, sugar sand beaches, and you’ve got one heck of a golf course!
Insider Tips:
– Given more than a few unforgiving fairways, most golfers will want to bring quite a few balls when playing the Lost Key Golf Club course.
– The Lost Key Golf Club clubhouse offers Happy Hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays with some great deals on drinks and menu items.