Watersound Club: The Third

It takes vision to build a good golf course on a flat property, especially one with little variation in trees or landscape. It takes courage to build one without resorting to digging out lakes or creating big manmade features to dress up the site. Mark and Davis Love III, along with lead architect Scot Sherman, showed both at The Third, the third course at the large Watersound development in Northwest Florida. Located just north of the Shark’s Tooth course in an enclave west of Panama City Beach, The Third plays in isolation through corridors of a flat pine forest that could easily turn a round into a monotonous one if not handled creatively.

The designers played their hand smartly by allowing the golf rather than eye candy to do the talking through broad, fast-running fairways and intriguing green complexes, some perched above roll offs and others playing at fairway grade. Everything is low-profile and simplified without unnecessary adornment, just tees, attractive bunkers and greens. The tight turf makes the game surprisingly links-like—you need to pick your line and hit it, and most putting surfaces set up for bouncing shots. That’s not to say The Third without its own kind of flair. Features like the Biarritz-inspired putting surface at the par-4 seventh or the wavy, 50-yard-deep green at the par-3 14th where hole locations can vary four clubs keep attention locked in.

Note: Tee times at The Third are available to guests of Camp Creek Inn.