Best golf courses near Vero Beach, FL

RedStick falls into the “off the grid” category. The walking-only club in Vero Beach was founded in the late 1990s by a group of players frustrated by the dearth of attractive and available club options in the region. They filled the small membership early on and saw no need to seek further publicity—in fact, very few Golf Digest panelists have seen it, with only just enough now for RedStick to qualify for the Best in State ranking. Built on a sand crest sitting almost 40 feet above sea level despite being just 1,200 yards from the Intracoastal Waterway, the mostly open-vista Rees Jones-design has small, elevated greens with fluid bunkers swept up into the edges and a second nine that detours through a preserve of Loblolly and slash pine.

Located just north of West Palm Beach is the Jim Fazio-designed Hawks Nest course at Moorings Yacht and Country Club. Pete Dye was commissioned to design the shorter Moorings course in 1974, which later partnered with Fazio’s 7,000-yard championship course 13 years later. Hawks Nest is truly unique for Florida golf, as the course is routed over steep undulations with wide fairways guarded by towering sand dunes as well as small and challenging putting surfaces. The front nine is highlighted by the difficult par-4 5th and 6th holes, which play over 450 yards, with the standout on the back nine being the finishing hole featuring a tight fairway pinched by large bunkers and a narrow, well-protected green.

Set on an old citrus grove in Vero Beach, Quail Valley Golf Club opened in 2001 under the collaborative design of Tom Fazio II and Nick Price. The course boasts an adventurous layout utilizing the land’s slopes and undulations, along with expansive water hazards in play on 13 holes. Open driving zones are visually shrunk by bunkers and hazards, while putting surfaces have tricky slopes that feed into difficult runoff areas. The best of Quail Valley is on display during the finishing stretch, which features the long par-3 16th with water in the backdrop, the dogleg par-4 17th hugging the nearby lake and the uphill par-4 18th that plays up to the stunning Hamptons-style clubhouse.

Orchid Island, a cozy luxury development with home lots and villas stretched along a span of Atlantic Ocean beaches on a barrier island north of Vero Beach, features a 1990 Arnold Palmer design that winds through the community. This is Palmer at his most PGA Tour-level exacting, setting up hole after hole that dogleg around ponds and rock-wall lined lagoons, with 12 greens requiring full carries over water or small putting surfaces positioned directly against the lakes with no room to miss including the 18th with a version of the approach at the 18th at Bay Hill, ranked six spots ahead at No. 36. Orchid Island, which shares a property line with Windsor Club, underwent a greens and bunker renovation in 2023.

John's Island West was one of the last courses Tom Fazio and his associates completed as they were getting into the thick of building Shadow Creek in Las Vegas. In that regard, the course fittingly marks an end to an early Fazio phase, one before it became increasingly clear to him that, for the skills of he and his staff to be maximized, the project's budget and ambition were more critical than having strong natural assets to work with. John's Island, like Jupiter Hills an hour south, did have strong natural assets, namely a series of sand ridges, some up to 50 feet high, that were used to prop up a number of greens and tees. This provided attractive views, tough targets, and much-needed relief amid a site thick with dense undergrowth. Several lakes were excavated for added fill and the surfaces of the course were cut and molded with sandy finger-like transition areas and bunkers, but the overall feel of the course is calm and not engineered. It's a wonderful snapshot of a creative use of existing land, one burnished further by Fazio's 2022 renovation.

The Moorings Yacht & Country Club Moorings Course in Vero Beach is one of the best golf courses in Florida. Discover our experts reviews and tee time information.