Cabot Citrus Farms

Cabot Citrus Farms is one of the more surprising things you can do with a Florida golf trip. A hundred years of the state's golf identity has been built on flat ground, palm trees, and water hazards framing every approach. What Kyle Franz built at Karoo is the opposite: heaving, mounded fairways that push the ball in unexpected directions, fairways split by raw sand chasms that demand a real decision off the tee, and green complexes so large and contoured that putting becomes its own problem to solve. It is not typical Florida golf. That is exactly the point.

The property sits on 1,200 rolling acres in Brooksville, about an hour north of Tampa on the Nature Coast. The terrain has genuine elevation changes, which is unusual for the state, and the sandy soil allows the kind of firm, fast conditioning that Cabot pursues at all its properties. When the turf is running, approaches skip and release toward flags, and short-sided mistakes get punished quickly. It feels more like Carolina Sandhills than Florida resort golf, and that tonal shift is what makes the trip worth the flight.

Karoo is the headline round and the one most people are booking the trip to play. Franz designed it over the bones of the old Pine Barrens course at World Woods, stripping trees, exposing sandy waste, and reworking green sites into some of the most dramatic putting surfaces built in this decade. The par-3 third can stretch to 292 yards. The double green shared between the sixth and tenth rivals St. Andrews in scale. The drivable par-4 fifteenth rewards commitment and punishes hesitation. The course is bold in ways that can be polarizing, but the bold moments are also what keep you talking about specific holes for months after the trip ends.

Roost is the better-rounded companion, co-designed by Franz, Mike Nuzzo, and Rod Whitman. It moves through meadows, past moss-draped oaks, and over terrain that offers better natural flow than Karoo. The bunkering is less theatrical but just as strategic, with six split fairways creating the same tee-box decision logic that defines the property. Roost also benefits from terrain that produces more variety in shot shape: downhill tee shots that travel enormous distances on firm turf, uphill approaches that require an extra club, and occasional semi-blind moments that require you to trust your line. It rewards replay more directly than Karoo because the ideal angles reveal themselves over multiple visits.

The short courses are not just filler. The Squeeze is a Mike Nuzzo 10-hole layout with holes ranging from 100 yards to 550 yards, including several drivable par-4s that create the best format golf of the entire trip. This is where your group starts inventing rules: worst-ball, "one club only," closest-to-the-pin challenges, money games that evolve by the fourth hole. The Wedge adds an 11-hole par-3 course lit for nighttime play, which means the competitive format extends well past sunset. Neither course requires you to be fully fresh, and both create the kind of loose, social golf energy that turns a good trip into a memorable one.

Seasonally, late fall through spring is when this property performs at its best. The turf firms up, the temperatures stay manageable, and the walk-only policy from November through early March enforces the kind of immersive, ground-level experience the architecture was built for. Summer is playable, but heat and humidity push the useful tee time window to the early morning, and afternoon thunderstorms are reliable enough that you should build in flexibility. The property closes for a maintenance period in July, so check the calendar before booking anything in midsummer.

Staying on property in the 2- or 4-bedroom cottages is the right version of this trip. They keep the logistics simple, put you within walking distance of all four courses, and give the group a shared home base that makes the whole stay feel less transactional. A 4-bedroom cottage for four people splits down to a number that is still expensive but competitive with what Cabot charges at its other properties for the same level of access. Book the cottages first: they sell out ahead of tee times, and you want accommodation confirmed before you start filling in the golf schedule.