Streamsong Resort’s fifth golf course, set to open in late 2026.
And now… there are five golf courses at Streamsong Resort. The fifth one isn’t open just yet, but it has grown in so well you could probably play it right now.
This new design by the highly respected Scottish architect David McLay Kidd is the fourth championship-length course (there’s a short course, too) at Florida’s Streamsong Resort, which is run by KemperSports and located a little over an hour from Tampa and about an hour and a half from the Orlando area.
It’s scheduled for a soft opening this fall with a formal grand opening next January. This allows for a full grow-in, with conditions expected to be on par with the other courses at Streamsong. In other words, it’ll be perfect then. But yes, it’s pretty much playable already.
The best one yet?
There has also been talk that this might be the best one yet at Streamsong which is saying something, considering the Red, Blue, and Black courses are all among the best golf layouts in the country, designed by arguably the hottest architects in the business.
We recently had the chance to tour the new course with the designer, and any argument for it emerging as the top course at Streamsong would be hard to shoot down. Some say it’s also on the best and most interesting parcel of the property, which is a former phosphate mining site that turned out to be ideal for golf. Of course, just as it is now, everyone will have their favorite when it’s all said and done.
Streamsong Resort’s fifth golf course, set to open in late 2026.
New digs
There are also new accommodations being added at Streamsong Resort. The new Golf Cabins, which are situated behind the main lodge, will offer elevated accommodations just steps from the action. Each two-story cabin will feature private bedrooms, spacious common areas, and seamless access to everything Streamsong has to offer. And Streamsong offers plenty. In addition to the exceptional golf, there’s bass fishing, sporting clay shooting, great dining, and a full-service spa.
The new Golf Cabins are expected to open in January 2027.
Streamsong Resort’s fifth golf course, set to open in late 2026.
An impressive lineup
The yet–to-be-named new course makes Streamsong the only resort in the country to feature the lineup of Tom Doak, Bill Coore-Ben Crenshaw, Gil Hanse, and David McLay Kidd, arguably currently the most sought-after designers in the business.
It started in 2012 when the Streamsong Red (Coore-Crenshaw), and Streamsong Blue (Doak) courses opened along with the 216-room Lodge and Red and Blue Clubhouse. In 2017, the Hanse-designed Streamsong Black debuted and stirred up a lot of praise with its huge, slopey greens complexes and massive footprint. And in 2024, The Chain, a 19-hole short course designed by Coore-Crenshaw, and The Bucket, a 2.5-acre putting course, came on the scene.
The new Kidd on the block
The new McLay Kidd course, which is a par-72 that tips out at 7,560 yards, will play out of the current Black Course clubhouse. Players on the new course will also utilize the same practice facilities. Being able to route the course out of the Black clubhouse was a big part of the plan for McLay Kidd.
“Kemper didn’t say to me it has to come out of the Black Clubhouse, but I think we all knew intuitively that if it could come out of the Black Clubhouse, it would make a whole hell of a lot of sense,” said McLay Kidd, who has long wanted to do a course at Streamsong.
To get the course to start at the Black Clubhouse, McLay Kidd met with Director of Agronomy Brad Boyd and discussed the possibility of sacrificing an underutilized three-hole practice area called The Roundabout.
“I knew there was a ridge up here next to Red 3 and 4, so that could be our way in. And then you had all this land out to the west,” McLay Kidd said.
“I drew this golf course 50 different times, 50 different ways,” he added. “And what I was looking for was trying to find a way to get a really good variety of holes, both in direction and length, and get this thing to be a real adventure, a roller coaster ride of tiny par 3s to giant par 5s, and every single thing in between, and every single direction on the compass.”
Construction on the course started in February 2025. Original plans called for a large percentage of the course to be sodded, which is expensive and would have taken up 20 percent of the budget. So McLay Kidd and his team sped up construction so more of the course could be sprigged (which is cheaper), saving more money for design features. It was basically finished by last Thanksgiving.
“It’s probably the fastest we’ve ever built 18 holes. It was a no-huddle offense,” McLay Kidd said.
Streamsong Resort’s fifth golf course, set to open in late 2026.
An early look
As for the preview of the course, there wasn’t anything we saw that we didn’t like. It’s fairly generous off the tee, but how you position the ball is imperative when it comes to scoring. On the first hole, for example, there’s a lot of room right, but you could get a blind approach shot to a green flanked by water on the left if you hit it too far right.
The front nine is longer at 3,925 yards, but McLay Kidd said he believes the back nine is stronger and a bit more interesting. Because the holes go in every direction, they will play much differently depending on the day. For example, the two short par-4s – Nos. 6 and 15 – can be drivable, but probably not on the same day because they are oriented differently.
McLay Kidd said it was important that the new course have the same DNA as the Red and Blue.
“When you get to the Red and the Blue, you see all the mine tailings. We had a degree of that on our site. And I really wanted to embrace that. Black didn’t have the mine tailings… I really wanted to celebrate that and use it as part of the visuals and the strategy.”
But make no mistake, the new course is distinctly David McLay Kidd, who made his big mark in the United States with the first course at Bandon Dunes more than a quarter century ago.
“I wanted to bring the playability and fun and sort of whimsy we’ve kind of been known for,” he said. “This has the flavor of Streamsong married to the fun of Gamble Sands or Mammoth Dunes or any of these courses we’ve done the last dozen years. There are loads of kicker slopes, side banks, and backstops, and all sorts of ways a player could use a slower swing speed to get a ball to work towards the pin. And the higher swing speed flat bellies can still throw darts if they want.”
Streamsong Resort’s fifth golf course, set to open in late 2026.
A unique approach
The greens are smaller on the new course, and McLay Kidd pointed out that they are the least contoured on the entire property.
“I’ll let you have a two-putt, but you’ve got to hit the green first,” he said.
And then there’s something called the “overburden,” which was the material that had to be taken out of the earth so the miners could get to the phosphate below. It created mounds and landmarks that Kidd took advantage of throughout the course.
“The overburden is what has made the golf really cool, and yet to the miners, it was just a nuisance in the way of getting to the phosphate,” he said.
When asked if he felt he was competing with the other architects at Streamsong, he didn’t hesitate in his answer, which was “absolutely.”
“I think what all of us have done really will only be judged over decades. It’s going to take 50 years to sort out who was the better. I just like to be in the conversation,” McLay Kidd said. “I’m 58, so I’ve got more courses behind me than I’ve got in front of me. I desperately wanted to add something like this to my resume and legacy. And to have golfers be able to come here and, in the space of one golf trip, play the golf courses by the architects who have largely dominated this generation is really important.”
Streamsong Resort’s fifth golf course, set to open in late 2026.