(3.183 Rating) A short technical course with a mystical feel.
- RAW BEAUTY - I played at daybreak, in foggy conditions. Perhaps the siren misty feel that morning added to some flavor, but regardless, I thought the course looked incredible. Fairways were mostly comprised of beautiful low sweeping live oaks, palms and palmettos. Ranked solely on looks, to me, this is the most beautiful of the three Blue Angel courses. Of the +100 courses I've played in Florida, I'd put it around 10th, so 90 percentile. It most closely reminded me of Florida courses Palm Bay Regional and Tocobaga, but a hair better example.
- SHOT SHAPING - Magicians will love this course. Most holes have only one optimal attack angle and the play typically has significant movement. Players need to constantly release at the right speed and angle, and make sure the ending curves correctly to avoid the thousands of trees in play. Good luck.
- CHARACTER - My kind of course. First off, driving in and seeing the giant basket is a killer ambience item. Also shelters with tables, porta-potties, water jugs, maps, community info and two practice baskets. Almost the entire course is secluded and has an overall Zen feel. There is seating on every hole, some with bag hangers and even a few pit-stop shelters on this layout. It seemed like two thirds of the holes had multiple tees, baskets are adequate MachIII's and tees are concrete measuring 5 feet by 10 feet. My only preference would be to add a few alternate basket placements.
- CHALLENGING - Playing the back tees at Palmetto, or any of the three courses at Blue Angels for that matter, is going to provide an Advanced level beat-down. I played a mix of front and back tees, and the tee shot demands crossed the line of ridiculousness several times, see cons, Design. So although the course is super tough from the back, its due to a lot of flawed difficulty.
- QUICK PLAY - The quickest play of the three courses. My two some completed the first leg in 75 minutes. We did the all 3 courses in four hours.
- NAVIGATION - Adequate. I think I saw a course map at three different locations in the complex. So that's good. Lots of navigational cues between holes. The tee signs are a bit dated being a solid color with descent sharpie layout description of the hole. I would not be surprised if this gets updated in few years.

Will be loved by some and cursed by others.
- DESIGN - Among the top 5 tightest courses I've ever played (335 courses played as of this review.) I honestly love technical courses, but the demands on this course are over the top and often unrealistic. Listed all par 3s but a few are seemingly unbirdieable holes without a little luck or a long fairway shot that chimes in. The holes that bothered me the most were (4), (12), (13) and (15). All of which required turning in a kitty of karma points to score well. Numerous lines are have their widest lanes at around the 4 foot width mark. My displeasure in the lines was great enough to shave off around 0.25 rating points.
- FORGIVENESS - This course will test the placement of every player's shots. Being off the mark by a few feet sometimes isn't good enough. In addition, if/when a player hits a tree, the resulting punishment is sometimes more than one throw. Thankfully no added punishment of lurking water waiting to claim a ricocheting disc. There are however a bunch of palmetto bush patches. Players will need to keep an eye on their discs, cause they'll want to limit the amount of patches they search. Players will be rewarded with a few cuts at each patch.
- BUGS - I don't subtract any score for this, but this looks like the kind of place that has unbearable mosquito conditions from time to time. I'd load up on deet if heading here between April and September.
- PAY TO PLAY - Mr Butlertron and I made a $10 dollar deposit to play the trio. I want to say it was more like 3 or 4 bucks, but we didn't have any singles or fives. Well worth it for the trio IMO. I'd pay again to play the other two courses here, but I'd probably skip this one if I ever came back.
- UNIQUENESS - A touch below average. Although just about every shot is beautiful, they look all the same. My memories of many holes had blended together by the time I completed the trio. Again, all technical tunnel shots weaving in different directions. No water, rock and elevation elements. Hole (17) has a hanging basket, which did nothing for me.
- BEGINNER FRIENDLY - Despite the shorter distances from the front tees, I would not call this course beginner friendly. Way too many trees, and it even frustrated this 5 year veteran. I'd recommend Hitzman as the best area beginners course.

The first of 5 courses I hit with Mr. Butlertron. I knew going into this course that it was ranked in the top ten in Florida, but by round conclusion it just didn't feel like it fit in the same crowd of courses like Tom Brown, Magnolia, Picnic, New World, Alpha, Bill Frederick, etc. It turns out, by asking Mr B and researching, the Palmetto course has gotten a lot of tweaks over the years. So it's not surprising to note that Palmetto's last ten review average is actually lower than both the Pines and the Oaks. Regardless, Palmetto is still a destination course for Florida when combined with the other two on-site courses. Likely best enjoyed during the Winter months.

--Concrete tees, both pro and amateur.
--Course is clean, likely because there are buckets for trash at most (if not all) the holes.
--Basket placement is varied (one was on tiered slabs, another is a hanging basket).
--Good variety of holes; some wide open and close to a major water body while others are packed tight with vegetation, requiring more surgical strikes and shot-shaping.
--Benches at some of the holes.
--Some nice, aesthetic touches along some of the holes.
--Some practice baskets are found at the entrance of the course.

--One item that many listed as a positive was the signage. I saw many sign holders but missing information on those signs.
--On the subject of missing incomplete signage, players are sometimes forced to guess the next hole and/or pin location as they are not always obvious.
--Some holes are brutally unforgiving, including those that require a perfect, sharp 90-degree hyzer to successfully navigate the hole.
--A wayward shot means wading through thick brush that will (1) scratch you up pretty well and (2) leave you little to no shot or angle to rescue the hole.
--A small fee required to enter the recreation area ($3).

This course was highly recommended by many. I had the opportunity to play it during a well-organized 2017 Trilogy Challenge. While this course is overall good and has some character, I didn't see enough to say this was an exceptional course. There is enough here to give the other two courses at Blue Angels a shot, but if this course is any indication, expectations are tempered.

Baskets caught well and were in good condition
Great practice area with three baskets
2 other courses on site
Water coolers, benches, and bag holders around the entire course

It cost me $6 to get in the park which was not listed anywhere on here.
Signage - the tees were horribly placed and often in between the long and short tees. Several holes were hard to find the tee area.
The fairways - my home course is tight and technical. Most of these fairways were just unreasonable. U-turns, 90 degree turns...mostly blind tee shots. Not fun to play for me.
The concrete tees in another setting would be fine. I played after a very short rainfall, and between the wet sand and wet tees, there was no traction anywhere.
Sand - every walking trail is sand. If the course is wet at all, it will cling to your shoes like crazy and you can forget about having any sort of traction on tee shots.
Mosquitoes - bring some hardcore deet if you want to play here. They SWARM.

Played from the long tees. I was unimpressed with Palmetto, so I didn't play Oaks or Pines. I drove 40 miles out of the way for this course and I had planned on playing all three until I played Palmetto. The fairways could use a tree or two cut. They seemed almost 'mini golf-like' with all the twists and turns and thick fairways. The tee signs were not consistent with the location. There was only 1 sign for 2 tees, sometimes in the middle of the two holes, sometimes not. One hole, I think 8, was so far out of the way after hole 7, it took forever to find the tee. The short tee was less than 100' from the basket with a fairly wide open fairway. I was not a fan of the design at all.

Same site as two other (similar) 18-hole courses. Two 9-hole loops.

Fully-appointed tee (two per hole) areas. 5'x10' teepads, benches, trash cans, bag-hooks, signs. Random water coolers.

(White) sandy soil, a low canopy, and random structures/
decorations" make for a pleasant setting.

Despite the lack of a map, a fairly simple course to navigate.

Flat , as one might expect for a course on the Florida panhandle.

(Minimal) cost to play.

A few holes on the extreme boundary of my personal tightness-tolerance.

For this review, I played the course from the short tees.

With an average length of 200', and only two holes >300', the focus of this course is definitely about control. Moderate-to-tight fairways are defined by gnarly, mid-sized trees. The branches of these trees quickly merge together, forming a low canopy, making many of the holes have a tunnel-feel to them.

Left-turning shots somewhat more frequent than right-turning shots - rarely will your tee shot need to be straight in its entirety. The sharpness, location, and duration of the turns are the biggest variable between the holes.

Minimal chance to lose a disc, as the underbrush is not overly thick. For the most part, trees are typically spaced out enough to allow recovery shots from errant drives.

Enjoyable play, more so considering the two co-located courses. The combination of overall tightness, near omnipresent low canopy, and the variety of required turns provides as excellent test of control.