Tampa / St. Pete / Clearwater area has a great DG scene. Plenty of great courses and several great courses just out of town that are perfect for day trips as well. Tampa Bay Disc Sports Club is very active with a large member base and plenty of regular weekly league activities and tournaments.
Disc golf anywhere in FL is pretty much all year round. Yes the summers are very hot and humid. Summer is also the rainy season, which brings regular afternoon thunderstorms almost daily from June/July through September. Mornings are the best time to play during the rain season due to lower chances of rain and slightly cooler temps; however, its been known to get into the 90's with 100% humidity by 9:30/10:00a sometimes on the hottest of days.
Your concerns over bugs, snakes, and gators should be minimal if any concern at all. Bugs are probably the most warranted fear there. Mosquitoes are vicious here, especially on courses that hold water. During summer months, a small can of mosquito repellent is an essential to have in your bag or trunk especially if playing near dusk. Spiders are ridiculous on some courses if you're worried about them, but almost always avoidable to some extent.
It kinda depends on the course, but the vast majority of snakes you come across on FL DG courses are non-poisonous (water snakes, rat snakes, garter snakes, grass snakes, etc) and will likely be trying to get away from you if you approach. You basically have to mess with them in order to risk getting bitten. If you leave them alone, they will leave you alone.
Water moccasins (cottonmouth), coral snakes, and pigmy rattlers are the most common poisonous ones that you might see on rare occasion. Water moccasins are the scariest because they don't fear humans as much and when they are in hunt mode, they can be scary looking and aggressive if messed with. They are mostly found where canals and waterways lined with tall grass exist. They typically don't stray too far from water. Just tread carefully in those type of grassy marshy areas when retrieving discs and you should be fine. I've had cottonmouth sightings on 3 courses and maybe on 3 or 4 times total in the nearly 8 years I've been playing DG here in FL. Pigmy rattlers are pretty common on our course in the summertime in DeBary, but again.. usually you see them before you get close enough to step on them and almost always they are trying to get away from you as fast as they can.
Alligators are the least of my worries with the exception of F. Burton Park DGC in Cocoa, where I've seen some enormous ones laying around the western pond. In all, Alligators are responsible for 0.3 fatalities per year in the U.S. There is a little bit of common sense to avoiding encounters. If you can't see through the water and there is tall grass and you are in a secluded wooded marshy area, you probably don't want to wade into the water very far or go swimming. If you can see through the water and/or the area is in a busy well groomed park with little tall grass for them to hide in, then you would almost always see the alligator well in advance and usually only prompts you to take a picture, maybe stare for a moment, and then proceed with your round. If they are on shore and you get close, they usually scurry into the water where they feel safest. I'm not sure if you can even find a documented case of a disc golfer in FL getting attacked by an alligator but I suppose I could be wrong. I'm not sure I've seen any alligators on any other courses except F. Burton in Cocoa.. oh and Barnett Park here in Orlando had one nesting back along the lake about 75 feet from hole 12's basket.
There are so many FL tournaments each year, it's almost getting ridiculous for us club leaders to secure weekends and not conflict with other FL clubs. It's a good problem to have and shows how much the sport is growing here in FL, as I'm sure its happening all over the US in much the same way. There is a huge number of FL players that travel around on the Fabulous Florida Tour each year. You can checkout the schedule here:
www.fabflatour.org .There are also numerous other sanctioned tourneys not on the FFT as well as various non-sanctioned localized club tourneys. Tourneys fill up quick around here. So if you want to play in them you kinda have to be on the ball about when registrations open up, etc.
In regards to being safe to play alone, I'd say yes for the most part. There are a few courses that are in close proximity to rougher neighborhoods but not really that I've played in the Tampa/St. Pete area. North Water Tower Park in Sarasota comes to mind. A few holes along the back of the park border a rough neighborhood and you may encounter some shady characters from time to time, but I'm sure there are locals that play solo there all the time and could downplay my opinion. I've never really felt unsafe anywhere and I play solo quite a bit.
Good luck with your decision making!
