West End Golf Club

West End is a public 18 hole golf course located in Newberry, Florida. West End Golf Club came about when a course architect named O'Connor designed a course in Miami Florida called Colonial Palms. The golf course is a par 60 and fully lighted, exactly like West End but much smaller. Mr. O'Connor was contracted to design a lighted par 60 course in Gainesville. The golf course itself sits on about seventy acres. All of the lighting at one time was mounted on palm trees. The first nine holes were built during 1968 and the second nine in 1969. As the palm trees died over the past thirty years, the lights have been mounted on poles. Quite a few of the palm trees are still there and you can see where the lights used to be mounted on them. Nowadays, golf courses rarely install lighting as it has become too expensive. West End Golf Club was noted in a Golf Digest article as the longest par 60 course. West End has three par fours on each side. The front side plays at 2007 yards, and the back side is a bit shorter at 1933 yards. Each tee box features three sets of tees. The red tees and the blue tees are moved forward and back through the week to conserve the turf. The white tees are marked by white bricks set into the ground, and are never moved. This set is handy for golfers wishing to learn which clubs to use for specific distances. West End has no forced carries over water, but the fairways are bordered by stands of trees, and by fencelines which are out of bounds. A lateral hazard on #10 sits right in the slice zone for many players, as do fairway bunkers on the par fours. #4 is not only the longest hole on the course, it is one of the longest par 4s in the local area, playing at 430 yards, even longer from the back of the tee box. Interestingly, the longest hole on the course has one of the smallest greens, with out of bounds stakes protecting the area behind the green. On the approach to the first and tenth tees, we have a special bench and a set of warmup exercises called "The Golfer's Edge", developed in association wth the College of Medicine at the University of Florida. The main puttng green, practice bunker and chipping area are also located here. Starting at #5, the front side meanders alongside the Villages of West End residential community, and on #10 through The Greens apartment complex. Because many of the greens are elevated, the golfer is challenged not to be long of the pin, as this will mean a downhill putt. And on holes such as #2 and #18, rolling off the back of the green leaves a very difficult flop shot to a surface sloping downward. New golfers find West End to be an excellent course upon which to learn the short game.