History
By the time Gil Hanse arrived at Streamsong to build what would become the Black Course, the property in Bowling Green had already made its name twice over. The Red and Blue courses, opened in 2012, had turned a former phosphate mining tract owned by The Mosaic Company into one of the most talked-about golf destinations in the country. When resort ownership decided to add a third eighteen, they turned to Hanse, fresh off his work restoring Winged Foot and building the Olympic course in Rio, and gave him the most severe, dune-scarred ground still available on the property.
Hanse opened the Black Course in 2017, and he built it as something apart from its two siblings — bigger, more muscular, unapologetically difficult, playing to a par of 73 across 7,320 yards from the tips. Where the Red and Blue courses had softened the old mining landscape into rolling variety, Hanse pushed the Black in the opposite direction, using the property’s roughest remaining terrain to create a course with a slope of 135 and a rating near 75, numbers that mark it as the most demanding test on the resort’s grounds. It was less a companion piece than a statement — a third act meant to stand on its own rather than echo what came before.
In the years since its opening, the Black Course has settled into its role as Streamsong’s championship-caliber anchor, drawing golf travelers and course-ranking panels alike to a resort that, within a decade of its first tee shot, had become a fixture of American golf conversation. The course has not undergone renovation in its short life, remaining as Hanse conceived it.
Playing notes
Bring extra sleeves of balls and be honest with yourself about club selection off the tee, because at 7,320 yards with a 135 slope, the Black plays as hard as its numbers suggest. Wind off the surrounding sandhills is a constant factor here, not an occasional nuisance, so expect it to alter club selection on approach shots throughout the round. The terrain moves more than typical Florida golf, with humps, hollows, and elevation changes carved into a sandy waste-area landscape that demands you flight the ball low when the wind picks up rather than fighting it with height. Greens run fast and firm, often requiring you to land approach shots well short and let them release, so putting the wrong number in your head on the yardage book will cost you strokes. Walking is encouraged and caddies are available, which tells you something about the pace expected here — this isn't a cart-path-only sprint around 18 holes, but a course meant to be studied hole by hole. Bunkers are deep, numerous, and positioned to catch shots that miss in the "safe" direction, so take note during your practice round of where trouble actually sits versus where it looks like it sits from the tee.
Tee boxes
| Tees | Yardage | Par | Slope | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Championship | 7,320 | 73 | 135 | 74.7 |