Another new course, which opened only six months before North Hampton, is Royal Amelia Golf Links. Royal Amelia sits on the marshes that run along the Intracoastal Waterway on Amelia Island. Like the Golf Club at North Hampton, it accepts memberships but remains open to the public. Royal Amelia likes to say that it’s just a golf course, with no houses surrounding it to interfere with play, and that is exactly true. That makes it somewhat of a novelty for a golf course in a resort area like Amelia Island.

Hoping to fill a niche between private resort courses and the municipal course, Royal Amelia offers the advantages of a country club without the prohibitive price tag. Built with a state-of-the-art sprinkler system and the best sods and grasses, Royal Amelia also uses Tif-Eagle grass on its greens. Scott Womble, PGA Professional at Royal Amelia, says that the Tif-Eagle grass thrives in both the high heat and humidity, and the more moderate temperatures that this area experiences at various times of the year. It can be cut lower than a Bermuda grass without burning up, allowing the greens to be kept hard, smooth and fast, making for an exciting \golf round with greens like the pros are used to.

Royal Amelia offers a good golfing experience for every level of player. From the back tees, it’s a good test for any experienced golfer, but from the members’ tees, Womble says that the course offers a good challenge to the average golfer without being overly punitive. With few forced carries over water or other hazards and a more wide-open layout, golfers can probably count on holding on to their golf balls a little longer at Royal Amelia than they might elsewhere.

Womble calls Royal Amelia a good golf course, a fun course, that’s not too "tricked-up." The course designer, Tom Jackson, provided plenty of "bail-out areas" and "run-ups" to greens on the course to ensure that average golfers won’t have to hit the shot of their lives on every swing. The greens absorb the shots of better golfers well, allowing them to shoot at the pins, but the average golfer won’t find too much trouble with an errant shot. That way, everyone is sure to have a great time going around the golf course. The fun, relaxing atmosphere brings people back to Royal Amelia time after time, Womble says.

The Royal Amelia course is an interesting mix of styles that offers golfers a little bit of everything. A few of the holes have a Scottish links design, some are straightforward Florida doglegs lined with beautiful trees, a couple are Pinehurst-style long par 4’s guarded by high pines, and there’s a par 3 No. 17 that will remind golfers of the island green of No. 17 at Sawgrass (although, in keeping with Royal Amelia’s character, the hole has a bit of a bail-out area.) Moreover, the shifting winds that come over the marsh off the Intracoastal Waterway can make each hole play a little bit differently every day.

Dotty Brown and her husband,Tom, play often at Royal Amelia. The Amelia Island residents called the course “user-friendly,” and said that they really enjoy playing there. Tom said the course was always in good shape and that you could have some fun "without breaking your back." Chuck Smith, another member (who had just shot his age -77), called the greens "exceptional," adding that the course "gives every level of golfer a chance." Royal Amelia hopes to create a pleasant country club atmosphere for its members and still remain affordable for visitors to the island. Royal Amelia will also offer a golf academy run by Dan Campbell, a rising young teacher who works with professional golfers like Vijay Singh and Bubba Dickerson, the reigning U.S. Amateur champion who recently left the University of Florida to join the PGA Tour. Dickerson often plays at Royal Amelia when he is on the island (he holds the course record with a 65), as does Laura Diaz, the LPGA professional who won her first LPGA event this spring. The club also has a club championship in September, a President’s Cup tournament that incorporates handicaps, a Ladies Invitational in May and a number of other member events.

As the club continues to add more new members each month, plans for the new clubhouse are rolling ahead. Ground was broken in May and construction will begin at the beginning of June, with completion due in 8-10 months.

227 South 7th Street
Amelia Island, Florida 32034