Hacienda Hills Golf and Country Club

The Villages, FL

Down To Earth was gifted Hacienda Hills Golf and Country Club in November 2014. This facility, along with two other championship courses including The Villages’ signature facility, Palmer Legends, were turned over to us without a bid process due to the outstanding work that was exhibited throughout the years. With the addition of these three championship courses, Down To Earth currently maintains more holes in The Villages than any other golf maintenance company.

A 27-hole course, Hacienda Hills offers an inviting test for golfers of all skill levels as it features bunkers on every hole and water on fourteen. As an added bonus, it also is home to two of the legendary Chi-Chi Rodriguez’s favorite holes of all time (the signature No. 1 holes on the Lakes and Oaks courses, respectively). There they sit, side-by-side. It’s almost like looking into a mirror — and that’s precisely the point. High praise indeed from one of golf’s most storied players for a couple of holes that can’t help but conjure a feeling of deja vu.

Both holes are two long par-5s and share a lake — one doglegging this way, the other that way, until they meet at the end in one particularly large green.  No. 1 on the Lakes (or “Los Lagos”) doglegs to the left and covers 453 yards at its longest. In contrast, No. 1 on the Oaks (“Los Robles”) plays a bit longer — 485 yards from the back tees — and doglegs to the right around the same lake. Of course, this double- dose of dueling fairways presents quite a challenge. Chi-Chi wouldn’t have it any other way.