Many other areas of Florida get most of the attention but if you’ve been there and done that or you just want to try something different then Florida’s Nature Coast is the place for you.

Located on Florida’s Gulf Coast about 100 miles north of the Tampa Bay area, the Nature Coast offers world class golf without the oppressive development and traffic found in many other locales in Florida.

The Nature Coast area also boasts a rolling topography much different from most of the rest of dead flat Florida and no golf course architect has taken better advantage of those elevation changes than Tom Fazio.

Long considered by many as America’s best architect and certainly its most highly compensated, Fazio really cemented that position in the 1980’s with is work in the Nature Coast area.

The original developer of Black Diamond Ranch in Lecanto, handed the 1320 acre former pastureland dotted with ancient Live Oaks and a huge limestone quarry to Fazio and told him to build the best 45 holes of golf he could and the houses would be fitted on the remaining land.

Fazio debuted the Black Diamond Ranch Quarry Course in 1987 and it immediately shot to the top of the course rankings of every major golf publication. It has remained there ever since.

The Quarry plays down and around the beautiful oaks and spring fed ponds with plenty of room off the tee but a full range of challenges on approach shots and on the greens with their demanding slopes and Tifeagle speeds. The first twelve holes range from good to merely great but the quarry holes, 13 through 17, are otherworldly and like nothing else you ever played.

The Ranch Course at Black Diamond, opened in 1997, is another 18 hole par 72 Fazio design that plays in a more traditional, closer to the ground style and includes, in Fazio’s words “the three best finishing holes I've ever designed.”

The Highlands is the last of the golf offerings at BDR and was opened in 1999. Normally these nine hole courses tend to be shorter, gentler, pitch and putt layouts but not the Highlands. In fact, it is the most difficult nine on the property with a slope of 147 from the tips. It can be combined with either nine of the Ranch for the truly masochistic.

Although Black Diamond Ranch is private, public access can be obtained through their Stay and Play packages.. For information click- www.blackdiamondranch.com or call (352) 453-5473.