Winter Garden, Fla., Oct. 1, 2009 – According to the readers of Golf World magazine in its recently released “Reader’s Choice Awards”, Orange County National GC & Lodge moved up to the 2nd ranked public golf facility in the country. Last year, Orange County National was ranked as the 8th best facility and the No.1 rated in Florida. This year, Orange County National has maintained their No. 1 ranking in Florida while improving its national ranking based upon the reader’s overall evaluation scores.
“We are extremely honored to be recognized by the readers of Golf World as one of the top golf facilities in the country. Our entire team works hard every day to provide a superior golf experience and rankings such as this validate those efforts,” said Bruce Gerlander, general manager, Orange County National GC & Lodge.
Golf World readers were asked to evaluate several thousand of the nation’s golf facilities in three distinct categories-private, public and resort-based on 13 different performance criteria, such as quality of the course, course conditions, reputation/prestige and service. A weighted average of these categories determined the final course score used for the rankings. Orange County National totaled a final score of 94.47 on the strength of top ten scores in all key categories. Orange County National scored the highest of all public facilities for its Pro Shop and Practice Facilities and had the second highest scores for Overall Value as well as Prestige and Reputation. More than 46,000 readers took part in the evaluation process.
“While we were flattered to receive such a high ranking, it was frustrating to see how close we came to receiving the No. 1 slot. When we reviewed all of the rankings and took note of who the No. 2 ranked Private (Augusta National) and No. 2 Resort (Bandon Dunes) facilities were, we felt no regrets,” added Gerlander.
Orange County National GC & Lodge is located in Winter Garden, Florida just outside of Orlando and is home to two championship golf courses (Crooked Cat and Panther Lake), a nine hole short course, the world’s largest practice range and a 48 room lodge. Many awards and honors have been bestowed upon Orange County National since it first opened in 1997 including Golf Digest’s Best Places to Play, receiving a coveted 4 1/2 star rating on each course every year since becoming eligible. Orange County National has also hosted many prestigious tournaments, highlighted by the 2003 – 2005 – 2007 PGA TOUR Q-School Finals and is slated to host that event again in 2010.
For more information, please contact Jimmy Bell – Sales and Marketing Director 407.905.2276 or visit www.ocngolf.com.
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