By McKinley Holding
If you drive on West Memorial Boulevard you’ll come across a small, private, golf club that’s home to the Florida Southern’s mens and women’s golf team. It’s on the east side of Lakeland directly across from the Lakeland Ice Arena. As you make the turn into the road leading to the club house, the first thing that you notice is the palm trees. And then just past the clubhouse, is another smaller clubhouse that belongs to the Florida Southern golf team. This is Lone Palm.
This is a place where the beauty of golf is exalted during rain or shine. The grass is always a true green color, the clouds float pleasantly and the trees stand tall. Rainbows love to make appearances here everytime it rains, it is pretty rare to see rain without a rainbow here. Even double rainbows will make appearances.
Like most golf courses, the range at Lone Palm has a back end of the range to hit from. This is where the Florida Southern golf team comes to hit, as well as some of the other members. It’s a nice and flat area with a lot of healthy grass to hit off of. They say once you start your range session there it is hard to leave because of the conditions. Pure is a good word to describe it. There is something very satisfying about letting your club scrape up the dirt and watching the ball soar in the air.
The Florida Southern men’s and women’s golf team house just opened at the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year. The facility contains two simulators with TrackMan, a fitness room, two offices for the head coaches, a PuttView Lab, a conference room and two locker rooms.
At this team house, every piece of grass and dirt that gets brought in from practice tells a story and shows hard work. Before and after practice, the walls of this house hear all the emotional conversations that the team bonds over. And when using the back door to exit and go practice, you’re greeted with a bright blue sky, more palm trees and the 18th hole.
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