The best golf courses in Pembroke Pines, FL sort themselves by one question: can you actually get on. Pembroke Lakes Golf and Racquet Club is city owned and open to anybody who books. Grand Palms sells resort access to 27 holes. Flamingo Lakes is semi-private, and Hollybrook sits inside a 55-plus community. This guide covers all four inside the city, the public courses within a 25 minute drive, and the range options for when you have an hour rather than a morning.
How Golf in Pembroke Pines Is Arranged
Golf here is a driving map, not a walking one, and the four in-city courses sit at four corners of 34 square miles. Pembroke Lakes is central, next to the city's tennis courts and pool. Grand Palms is west, wrapped around a hotel. Flamingo Lakes sits off Flamingo West Drive, and Hollybrook is far east behind the gate of a 55-plus condominium community.
The terrain never changes in southwest Broward: dead flat, water on a lot of holes, and warm-season grass that runs fast when it is dry. Everything outside the city limits is a short highway run, with Cooper City 10 to 15 minutes east, Davie about 15 minutes north, and Plantation 20 to 25 minutes up University Drive or Flamingo Road. That ring matters, because when the municipal course fills on a February Saturday the next real option is a drive away.
Courses in Pembroke Pines You Can Play Without a Member
Pembroke Lakes Golf and Racquet Club: The Municipal Round
Pembroke Lakes Golf and Racquet Club is the course a visitor can count on, because the City of Pembroke Pines owns it. It opened to the public in 1969, went through a $7 million renovation in 2007, and plays as a John Sanford design with Paspalum Supreme turf, coquina waste areas and six sets of tees. Six sets is the detail a beginner should notice, because a high handicap is not punished here.
The practice area is better than the course's low profile suggests: a chipping green, a practice bunker, a grass driving range tee and an oversized putting green. Nine hard and five clay tennis courts, a pool and Club Nineteen Restaurant share the site, and the restaurant is open to the public rather than members only. Call 954-431-4144 for golf.
Grand Palms Golf and Country Club: Twenty-Seven Holes and a Resort Behind Them
Grand Palms Golf and Country Club is the stiffest test in the city and the only course attached to a hotel. Three nines named Grand, Royal and Sabal combine into three 18-hole routings, and the Grand and Royal combination runs 6,813 yards from the gold tees at a 73.3 rating and a 142 slope. The silver tees bring the same holes down to 5,495 yards.
Play the white or silver tees unless you are a single digit, because a 142 slope on flat ground means water and bunkering do all the defending. The aquatic driving range plays from a front and a rear position, carts carry Par View GPS, and PGA-certified lessons are sold on site. Booking a room is the surest way to lock a weekend tee time, which is why the resort also turns up in our guide to where to stay in Pembroke Pines.
Semi-Private Clubs That May Take Outside Play
Flamingo Lakes Country Club: Book Online Before You Drive Out
Flamingo Lakes Country Club on SW Flamingo West Drive is semi-private, so outside play is possible but never guaranteed. The club sells membership tiers, takes tee times online and runs its own mobile app. The facility operates 7am to 5pm, and it publishes no par or yardage of its own, so phone 954-435-6110 before committing a foursome to it.
Cooper Colony Country Club: The Closest Option East
Cooper Colony Country Club sits in Cooper City, 10 to 15 minutes east of central Pembroke Pines, and it is the nearest course over the city line. It is semi-private too, with a far smaller review footprint in the golf directories than Jacaranda or Pembroke Lakes, which reads as a quiet club rather than a busy daily-fee track. Call ahead about outside play instead of turning up with clubs in the trunk.
Hollybrook Golf and Tennis Club and the Resident-Only Question
Hollybrook Golf and Tennis Club has the most golf at any single address in Pembroke Pines and the tightest access. The east-side club, open since 1968, runs an 18-hole par-72 USGA-approved championship course plus a full 18-hole executive course, with a recently upgraded driving range and a restaurant overlooking the holes.
Hollybrook is a 55-plus condominium community and the golf is primarily for residents. The club has previously opened championship play to the wider community during a defined seasonal window, while golf directories list it as private, so the sources disagree. Phone the pro shop at 954-431-4545 and ask about current outside-play policy before planning a round around it.
Public Golf Within a Twenty-Five Minute Drive
Jacaranda Golf Club in Plantation is the best course a Pembroke Pines golfer can realistically play outside the city, about 20 to 25 minutes north. The East course is the longer layout with generous undulating fairways and has hosted PGA Tour Q-School and US Open qualifying, while the West trades distance for water and tight bunkering. Paspalum tees and fairways, five sets of tees, and a pro shop open 6:30am to 6:30pm daily.
Plantation Preserve Golf Course and Club is the other northern option, run by the City of Plantation Parks and Recreation department. Municipal ownership is the point, because no member is needed to book. The course website did not respond while this guide was researched, so call through the City of Plantation for tee times rather than trusting a directory listing.
Davie Golf and Country Club is public, roughly 15 minutes away, and it is the walk-on answer when Pembroke Lakes is booked out on a winter weekend. Confirm the tee sheet by phone, since public courses this close to the city fill with the Broward snowbird crowd from January through March.
Range Time When You Do Not Have Four Hours
AllGolf at C.B. Smith Park is the practical answer for an hour of swings. The range sits inside the 299-acre county regional park off Flamingo Road, so one person can hit balls while everyone else uses the lake trails, the batting cages or the courts. Range only, no course, and the park charges a per-vehicle entrance fee on weekends and holidays.
Topgolf Miami Gardens, about 15 minutes south, is the other version: climate-controlled hitting bays, target games and golf as an evening out. Bays go first-come on weekend nights and the wait after 7pm on a Friday can pass an hour, so arrive by 4pm. South Florida humidity is hard on grips and leather bags, which is why climate controlled storage in Pembroke Pines beats a garage for anything you are not using weekly.
Weather, Tee Times and What Local Golfers Plan Around
Season dictates everything. Weather Spark puts the hot stretch from May 29 to September 30 with daily highs above 87F and August peaking at 90F, while January averages a 76F high. January through March the courses are pleasant and packed; June through September they are wide open and brutal after 10am.
Summer play means an early tee time or none. Afternoon thunderstorms are close to daily from June through September, and the Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30 with a September 10 peak, according to the National Hurricane Center. Book refundable travel between mid-August and mid-October, and check the forecast five days out rather than the night before.
Every course here is a cart course in practice. The ground is flat enough to walk, but heat rather than terrain is what stops people, and winter pace of play assumes carts. Snowbirds who fly home in April often leave the bag behind rather than check it twice, and a 5×5 storage locker holds clubs, shoes and a push cart.
One more date to watch: the City of Pembroke Pines events schedule lists a Mayor's Golf Tournament on March 13 and ParTee at Night dates in March and November, the weekends when tee sheets and parking at the municipal course get tight. Our best time to visit Pembroke Pines guide covers the wider seasonal picture.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best public golf courses in Broward County, Florida?
For a Pembroke Pines golfer, the reliable public and municipal options are Pembroke Lakes Golf and Racquet Club in the city, Plantation Preserve run by the City of Plantation, Davie Golf and Country Club about 15 minutes north, and Jacaranda Golf Club in Plantation, which is semi-private but takes public bookings and carries the strongest tournament history of the group.
What are the green fees at Pembroke Lakes?
Green fees at Pembroke Lakes Golf and Racquet Club change with the season, the day and the tee time, and winter rates across Broward run well above summer ones. The city publishes current rates and tee sheets rather than fixing one price, so check the course page or call the pro shop at 954-431-4144 before you budget a round.
Which Pembroke Pines golf course is best for beginners?
Pembroke Lakes Golf and Racquet Club. Six sets of tees let a new golfer play a length that matches their swing, the practice area includes a grass range tee, a chipping green and a practice bunker, and a municipal course carries no membership pressure. Grand Palms is the opposite, since a 142 slope from the gold tees punishes a beginner quickly.
How do I book a tee time at Pembroke Lakes Golf?
Call the golf shop at 954-431-4144. Pembroke Lakes is a City of Pembroke Pines facility, so the golf operation sets its own tee sheet and the clubhouse restaurant follows those hours rather than normal restaurant ones. Book several days ahead for a weekend morning between January and March, when the winter crowd takes the first tee times first.
Can a visitor play Flamingo Lakes Country Club?
Sometimes. Flamingo Lakes is semi-private, so outside play depends on the day and the membership calendar. The club takes tee times online and through its own mobile app, and the facility runs 7am to 5pm. Phone 954-435-6110 first, and if the answer is no, Pembroke Lakes is 10 minutes away and open to anyone.
Where Pembroke Pines Golfers Keep the Rest of the Gear
Clubs are the easy part. Bikes, beach chairs, holiday bins and a second set of irons are what fill a Broward garage until the car lives in the driveway. Value Store It's Sheridan Village facility rents month to month with no long-term contract, so a unit can cover one season or several.
Sizes run up through a 5×10 unit that swallows golf gear plus bikes and camping bins, and a 10×5 unit that puts the same footprint behind a wider opening for awkward loads. A 10×10 storage unit holds roughly a one-bedroom's worth of furniture during a renovation, and a 10×20 unit covers a whole house between closings. The unit size guide compares them side by side.
If a move into Pembroke Pines is what has your clubs sitting in a hallway, Value Store It can take the overflow while you settle in. From here, our roundup of things to do in Pembroke Pines covers the rest of the city, and the day trips from Pembroke Pines guide handles the weekends when nobody wants to see another fairway.
