Karoo at Cabot Citrus Farms

Karoo at Cabot Citrus Farms

Brooksville, Florida · Par 72 · ~7,100 yards · Resort

Cabot has built its reputation on remote, ambitious golf properties. Cape Breton in Nova Scotia. Saint Lucia in the Caribbean. Revelstoke in British Columbia. The pattern is consistent: find dramatic land in an unexpected location, hire talented designers, and build something that justifies the journey. Citrus Farms, situated on former agricultural land in Hernando County, Florida, is the company's first project in the American Southeast, and Karoo is its opening course.

Kyle Franz, a protege of Tom Doak who has built a growing reputation for sensitive, terrain-driven design, routed Karoo through land that was once planted with citrus groves. The sandy soil and gentle rolls of the former farmland provided a natural foundation for golf, and Franz used that foundation without overbuilding on it. The course moves through the landscape with a restraint that trusts the ground to provide interest rather than relying on constructed features to manufacture it.

The routing takes advantage of the property's natural elevation changes, which are modest by mountain-course standards but significant for Florida. The sandy subsoil drains quickly and supports the kind of firm, fast playing surfaces that modern minimalist architects favour. Approaches can be played along the ground as readily as through the air, and the green complexes reward imagination in the short game.

Franz's green sites are the course's most compelling individual features. They vary in size, shape, and defensibility in ways that ask different questions from hole to hole, and they accept the running approach with a naturalness that reflects the sandy soil beneath them. The putting surfaces carry enough internal movement to make reading them a genuine challenge, particularly for golfers accustomed to the flatter, softer greens that predominate at Florida resort courses. The bunkering is restrained, positioned for strategic effect rather than visual intimidation, and the waste areas that border several holes serve as both hazard and aesthetic transition between maintained turf and native landscape.

The par 3s display particular range. The shorter holes ask for precise distance control into well-defended targets, while the longer ones require the golfer to choose between an aggressive line at the pin and a safer play to the fat part of the green. Collectively, they suggest a designer who understands that par-3 design is a discipline unto itself, a quality that speaks to Franz's training under Doak, whose par 3s are among the most celebrated in modern architecture.

Karoo opened in 2023 alongside The Roost, a par-3 course designed by a collaborative group of architects. Together they established Cabot Citrus Farms as a golf destination, though the property remains in its early stages of development. Accommodation options are expanding, with roughly 50 rooms currently available and plans for additional capacity in the coming years. The full scope of the resort's offerings is still taking shape, and visitors should expect the polish and programming to deepen over the coming seasons. Those who visit now will experience the course at its most intimate, before the property's reputation is fully established and the tee sheet fills accordingly.

The course itself, however, is complete and fully realized. Franz delivered a design that holds its own in the context of central Florida's increasingly strong golf landscape, a region now defined by Streamsong roughly 90 miles to the southeast and this emerging Cabot property to the northwest. The two destinations are different in character but complementary in quality, and a trip that includes both is the strongest argument for central Florida as a serious golf destination.

Green fees are estimated at $250 to $350, though as a newer property the pricing structure may continue to evolve. Walking is encouraged. The course's sandy terrain and natural turf conditions make it a comfortable walk, and the experience is enhanced by the pace and rhythm that walking provides.

Karoo is early in its life, and its ranking and reputation will develop as more golfers experience it and as the surrounding resort infrastructure matures. What is already evident is the quality of the land, the intelligence of the routing, and the ambition of the project. Cabot has a track record of building properties that age well and improve with time. The early evidence at Citrus Farms suggests this pattern will hold.