St. James Bay

Carrabelle sits on the forgotten coast — Florida's unhurried panhandle stretch between Apalachicola and the Forgotten Coast proper, where the Gulf of Mexico meets pine flatwoods and tidal marshes rather than the high-rise density most people associate with Florida golf. St. James Bay is a resort course here, which means visitors arriving from Tallahassee (roughly an hour east) or from the beach towns to the west find themselves in genuinely wild, low-key Florida — osprey, herons, and salt air rather than manicured suburban corridors.

Resort courses in settings like this tend to live and die by their surroundings, and the Forgotten Coast delivers. The terrain is flat, as coastal Florida flatlands are, but the natural framing — water, marsh grasses, longleaf pine — can give a layout character that manufactured elevation changes never quite replicate. Par 72 is the standard canvas here, offering a full test without demanding specialist scoring.

This corner of the panhandle draws travelers who want Gulf Coast fishing, quiet beaches, and a round of golf that feels like it belongs to the place rather than dropped on top of it.