Black Diamond Ranch - The Ranch Course

The Ranch Course is one of the layouts Tom Fazio built across the 1,300-plus acres of Black Diamond Ranch in Lecanto, Florida, a private community holding roughly 45 holes of his design. It opened in 1997, a decade after the property's celebrated Quarry Course, and takes a different character from its famous sibling: rather than the old limestone quarry canyons (home to the Quarry Course's dramatic holes 13-17), the Ranch rolls over unusual Florida elevation change through meadows, waste bunkers, oaks and spring-fed lakes. Fazio has singled out its closing stretch as a personal high point, calling holes 16 through 18 the three best finishing holes he has ever designed, a serpentine par-five 16th, a long par-three 17th, and an uphill 18th climbing to the clubhouse. Many members quietly prefer the Ranch, praising its strategy and variety.