The toughest course in the Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin, FL metro area is Regatta Bay Golf Yacht Club, at slope 147 — ahead of Burnt Pine at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort at slope 144 and Windswept Dunes Golf Course at slope 143.
All 13 courses in the area with a USGA slope rating for its men’s tees are ranked below, along with 5 more lists: hardest from the tips, longest, widest tee spread, oldest, highest above sea level.
Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin, FL is a metro area as the U.S. Office of Management and Budget delineates it — the boundary is theirs, not ours. Each list counts only the courses in the area that publish that figure, so the totals differ between them. Slope and course rating measure difficulty, not quality — nothing here ranks how good a course is.
Toughest test
— all 13 courses with a USGA slope rating for its men’s tees
| # | Course | Toughest test |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Regatta Bay Golf Yacht Club | slope 147 |
| 2 | Burnt Pine at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort | slope 144 |
| 3 | Windswept Dunes Golf Course | slope 143 |
| 4 | Baytowne at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort | slope 138 |
| 5 | Raven at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort | slope 137 |
| 6 | Eagle Springs Golf Course | slope 135 |
| 6 | Links at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort | slope 135 |
| 8 | Bonifay Country Club Pensacola Destin | slope 134 |
| 9 | Gator Lakes Golf Course | slope 133 |
| 10 | Indian Bayou Golf Club | slope 132 |
| 10 | Santa Rosa Golf Beach Club | slope 132 |
| 12 | Blackstone Golf Course | slope 130 |
| 13 | The Links Golf Club | slope 123 |
The highest USGA slope rating published for any of the men’s tee sets. Slope rates difficulty for a bogey golfer relative to a scratch golfer — a rated figure issued by the golf association, not an opinion about the course. Men’s ratings only, because a tee is rated separately for men and for women and the two scales do not compare; a course rated only for women is not in the running rather than converted.
Hardest from the tips
— all 13 courses with a USGA course rating for its men’s tees
| # | Course | Hardest from the tips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Windswept Dunes Golf Course | rating 76.8 |
| 2 | Burnt Pine at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort | rating 74.7 |
| 3 | Indian Bayou Golf Club | rating 74.6 |
| 4 | Regatta Bay Golf Yacht Club | rating 74.2 |
| 5 | Raven at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort | rating 73.8 |
| 6 | Baytowne at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort | rating 73.2 |
| 7 | Gator Lakes Golf Course | rating 73.1 |
| 8 | Bonifay Country Club Pensacola Destin | rating 72.7 |
| 8 | Eagle Springs Golf Course | rating 72.7 |
| 10 | Santa Rosa Golf Beach Club | rating 72.3 |
| 11 | Links at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort | rating 72.2 |
| 12 | Blackstone Golf Course | rating 71.8 |
| 13 | The Links Golf Club | rating 68.8 |
The highest USGA course rating published for any of the men’s tee sets — the score a scratch golfer is expected to shoot. Men’s ratings only, for the same reason as slope: the men’s and women’s ratings of one tee are different measurements. It measures difficulty and nothing else; it is not a quality score and never orders these pages by how good a course is.
Longest
— all 18 courses with a published scorecard
| # | Course | Longest |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Windswept Dunes Golf Course | 7,752 yds |
| 2 | Camp Creek Golf Club | 7,120 yds |
| 3 | Indian Bayou Golf Club | 7,078 yds |
| 4 | Burnt Pine at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort | 6,980 yds |
| 5 | Raven at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort | 6,931 yds |
| 6 | Bonifay Country Club Pensacola Destin | 6,930 yds |
| 7 | Rocky Bayou Country Club | 6,901 yds |
| 8 | Eglin Afb Golf Course Falcon | 6,861 yds |
| 9 | Regatta Bay Golf Yacht Club | 6,840 yds |
| 10 | Gator Lakes Golf Course | 6,839 yds |
| 11 | Baytowne at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort | 6,804 yds |
| 12 | Santa Rosa Golf Beach Club | 6,771 yds |
| 13 | Links at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort | 6,710 yds |
| 14 | Eagle Springs Golf Course | 6,647 yds |
| 15 | Blackstone Golf Course | 6,624 yds |
| 16 | Eglin Afb Golf Course Eagle | 6,609 yds |
| 17 | The Links Golf Club | 6,256 yds |
| 18 | The Golf Garden of Destin | 1,630 yds |
The longest tee set the course publishes, in yards from the tips. Compared against every course that publishes a scorecard — length is a measurement, not a verdict on the golf.
Widest tee spread
— all 18 courses with two or more tee sets of different lengths
Yards between the longest and shortest published tee sets — how far the course moves to fit a different player. Courses publishing a single tee set are not in the running, because one set is an unmeasured spread rather than a narrow one.
Oldest
— all 12 courses with an opening year
| # | Course | Oldest |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eagle Springs Golf Course | opened 1936 |
| 2 | Links at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort | opened 1971 |
| 3 | Bonifay Country Club Pensacola Destin | opened 1978 |
| 3 | Indian Bayou Golf Club | opened 1978 |
| 5 | Baytowne at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort | opened 1986 |
| 6 | The Golf Garden of Destin | opened 1992 |
| 7 | Burnt Pine at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort | opened 1994 |
| 8 | Regatta Bay Golf Yacht Club | opened 1996 |
| 9 | Raven at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort | opened 2000 |
| 10 | Windswept Dunes Golf Course | opened 2004 |
| 11 | Gator Lakes Golf Course | opened 2006 |
| 12 | Blackstone Golf Course | opened 2009 |
The year the course opened, as published. Ranked oldest first. An opening year is not a design credit and not a renovation date — a course that opened in 1921 and was rebuilt in 1998 still opened in 1921.
Highest above sea level
— all 18 courses with a coordinate we could sample
| # | Course | Highest above sea level |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eagle Springs Golf Course | 271 ft |
| 2 | Blackstone Golf Course | 247 ft |
| 3 | Windswept Dunes Golf Course | 82 ft |
| 4 | Eglin Afb Golf Course Eagle | 74 ft |
| 4 | Eglin Afb Golf Course Falcon | 74 ft |
| 6 | Rocky Bayou Country Club | 57 ft |
| 7 | Santa Rosa Golf Beach Club | 51 ft |
| 8 | Camp Creek Golf Club | 41 ft |
| 9 | Gator Lakes Golf Course | 34 ft |
| 10 | Bonifay Country Club Pensacola Destin | 23 ft |
| 10 | Indian Bayou Golf Club | 23 ft |
| 12 | Regatta Bay Golf Yacht Club | 15 ft |
| 13 | Baytowne at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort | 13 ft |
| 13 | The Golf Garden of Destin | 13 ft |
| 15 | Burnt Pine at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort | 10 ft |
| 15 | Raven at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort | 10 ft |
| 17 | Links at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort | 6 ft |
| 17 | The Links Golf Club | 6 ft |
Height above sea level at the course’s own published coordinate, sampled from the USGS 3DEP elevation model. THIS IS A FIGURE WE DERIVED, not one the course publishes — anybody can re-query the same public dataset at the same coordinate and get the same number, but no scorecard states it. Because every course carries a coordinate, this is the only board here whose field is nearly the whole database rather than the courses that publish a particular figure. Elevation changes how far a ball carries; it says nothing about whether a course is good.