The toughest course in the Punta Gorda, FL metro area is Coral Creek Club, at slope 140 — ahead of Riverwood Golf Club at slope 139 and Aileron Golf Club at slope 134.
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.
Punta Gorda, 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 | Coral Creek Club | slope 140 |
| 2 | Riverwood Golf Club | slope 139 |
| 3 | Aileron Golf Club | slope 134 |
| 4 | Seminole Lake Country Club | slope 130 |
| 5 | Palms at Rotonda Golf Country Club | slope 129 |
| 5 | Twin Isles Country Club | slope 129 |
| 7 | St Andrews South Golf Club | slope 123 |
| 8 | Pinemoor West Golf Club | slope 122 |
| 9 | Blue Heron Golf Club | slope 120 |
| 10 | Blue Heron Pines | slope 110 |
| 11 | Kings Gate Golf Club | slope 98 |
| 11 | Maple Leaf Golf Country Club | slope 98 |
| 13 | The Cove of Rotonda Golf Center | slope 89 |
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 | Riverwood Golf Club | rating 74.8 |
| 2 | Coral Creek Club | rating 74.4 |
| 3 | Aileron Golf Club | rating 74.1 |
| 4 | Twin Isles Country Club | rating 72.9 |
| 5 | Palms at Rotonda Golf Country Club | rating 71.6 |
| 6 | Seminole Lake Country Club | rating 71.5 |
| 7 | Pinemoor West Golf Club | rating 70.6 |
| 8 | St Andrews South Golf Club | rating 68.3 |
| 9 | Blue Heron Golf Club | rating 66.9 |
| 10 | Blue Heron Pines | rating 60.0 |
| 11 | Maple Leaf Golf Country Club | rating 59.1 |
| 12 | Kings Gate Golf Club | rating 58.2 |
| 12 | The Cove of Rotonda Golf Center | rating 58.2 |
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 23 courses with a published scorecard
| # | Course | Longest |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aileron Golf Club | 7,235 yds |
| 2 | Heritage Landing Golf Country Club | 7,070 yds |
| 3 | Riverwood Golf Club | 7,004 yds |
| 4 | Coral Creek Club | 6,961 yds |
| 5 | Twin Isles Country Club | 6,722 yds |
| 6 | Port Charlotte Golf Club | 6,690 yds |
| 7 | Seminole Lake Country Club | 6,547 yds |
| 8 | Palms at Rotonda Golf Country Club | 6,511 yds |
| 9 | Lemon Bay Golf Club | 6,264 yds |
| 10 | Hills at Rotonda Golf Country Club | 6,260 yds |
| 11 | St Andrews South Golf Club | 6,103 yds |
| 12 | Pinemoor West Golf Club | 6,057 yds |
| 13 | Deep Creek Golf Club | 5,836 yds |
| 14 | Blue Heron Golf Club | 5,558 yds |
| 15 | Seminole Lakes Country Club | 4,280 yds |
| 16 | Cape Haze Links at Rotonda Golf Country Club | 4,197 yds |
| 17 | Oyster Creek Golf Country Club | 4,076 yds |
| 18 | Maple Leaf Golf Country Club | 3,871 yds |
| 19 | The Cove of Rotonda Golf Center | 3,600 yds |
| 20 | Rotonda Golf Country Club Long Marsh The Long Meadow | 3,552 yds |
| 21 | Rotonda Golf Country Club Long Marsh The White Marsh | 3,551 yds |
| 22 | Blue Heron Pines | 3,180 yds |
| 23 | Kings Gate Golf Club | 3,176 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 23 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 13 courses with an opening year
| # | Course | Oldest |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aileron Golf Club | opened 1976 |
| 1 | Maple Leaf Golf Country Club | opened 1976 |
| 3 | Palms at Rotonda Golf Country Club | opened 1980 |
| 3 | Pinemoor West Golf Club | opened 1980 |
| 5 | St Andrews South Golf Club | opened 1981 |
| 6 | Twin Isles Country Club | opened 1985 |
| 7 | Kings Gate Golf Club | opened 1989 |
| 8 | Blue Heron Golf Club | opened 1991 |
| 9 | Blue Heron Pines | opened 1992 |
| 9 | Riverwood Golf Club | opened 1992 |
| 11 | Rotonda Golf Country Club Long Marsh The Long Meadow | opened 1999 |
| 11 | Rotonda Golf Country Club Long Marsh The White Marsh | opened 1999 |
| 13 | Coral Creek Club | opened 2001 |
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 23 courses with a coordinate we could sample
| # | Course | Highest above sea level |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aileron Golf Club | 24 ft |
| 2 | Kings Gate Golf Club | 23 ft |
| 3 | Deep Creek Golf Club | 21 ft |
| 4 | Maple Leaf Golf Country Club | 17 ft |
| 5 | Blue Heron Golf Club | 16 ft |
| 5 | Blue Heron Pines | 16 ft |
| 7 | Rotonda Golf Country Club Long Marsh The Long Meadow | 14 ft |
| 7 | Rotonda Golf Country Club Long Marsh The White Marsh | 14 ft |
| 9 | Coral Creek Club | 13 ft |
| 9 | Pinemoor West Golf Club | 13 ft |
| 9 | Port Charlotte Golf Club | 13 ft |
| 12 | Cape Haze Links at Rotonda Golf Country Club | 10 ft |
| 12 | Oyster Creek Golf Country Club | 10 ft |
| 12 | The Cove of Rotonda Golf Center | 10 ft |
| 15 | Heritage Landing Golf Country Club | 9 ft |
| 15 | Hills at Rotonda Golf Country Club | 9 ft |
| 15 | Palms at Rotonda Golf Country Club | 9 ft |
| 15 | Seminole Lake Country Club | 9 ft |
| 15 | Seminole Lakes Country Club | 9 ft |
| 20 | St Andrews South Golf Club | 7 ft |
| 20 | Twin Isles Country Club | 7 ft |
| 22 | Lemon Bay Golf Club | 6 ft |
| 22 | Riverwood 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.