$40 for golf!? Aiming my Nova towards Southern Oaks G.C. Lake City, FL

The Southern Oaks Golf Club in Lake City, FL is a good deal at $40 green fees to the public. It’s a pretty good course, and the only real decent 18-holer in this area, between Jacksonville and Tallahassee, south of Valdosta and north of Ocala.

The course has a slope rating of 135, so it is not a pushover, especially from the back tees. It’s right off Interstate-75, so there is some traffic noise, but the course slowly works its way out of noise range and into some good, north Florida backwoods. It also throws a variety of different looks, for being such a traditional course. The greens are a scaled-down, not-quite-so-punishing version of Pinehurst No. 2, where you can easily blow a putt by the hole and into the fringe.

- Cheap Bastard