As a native Floridian, one of the good things about this job is re-visiting areas of the state I haven’t seen for 20 years. Despite the fact I should have learned by now, I’m always a little surprised at the changes.

I used to come to Lakeland as a teenager, to visit relatives. It was a classic small, easy-going central Florida city, with orange groves and a nice, slow pace of life. Now, it’s a bustling area with about a quarter of a million people in its environs. There are traffic jams.

The good part is that it really hasn’t succumbed to the garish, Orlando and Disney sprawl. The Lakeland area has its own economy and identity. No trashy theme parks here, just a city that’s managing its growth pretty nicely.

And it has some good golf. Many of the courses are of the old-fashioned variety, and it has an excellent muni in Cleveland Heights that’s been there since 1925. Other excellent courses include Southern Dunes, Diamondback, Highlands Reserve, the new Golf Club at Bridgewater and Eaglebrooke, just to name a few.

Much of Polk County is still rural and on some courses you can literally pick the fruit that grows on the course trees. I’ll visit here again for sure.

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