The Island Course is Innisbrook’s most underrated layout and the one that regular guests consistently rank as equal to, or harder than, the Copperhead. It winds through cypress swamp and pine forest along the banks of Lake Innisbrook, it’s been stretched and renovated into a legitimate championship challenge, and it ends on one of the most memorable par-4 finishing holes at any resort in Florida.
The History
E. Lawrence Packard designed the Island Course alongside the other three Innisbrook layouts in the early 1970s, building it on terrain that followed the natural contours of Lake Innisbrook and the cypress-filled wetlands around it. The course has been renovated and lengthened several times since, most recently in an update that added yardage to the par-4s and par-5s and brought the layout to its current 7,194-yard championship configuration. It has hosted multiple USGA events over the years and is considered by serious golfers at the resort to be the strongest second round after the Copperhead.
The Golf
The Island Course plays to 7,194 yards as a par 72, and from the first hole the lake makes itself known. The 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 7th holes all border Lake Innisbrook along the front nine, with the par-3 4th, named Lone Cypress for the solitary tree that frames the hole, one of the most photographed par-3s on the property. The 7th is the signature hole of the front nine: a par-5 that climbs uphill past cypress and pine to an elevated green, requiring three precise shots to reach in regulation.
The back nine opens with the par-4 10th demanding a long carry over water before the fairway opens up, and the course tightens progressively through the closing holes before delivering one of the most memorable finishes in Florida resort golf. The 18th is a dogleg par-4 of moderate length that requires a well-judged approach shot to an island green, the hole the course was named for, surrounded entirely by water. The natural setting throughout, with almost no real estate in view from any fairway, gives the Island Course a wilderness character that makes it feel genuinely remote despite being on a resort property minutes from Clearwater.
Want to pair the Island Course with Copperhead on your Innisbrook trip? Coastal Golfaway has been packaging stay-and-play golf vacations since 1986. Reach out and we’ll put it together.