ChampionsGate Golf: The National and International Courses in Depth
Two Greg Norman courses, two opposite arguments: the International's firm, fast Australian links and the National's sheltered Florida parkland — design intent, restoration, and the Father/Son tournament years, in depth.
6 minute read
Most resort golf developments give you one course and a marketing department. ChampionsGate gives you two Greg Norman courses that appear to have been designed on different continents — because, in effect, they were. The International is Norman’s coastal links from his native Australia, transplanted to Osceola County. The National is its opposite: a traditional American parkland course threaded through 200 acres of woodland, wetland and former orange grove. Playing both, back to back, is the sharpest way to understand what Norman was doing here — and it is the subject of this in-depth guide from the ChampionsGate beat.
Both courses belong to ChampionsGate Golf Club at 8575 White Shark Boulevard, the golf operation of the Omni Orlando Resort. Our shorter ChampionsGate golf guide covers the practical basics; this piece goes deeper, into design intent, hole character and tournament history. For the full picture of the community, see the ChampionsGate area portal and the ChampionsGate category archive.
One designer, two arguments
Greg Norman’s design firm built both courses, which opened in 2000, and the contrast between them is deliberate rather than accidental. Omni’s own description of the 36 holes is that they were “designed to offer golfers a blend of traditional and modern elements.” In practice that means a choice every morning at the clubhouse: the exposed, ground-game test of the International, or the sheltered, target-golf test of the National. The two courses share a clubhouse, a practice ground and a shuttle from the resort — the golf club runs a continuous cart shuttle to and from the hotel — but almost nothing about how they play.
The International: a links, minus the sea
The International is the longer and harder of the two: 7,363 yards of coastal links-style golf that Omni describes as a rustic “‘down under’ style” course drawn from Norman’s homeland. Its defining features, as the club itself lists them, are generous fairways “littered with hundreds of pot bunkers,” water features on every hole, wind-swept dunes, tall grass-topped rough and large, undulating greens. It plays, in the club’s words, “firm and fast” — the ball is meant to run, bounce and be played along the ground, in the manner of the British Isles courses it imitates, rather than flown to a soft target.
That firmness is engineered, not accidental. A complete restoration of the International — the first enhancement to the course since it debuted, carried out under the direction of the Greg Norman Golf Course Design group — rebuilt all 18 greens and the greenside bunker complexes back to their original sizes, look and feel. The greens were regrassed with Champion Bermuda in place of the original Floradwarf turf, and green surrounds and par-three tee surfaces were switched to 419 Bermuda. The club says the work recovered more than 42,000 square feet of greens surface, opening up several new pin positions, while a number of fairway bunkers were removed to clean up sight lines off the tee. The stated aim was exactly what links golf demands: firmer, faster conditions, consistency year-round, and larger, more contoured putting surfaces.
The recognition has followed the restoration. In 2025 the International was ranked No. 10 in the Top 25 Public Courses in the U.S. by Golfers’ Choice, according to Omni’s golf pages, and the course has previously been listed at No. 9 in Golf Advisor’s top overall ranked courses.
The tournament years
The International’s tournament pedigree is real. Omni bills it as a PGA Tour tournament course, and from 2003 to 2008 ChampionsGate hosted the Father/Son Challenge — the family team event now known as the PNC Championship — pairing PGA and Champions Tour players with their sons, and in some years daughters or grandsons, over 36 holes. Links Magazine’s survey of Norman designs you can play notes the ChampionsGate winners in that run included teams led by Hale Irwin, Larry Nelson and Bernhard Langer. The event left for the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club when it returned from a hiatus in 2012, but the International remains a working tournament venue: the golf club hosts the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association’s yearly tournament, with over 300 players, and Omni’s Generation Cup — a family tournament series run with the PGA of America — is scheduled at the resort on December 20, 2026.
The National: Florida, as it was
Turn away from the links and the National makes the opposite case. It is a traditional American-style course that, in Omni’s description, “winds through 200 acres of secluded woodlands, wetlands and former orange groves.” Where the International is open to the sky and the wind, the National is enclosed — mature pine, oak and cypress, spring-fed lakes, and fairways and greens protected by bunkering. Its putting surfaces are the mirror image of the International’s sprawling greens: small, challenging targets that reward position over power, with clever doglegs and water in play across the round.
The National received the same treatment as its sibling in the resort’s two-year course rejuvenation, completed as part of Omni’s $40 million expansion in 2017: its greens were sprigged with Champion Bermuda, its bunkers renovated and its greens restored to their original size and feel — the first such work on either course since they opened in 2000. Omni’s golf travel writing sums up the intended contrast neatly: the National offers greens “kept in tour condition, scenic water hazards, and doglegs,” while the International is the place to find a links experience “without having to travel overseas.”
The supporting cast
The 36 championship holes are not the whole golf plant. Champions 9 is a lighted nine-hole, par-three pitch-and-putt course — the area’s only lighted par-3, per the club — aimed at families and short-game practice. Crane’s Adventure Golf, named for the resort’s signature sandhill crane, is an 18-hole miniature course near the pools. Eagles Edge, the Toptracer driving-range venue with 30 hitting bays, is covered in our Eagles Edge guide. ChampionsGate is also the world headquarters of the Leadbetter Golf Academy, a fact Omni noted in its renovation announcements — instruction is available for individuals, families and groups through the pro shop. How all of this is open to non-guests is the subject of our companion piece, ChampionsGate Day Guests: What’s Open to the Public, and the resort that surrounds the courses is profiled in The Omni Orlando Resort: The Anchor That Carries ChampionsGate.
Which course, which day?
For a first visit, the honest answer is that the International is the headline and the National is the connoisseur’s round. Play the International when the wind is up and you want the full links examination — bump-and-run approaches, pot bunkers that punish rather than inconvenience, and greens big enough to three-putt from the wrong tier. Play the National when you want shade, shelter and a course that asks you to shape shots through trees rather than survive exposure. Either way, you are playing Norman arguing with himself — and ChampionsGate is more interesting for it.
Sources & notes
Course descriptions, yardage, restoration detail, rankings and facilities are from Omni Orlando Resort’s official golf pages (omnihotels.com), including its International Course page and its 2016–2017 renovation and expansion releases. Father/Son Challenge dates at ChampionsGate (2003–2008) are from the event’s published venue history and Links Magazine’s survey of Greg Norman designs. Green-fee and rental specifics change seasonally and are covered, as published by the club, in our day-guests companion piece. No rates are quoted in this article.
Photo: The 18th hole of the International Course at ChampionsGate, with the Omni Orlando Resort behind it. Photo by Bernard Gagnon, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0. Treated with the Orlando Citizen house photo grade; no content altered.
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