Tell a neighbor in Southern Woods you're headed to the club on Friday night, and there's a good chance they still say "Southern Woods" back to you, even though the sign out front hasn't said that in years. The course goes by Citrus National Golf Club now. Half the village still calls it something else.
That naming lag is not just a quirk of muscle memory. It is a decent clue that a lot of residents haven't clocked how much has actually changed at the clubhouse since the rename, and what's happening there on a Friday night now looks nothing like what most people remember from the old Southern Woods days.
The Sign Changed. The Name Didn't.
The course opened in 1992, designed by Hall of Fame golfer Hale Irwin with architect Dick Phelps, and for its first several decades it operated as Southern Woods Golf Club, the anchor amenity of the village that still carries its name. At some point under new ownership, the club rebranded to Citrus National Golf Club. The golf world noticed the ownership change before most of the neighborhood did. GolfNow, TeeOff, and half a dozen tee-time booking sites still describe it as "the former Southern Woods Golf Club" in their course listings, which tells you the old name has enough staying power that even the golf industry can't fully let go of it.
For residents, the practical effect is that a lot of the language around the club is stuck a few years in the past. Directory listings, real estate descriptions, and casual conversation all still default to Southern Woods. The building at 1501 Corkwood Blvd hasn't moved and the fairways haven't changed shape, but the operation behind the counter has, and that's the part worth catching up on.
What Actually Changed Under the New Name
The most visible shift is at the bar, not the tee box. Citrus National renovated its sports bar and switched to a BBQ-themed grill menu, a departure from the more traditional country club dining that longtime members associate with the old Southern Woods clubhouse. Friday nights now run on a Happy Hour format with rotating menus and live entertainment, the kind of programmed weekly social calendar that a lot of private clubs don't bother building.
The golf side changed too, in a way that matters more to actual play than to branding. PGA Golf Professional and General Manager Scott Yates has been explicit about the club's approach to cart access:
"We are never cart paths only."
That's a small operational detail, but if you've played golf in Florida during a wet stretch, you know it's the difference between an afternoon round happening or not. A sandy base helps with drainage, and the club leans on that instead of defaulting to cart-path restrictions the way a lot of Nature Coast courses do after rain.
Put together, the changes read less like a cosmetic rebrand and more like a different business model wearing the same golf course. The old Southern Woods identity was built around member-only tradition. What's there now leans into public access, a livelier bar scene, and a weekly rhythm that doesn't require you to have grown up in the club to feel like you belong on a Friday night.
You Don't Need a Golf Membership to Feel the Shift
None of this requires full golf membership to access, which is worth knowing if you've written off the club because you assumed it was all-or-nothing. The broader Sugarmill Woods club network runs several membership paths, from Full Golf access across Sugarmill Woods Country Club, Citrus National, and Oak Village, down to an Oak Village-only membership that covers dining, fitness, pool, tennis, and pickleball without golf dues attached. There are seasonal versions of both, built for residents who split their year between here and somewhere else.
That flexibility matters for Southern Woods specifically, since the village sits closest to Citrus National but residents also have standing access to the Oak Village Sports Complex, with its tennis courts, pickleball courts, lap pool, and fitness room. A resident who has no interest in golf can still show up for the Friday night bar scene at Citrus National, then spend Saturday morning on the pickleball courts at Oak Village, all without ever paying full golf dues. The club network was built to let people opt into the pieces they actually want, and the rebrand hasn't changed that structure even though it changed a lot of what happens inside the clubhouse itself.
Off the Fairway, the Village Keeps Its Own Rhythm
Not every Friday night in Southern Woods ends up at the clubhouse, and the village has its own small commercial strip that doesn't rely on club membership at all. Richie Cheesesteak On The Go and Socos House of Eats cover the casual dining end for residents who want something closer to home than a drive into Homosassa proper, and Yoga Ray Fitness gives the village a workout option that has nothing to do with the country club circuit. None of these businesses rebranded or changed hands the way the golf course did, which makes them a useful contrast. They're the steady backdrop while the anchor amenity down the road went through a name change, new ownership, and a full identity shift in how it operates.
That contrast is really the point. Southern Woods hasn't changed much as a place to live day to day. What changed is the biggest gathering spot in the village, and that change happened quietly enough that plenty of residents are still operating on old information. If the last time you walked into that clubhouse it still felt like the private, tradition-bound Southern Woods Golf Club of a decade ago, it's probably time for a second look. The Friday night crowd there now isn't the same one your parents' generation remembers, and neither is the menu.
The name on the sign may take a while longer to catch up with how the village actually talks about the place. In the meantime, the Friday Happy Hour keeps running whether you call it Citrus National or not.
If you're weighing a move to Southern Woods or just want the full rundown on what village life looks like day to day, from clubhouse access to the type of homes on offer, the team at Sugarmill Woods knows this village block by block and is glad to walk you through it.
