FEATURE STORY
What exactly
is 'Florida
Golf?'
By Derek Duncan,
Senior Writer
ATLANTA, Ga. (Jan. 4, 2003) -- There's a belief in golf that a course is only as good as the land it's built on. While occasionally there are exceptions to this, such as when feats of engineering and tens of millions of dollars transform a desolate site in the desert into Shadow Creek, it's largely true that good properties yield good, or at least interesting, golf courses and bad properties make for bad or boring ones. And a survey of the landscapes of Cypress Point, Pine Valley, Ballybunion , and the Sand Hills reveals that exceptional properties can beget exceptional golf courses.
Where does this leave a state like Florida, where the highest points are frequently palm trees and homes don't have basements because they'd turn into indoor swimming pools due to the high water table? Handicapped from the beginning it would seem like every course built there is doomed to mediocrity.
Admit it, your idea of Florida golf is flat, of 18 holes through corridors of condos, doglegging around about 15 water hazards and countless bunkers. You wouldn't be completely at fault for believing this, either.
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Add to this the impressionable effect of the dozen or so courses that have been televised each year as hosts of various professional tour events, such as Doral's Blue Course, Bay Hill, PGA National's Champion's Course, the Stadium Course at the TPC of Sawgrass, etc. - none of which are built on particularly interesting landforms - and it's easy to understand the perception of Florida golf.
Certainly there's no comparison between Florida's limited landscapes and those from more voluptuous places like Hawaii, the mountains of Colorado, northern Michigan, or the hills of eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, but the perception can be misleading.
Architects will always struggle to find inspiration in flat places such as Naples (last year Michael Hurdzan and Dana Fry built a 50 foot high sand ridge "feature" at the private Calusa Pines) but at least some of the state' s better geological areas are coming into development. In truth there are some wonderfully rich golf environments that bear no resemblance to the common sites previously used. Many of these have notable elevations and strong natural features, advantageous sandy soil, or an attractive regional flavor, and they all refute the stereotype of "Florida golf."
Brooksville
Brooksville
is a just small
town about an
hour north of
Tampa that was
put on the golf
map when World Woods
Golf Club
opened nearly
10 years ago,
but due to its
success the
entire area
extending north
to Citrus County
and south to
the southern
border of Pasco
County, with
its beautifully
atypical landforms,
is simply called
the Brooksville
area. This is
undoubtedly
the most potentially
gifted section
of Florida from
a golf landscape
standpoint with
long rolling
hills, thick
forests of pine,
and a deep sandy
soil beneath.
The stunning courses of this region, and surely those yet to come, have a unique character about them. They are large and profound and vigorously traverse the terrain. Sometimes they're rough and savage and at best they incorporate the raw natural sand base into their features.
Several already enjoy national reputations such as World Woods and Black Diamond Golf Club in Lecanto. Others like El Diablo (Citrus Springs), The Dunes at Seville (just west of Brooksville), and Lake Jovita Country Club (Dade City), featuring 200 feet in elevation changes, are among the state's most favored courses.
Architect
and golf course
builder Terry LaGree
lives in the
area and believes
in its upside.
"To me it's going to be the Pinehurst of the South someday. What people don't realize (until) they come to Citrus County is that it has a real rolling, beautiful terrain. It's not at all like south Florida."
Ocala Just northeast of the Brooksville is the horse country of Ocala, where the land seems ideally suited to natural, pastoral golf. Like its neighbor the area enjoys a rather undulating topography not found elsewhere in Florida, but as for now its golf potential remains largely unrealized. Only a few of its roughly two-dozen courses are standouts, notably Golden Ocala, LaGree's delightful Royal Oaks, and Steve Newgent's Country Club of Ocala, and these share similarly style of hole that flows elegantly over the hills and pastures.
The Ocala area stirs the imagination of nearly every golfer or architect who passes through. Jason McCoy, Vice President of Greg Norman Golf Course Design, says, "I'd love to work up in the Ocala area. They've got nice rolling hills, big old oak trees - that's an area I'd love to get Greg into."
Lake and Polk Counties Beneath these two counties located just west and southwest of Orlando is a massive sand ridge (the same ridge that extends west into the Brooksville area) that provides the base for some of the most productive citrus groves in Florida. It could also be the base of some of the best golf courses.
The
region is more
open and rumpled
than one might
expect and has
a decidedly
un-Florida country
quality about
it. Headlined
by Southern Dunes,
Highlands
Reserve,
and Diamond
Players Club
of Clermont,
the Highway
27 corridor
that runs north-south
from Leesburg
to Lake Wales
is already one
of the most
exciting stretches
of golf in the
state, and definitely
features the
most elevation
changes. This
is Florida's
highest region
and it makes
golfers forget
where they are.
Northwest Florida This is an area (don't call it the Panhandle) far too large to generically characterize, and there's currently no shortage of golf courses either. But the soil, landforms, foliage, and unique relationship to the Gulf make it one that stands out against the state's other locales.
Northwest Florida is really several smaller regions - Pensacola, Destin, Panama City, Tallahassee. The steep hills surrounding Tallahassee, for instance, bear no resemblance to the sand and scrub washes of Destin 100 miles west, but are every bit as alluring for golf. SouthWood Golf Club which opened in 2002, is the first course in the region to fully capitalize on the area's topography. Others, such as the Golf Club of Quincy, also hint at the attractive forested nature of the area.
Two
recently opened
courses nearer
the water, Tom
Fazio's
Camp Creek
and Greg
Norman's
Shark's Tooth,
reflect the
wild, seaside
flavor of the
sandy stretch
of land between
Destin and Panama
City. Camp Creek
especially,
with its linky
first nine and
stark differentiations
between grass,
waste areas,
and sugar sand
surrounds (the
result of nearly
$20 of construction),
actively embodies
the water and
dunes spirit.
Nearby courses
such as Kelly Plantation
and Regatta Bay,
while popular,
don't do nearly
as well at capturing
the salt water,
wind, and sand
essence of the
region.
Other areas that may help to dispel the negative perception of Florida golf include Amelia Island, John's Island near Vero Beach, and the courses built on the sand ridge running through the Jupiter area.
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