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Golf Course Living Here To Stay
Sun-Herald - July 9, 2001
Julie Mathis says it is not even close.
The pages of the golfing magazines inside the offices of the Charlotte County Chamber of Commerce get turned more than any other by visitors, the executive director confirmed.
That should not come as a shock to anyone familiar with the sport in the Tiger Woods era. During the final decade of the 20th century and into the new millennium, golf course communities in Southwest Florida have sprung up faster than mobile home parks did 30 years ago.
Attractive golf club developments such as Riverwood in Port Charlotte, Heron Creek in North Port and Long Marsh in Rotonda have given this section of Florida a fresh, spruced-up option for homebuyers, one that offers larger homes, better infrastructure and panoramic scenery.
The Charlotte Harbor coast has formed a three-way marriage with the weather, golf and people who play it. Those familiar with the landscape here expect the trend of building upscale golf courses to continue well into the next decades.
“We get thousands of people in both chamber offices throughout the year, and half of them say ‘We're looking for a golf course,’” Mathis said. ‘We’re getting younger people who are a little more influential. When you tell them the price of a house in Riverwood, they don't flinch. There's a lot of interest in golf.”
Community planner Brett Harrington has witnessed firsthand how golf courses have changed the philosophy of residential growth. Since the mid-1980s, Harrington spent stints in the planning departments at Cape Coral and Charlotte County before landing his current position in North Port. He says local governments now prefer a planned development around a golf course to the cramped lots that now fill in hodgepodge.
“When you get that type of development, you're going to demand that they provide their own water, sewer and other infrastructure instead of having people on septic tanks and individual wells,” Harrington said. “Golf has become popular, and people want to be in golf course communities. Therefore, the houses are nicer, and you get a higher quality individual living there. It's positive for your tax base.”
And it's not just the par-72 courses that have come on line. Retirees who lack the strength and stamina to play full-length venues have turned to the shorter executive courses. Al Johns, developer of Seminole Lakes, a par-62 golf course and 500-lot community in Punta Gorda, said Charlotte County may be running out of space in the urban service area to build many more of these planned development gems in the near future. Most of the large chunks of land that could support these gated communities are now east of Interstate 75, Johns said.
But golf as a sport has never been more popular, so from a recreational player's standpoint, one does not have to be in the market for a new home to enjoy the modern courses that have been built here.
When Riverwood opened in 1988, it raised the standard of area play because for the first time. It unveiled a championship layout measuring 7,000 yards with five tee boxes for players of all levels. Since Riverwood, Long Marsh, the latest Rotonda golf layout, and North Port's Heron Creek and Bobcat Trail have followed suit, spoiling the average golfers with manicured greens, natural surroundings and a wide array of wildlife.
If you're lucky enough to play at these venues, that is. Despite the construction boom, area course officials say their clubs are drawing more players than ever.
"Southwest Florida has become a golfing destination like the East Coast," said Heron Creek general manager Paul Barone, who witnessed the golf course influx here while spending 15 years at Deep Creek Golf Club in Port Charlotte, which opened in 1985. "We've seen about a 15 percent increase in the number of rounds over the past year."
Heron Creek officials plan to break ground on a third nine holes, which will be near the Myakkahatchee Creek. Famed golf course designer Arthur Hills, who designed the original 18, will also lay out the "Creek" nine. A future clubhouse is also in the works. Another company capitalizing on the money-making power of golf in Southwest Florida is Signature Golf Inc. The company already owns and operates the Palms, Links and Hills courses of Rotonda Golf & Country Club. It also runs a posh golf layout in Naples, Florida's golfing hotbed. Rotonda is scheduled to eventually add at least three more golf courses in the round subdivision, Rotonda officials said.
And KEB Inc., which owns Bobcat Trail, has plans for 18 additional holes and a gigantic residential complex to be built during the next several years on another development site it owns between I-75 and the corner of Toledo Blade and Price boulevards near the Charlotte-Sarasota county line. The permitting process has already begun. The Lakeside Plantation, a residential complex complete with all the amenities, is already swelling with interested buyers.
“I think with Bobcat Trail, Heron Creek and the Panacea project, all of a sudden we're creating a nucleus of top-end golf options, said former KEB marketing director Jonathan Baltuch, who left KEB Inc. last month to pursue his own consulting company. ÒGolf courses are going to drive the community and become a major force.”
Matt Mootz, Signature Golf's director of operations, predicts Charlotte and south Sarasota County will become a popular golfing resort hot spot over new millennium. He may be right.
According to "The Ultimate Golf Guide," nearly 470 golf courses already dot Florida's West Coast from Ocala to Naples. The latest is a Jack Nicklaus-designed private course east of I-75 called The Retreat. The Bonita Bay Club layout is scheduled to open sometime in 2002.
"I've brought 50 new people into the game in the last six months," Bobcat Trail head pro Will Frantz said. "It's amazing to look at the new golf facilities between here and Venice."
There are currently more than 40 golf courses in the Charlotte-South Sarasota County metropolitan area, from executive courses such as Victoria Estates in Port Charlotte to the public variety like Sabal Trace in North Port. For those looking for private courses - Burnt Store Isles and St. Andrews South in Punta Gorda, Kingsway in Lake Suzy and Boca Royale in Englewood - remain great options.
Then, there is perhaps the grandest private area course of them all. Carved out of a citrus field on the mainland next to Gasparilla Island, the $30 million Coral Creek Club is a vintage 7,100-yard championship golf course designed by world renowned architect Tom Fazio, who brings immediate credibility to any project he agrees to undertake. Fazio has designed more than 200 courses, including West Florida's famed Black Diamond and World Woods.
Nothing has a modern look at Coral Creek. The scorecards are free of color, the tee markers are made of cypress tree roots and the tee box yardage is carved on stones. The tin-roofed golf house contains no drywall, but instead includes wooden walls and ceilings. There are plans for the same type of caddie program that flourished on golf courses during the first part of the 20th century. Former President George Bush is already a Coral Creek member, which requires paying a $125,000 initiation fee.
"We think it will be one of the most exclusive private golf club in the United States," Coral Creek membership director Charlie Taylor said.
Everyone seems to agree on at least one thing: Golf will continue to flourish here as long as demand is still growing.
“Golf has added an additional perk that residents and future residents here can enjoy,” Mootz said. “We've raised the standards of golf.”
By GRANT BOXLEITNER
Sports Writer |
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