Professional golfer Nick Price and architect Tom Fazio II secured the approval from the Greater Boca Raton (Fla.) Beach and Park District for the renovation of the highly anticipated public course being created from the former Ocean Breeze Golf Club. Fifteen firms submitted bids for the project, which has an $18 million budget, including those associated with Greg Norman, Jack Nicklaus, Robert Trent Jones and Arnold Palmer.
Professional golfer Nick Price and well-known golf architect Tom Fazio II will design a highly-anticipated public golf course that the city of Boca Raton, Fla.’s park district bought less than a year ago, the Palm Beach (Fla.) Post reported.
The Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District, which owns and operates some of the city’s public parks, chose the Jupiter, Fla.-based design duo to renovate the golf course, formerly Ocean Breeze Golf Club, at a meeting on April 16th, the Postreported. As reported by C&RB last September (http://clubandresortbusiness.com/2017/09/ocean-breeze-gc-rebrand-boca-national-gc/), the park district bought the closed and again 214-acre golf course, which it plans to rebrand as Boca National Golf Club, for $24 million.
A four-time PGA tour winner, Price’s firm has worked on several international golf courses, the Post reported, and Fazio, the nephew of renowned course designer Tom Fazio, designed an 18-hole course at PGA National Resort in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
Price and Fazio have partnered on golf course designs in the past, the Post noted, including MacArthur Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Fla.
“I think we compliment one another,” Price said. “We’ve had so much fun doing this and being so close to home. This is a great opportunity to build something that will really stand out.”
Now that the park district has selected a firm to design the course, pending contract negotiations, the district will gather feedback from residents to help shape the final course design, the Post reported.
Price and Fazio suggested a driving range and 9-hole short course on the east side of the golf club, and the west side would have an 18-hole course, the Post reported. But those ideas could change during the design process.
“This is a big project for us, it really is,” Price said. “It gives us a chance to showcase our skills.”
Fazio assured the park district that his team could get the golf course designed and built in a short timeframe, the Post reported. The park district wants to open the new Boca National Golf Club around the time that the Boca Raton Municipal Golf Course is expected to close, the city’s recent sale of that to a home builder.
The cost to design the golf course wasn’t negotiated, the Post reported, but the district budgeted up to $18 million for the job.
Fifteen firms submitted requests to design the 214-acre course, the Post reported, including those tied to famous names in the golf industry such as Greg Norman, Jack Nicklaus, Robert Trent Jones and Arnold Palmer. Many of the proposals included plans to build an on-site golf school.
The course is poised to become a local golf destination, the Post reported, after the city of Boca Raton decided to shut down and sell its municipal golf course to the home builder for $65 million.
After it opens, Boca National will be one of just two public courses in the city, along with a smaller, 9-hole oceanfront course at Red Reef Park.
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