(Photo by Crystal Vander Weit/TCPalm.com)
The 100-year-old course lost $6.6 million in the three years leading up to 2018, but approval was then granted for a $5 million redesign and improvement project that would include creating Florida’s first reversible 9-hole course. Now another $3 million is being requested for an additional phase that would build a new clubhouse with high-tech, Topgolf-style hitting bays, full-service dining and a bar, and event space, along with renovations to the existing pro shop.
The public Martin County (Fla.) Golf Course is being renamed “Sailfish Sands” as part of an ambitious redesign of the county-owned property, TCPalm.com reported.
C+RB first reported on the plans to revamp the course in January 2020 (https://clubandresortbusiness.com/redesign-of-martin-county-fla-gc-begins-to-create-reversible-nine-hole-course/) and on October 27th, TCPalm.com reported, Martin County Parks and Recreation Director Kevin Abbate planned to go before the County Commission to provide an update on the progress of the massive project — and to ask for up to $3 million in additional funding.
If approved, that would bring the total cost of the golf course renovation to around $8 million, TCPalm.comreported. But Abbate is bullish on the prospects for Sailfish Sands and in particular the “reversible” 9-hole course, which incorporates part of the property’s old Red and White courses. The county lopped off about 80 acres of the old 18-hole course that was located in the “runway protection zone” for adjacent Witham Field, to return that land to nature.
On the redesigned rest of the course, golfers will play in one direction one week and in the opposite direction the next, TCPalm.com reported, as part of what Abbate said will be Florida’s first reversible course. There will be five tee locations on each hole, and playing the holes, Abbate said, will be a completely different experience depending on the direction.
The course is also slated to get all-new golf carts with GPS, all-new greens, new pathways, and new and modern bathrooms, TCPalm.com reported. And the project will replace the 100-year-old course’s staid, outmoded driving range with a 13-acre layout featuring low-level lights for evening play, with LED glow balls, interactive targets and “ball tracing technology” through a downloaded app that interacts with cameras and radar on the range.
It will be the only “mobile driving range” south of Jacksonville, Fla., Abbate told TCPalm.com, and the new features could bring in more than $240,000 in annual revenue, he estimated.
All of those features will be part of Phase 1 of the project, with completion set to be unveiled to the public in January 2021, TCPalm.com reported. Phase 2, soon to begin, will renovate the club parking lot, and add more new pathways, lighting and landscaping.
If commissioners sign off on the additional funding that Abbate will request on October 27th, TCPalm.comreported, Phase 3 will include a new clubhouse with high-tech, Topgolf-style hitting bays, full-service dining and a bar and event space, along with renovations to the existing pro shop.
It all represents quite a transformation, TCPalm.com reported, for a course that was built in the 1920s and then acquired by the county in 1947 and first managed by a volunteer residents’ group. The county assumed operations in 2015 as the golf industry slumped and expenses mounted.
In 2018, TCPalm.com reported, the course had lost $6.6 million over the previous three years, despite numerous upgrades.
“If we were going to invest this much money into a public golf course, we should make it something special,” Abbate told TCPalm.com. But the transformation to Sailfish Sands has not been without some early challenges. Work was delayed when construction workers were quarantined due to COVID-19. And when they got back to work, they unearthed problems.
“Every change order we had was because we discovered something like asbestos pipes underground,” said Abbate.
Those change orders added another $206,320 to the cost of the Phase 1 work, TCPalm.com reported.
But the new course design will reduce the amount of water used in irrigation by 30%, and water from the nearby Willoughby Creek stormwater treatment area could irrigate the turf, TCPalm.com reported. And road improvements will help “calm” traffic on the adjacent St. Lucie Boulevard.
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