The course in Elkton, Fla. has been closed for construction since January. Course designer Erik Larsen says he was pleased to get the renovation done despite facing supply shortages and runaway inflation. The course features include wide fairways, Biarritz, Punchbowl and Redan green designs and square, low maintenance “coffin” bunkers throughout, as well as tributes to architects C.B. Macdonald and Seth Raynor from the early 1900s. “It’s going to be satisfying to a big quantity of players as well as a variety in caliber of players,” Larsen says.
After about 11 months of work on an $8 million renovation, the St. Johns Golf Club in Elkton, Fla. welcomed players once again on Nov. 29, and course designer Erik Larsen was beaming, Jacksonville Business Journal reported.
It wasn’t just that — along with the assistance of Director of Golf Wes Tucker and his staff — he had created a throwback course unique to the area. A lot of his pride had to do with just getting the project done despite facing supply shortages and runaway inflation, Jacksonville Business Journal reported.
But despite a serious concern that they weren’t going to get enough aggregate at one point, the team was able to see Wadsworth Golf Construction Co. finish the project.
Although the course has been closed for construction since January, Larsen, whose Larsen Golf company is based in Ponte Vedra Beach, has been working on the project in some capacity for about seven years, Jacksonville Business Journal reported.
“It’s kind of like you have a bunch of pieces to a puzzle without a picture on the box,” Larsen said of the process. “My job’s to put a picture on the box and then build it…A key part to that is solving all those issues. But you have to put the dressing on it, too.”
Larsen had to design a course that would be fun for golfers of all skill levels and that could withstand a large number of rounds played, Jacksonville Business Journal reported.
“It’s going to be satisfying to a big quantity of players as well as a variety in caliber of players,” he said.
The course features include wide fairways, Biarritz, Punchbowl and Redan green designs and square, low maintenance “coffin” bunkers throughout, as well as tributes to architects C.B. Macdonald and Seth Raynor from the early 1900s, Jacksonville Business Journal reported.
Larsen also had to reconfigure the course in a way that solved drainage and irrigation issues. The lack of proper drainage has reduced the number of days the course has been playable in recent years, which cut into revenue, Jacksonville Business Journal reported.
“The golf course was broken,” Larsen said. “We fixed all that. The infrastructure is in place to last for a long time.”
Now that his work is done at St. Johns Golf Club, Larsen can turn his attention to other projects, including a nine-hole course he’s designing in South America, Jacksonville Business Journal reported.
But with Northeast Florida and other golf hotbeds already saturated with courses, Larsen says his business has mainly been renovating older courses like the one in St. Augustine.
“It’s not the wave of the future; it’s been the wave of the past,” he said. “For the past five years plus, there’s been more renovation work than new work. And that is likely to continue.”
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