Leigh Montville wrote a lengthy article that appeared in April 9, 2012 issue of Golf World. It was never posted online.Dan Hermann's recent thread on clubs with few rounds surviving got me thinking about this article so here is a prime example of the opposite:
Located about an hour north of Orlando with about 87,000 residents now. From the article:
The number at the moment-but check back
tomorrow because the number always is changing-
is 504 holes of golf. There are 10 country
clubs in The Villages, seven of them currently
with 27 holes, three with 18.There are 29 executive,
nine-hole courses.
The local boast is that there is more available municipal
golf here than anywhere else in the world. Some place in
China, Mission Hills, supposedly is a distant second. More
than 2.5million rounds were played last year. A guesstimated
5,810,493golf balls were lost in those 2.5million
rounds. Tee to green, there are 84 miles of fairways. There
are upward of 10,000 golfers per day.
"We think we have the most sophisticated tee-time system
in the world," says Ken Creely, director of country-club
operations. "You can call a number and someone will punch
in the information for you, or everything's on computers
and our website."
A step-by-step investigation of how much golf can be
played in The Villages in a limited amount of time was
made earlier this year. An expansion in the next two years
is slated to add two new championship courses, 27 holes
apiece, and six more executive courses for a closeout total
of 621 holes that will be available for the proposed closeout
total of 110,000 Villages residents.
Other than the Palmer/Lopez course, who are the architects doing the work there?