Check out the last course. From today's Orlando Sentinel.
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By Steve Elling | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted January 5, 2005
If there's anything that lights a bona fide bonfire under a hardcore golfer, it's the notion of unbridled possibility with respect to playing a new golf course.
Everything is fresh, right down to the carts and pencil points. There is no scar tissue from past playing experiences at a new track, no bad memories from triple bogeys, no recollection of getting knocked horizontal by a lateral hazard.
It's always fun to be the first guy on the block to play a new course, especially when they are designed by the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Rees Jones, Nick Faldo, Ben Crenshaw or longtime area architects Mike Dasher, the busy Clifton, Ezell & Clifton firm and the late David Harman.
With that in mind, here's Golf Confidential's annual look ahead at what's in the Orlando-area production pipeline for 2005 and beyond. After a lull in 2001-02, course building has picked up appreciably, especially in the real-estate development sector, where low interest rates are fueling record home sales.
RedTail Golf Club
Technically the course, located in Sorrento near the increasingly golf-rich Heathrow area, opened for limited play in November.
RedTail, a development course at a very upscale community called Heathrow Country Estates, is unique in several respects.
First, the rolling terrain offers some rare elevation changes. Second, the Harman design stands as the first private course to be built in greater Orlando since the financially checkered Alaqua Country Club opened in 1988. (Web site: hcefl.com)
The affable Harman, who died last month at age 51, also designed Orange County National, site of the 2005 PGA Tour Qualifying School finals, Shingle Creek and the now-defunct Magnolia Plantation course.
Reunion Resort
With top-shelf courses by Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson already open for play at the massive realty and time-share development, the Nicklaus course is slated to be completed in late 2005. If it's anything like its two predecessors, it should rank among the best and most memorable daily-fee offerings in the area.
The resort commands a steep price to play the courses, but in terms of amenities and design, every detail has been considered. Some of the cart paths on the eye-catching Watson course are made of brick, for gosh sakes. The courses are located off exit 58 on Interstate 4. (See reunionresort.com).
Bella Collina:
Faldo's first course in Florida will be an ultra high-end affair, built by the same developer as the Reunion Resort. Home sites already are selling for hundreds of thousands at the development, which is situated on a hill overlooking Lake Siena and Lake Apopka, a few miles west of Orlando.
The course, which should be completed in late 2005 or early 2006, will be a private club catering to a decidedly high-end clientele. Say this for Faldo, who has a home at Lake Nona and is a six-time major winner; he likes geographic diversity. He also is building courses on an Irish island and in suburban Moscow. (See bellacollina.com). John's input - I think this is actually designed by Steve Smyers.
Providence Golf & Country Club
Located in the Davenport-Loughman area of Polk County along U.S. 17-92, the development is expected to include 4,000 homes by the time the final build-out is complete.
The course will be designed by the underrated Dasher, who built the well-received North Shore and Highlands Reserve courses in the Orlando area. Providence, which will be open to the public, marks the first golf-course project by the Orlando-based ABD Development. The company has built homes in several area communities with existing courses, but never started a golf community from scratch. The course should open in late 2005 or early 2006. (See abddevelopment.com)
Bonnett Creek
The actual name of the Jones course isn't set in stone, and neither is the completion date. Situated near the Pop Century hotel on the Disney World grounds, the roughed-out course routing has been completed for weeks. Water hazards are already in place.
Jones' firm is awaiting the phone call to finish the project, which is tied into adjacent hotel and time-share developments. In theory, it could open in late 2005 if work progresses in the spring, a Jones representative said. Jones, architect of the ever-popular Falcon's Fire course in Kissimmee, has redesigned several U.S. Open tracks.
The Villages
If the massive Lake County retirement development isn't already the largest golf community on the globe, it must be getting close by now. Already, 279 holes are open, and another 81 are in the works.
Handling the brunt of the development's course-building chores since 1989, the busy DeLand-based design firm of Clifton, Ezell & Clifton is seemingly almost always plotting something new. In this case, Cane Garden Country Club will open Monday, and the Mallory Hill course is scheduled to open March 10. Both courses will eventually include 27 holes and will be open to the public. (See thevillages.com)
Farther afield, the firm is finalizing the plans and permitting to build Plantation Oaks in Ormond Beach and Venetian Bay in New Smyrna Beach, which both are expected to break ground in early 2005.
Solivita Cypress
Clifton, Ezell & Clifton has gutted and completely rebuilt an existing course located adjacent to the growing Solivita community in Poinciana. Several holes were rerouted, and the entire course has undergone a thorough redesign. Rechristened as the Solivita Cypress Course, it's expected to reopen in the summer of 2005.
Sugarloaf
The newest area project on the drawing board features a design by Crenshaw, who has garnered extremely positive early reviews for his new course at the renowned Bandon Dunes resort on the Oregon coast.
A development course located in the rolling hills near Clermont, Crenshaw said the property features 40-foot elevation changes. One of the principle developers is former PGA of America president M.G. Orender, who is based in Jacksonville and projects a completion date of mid-2006. The high-end realty development will eventually include 2,000 luxury homes, perched on a ridge overlooking Lake Apopka.
"This property is pretty spectacular," Orender said. "Lake Apopka looks like the Irish Sea."