I was in the Fort Myers area this past week and decided to stop by Fort Myers CC (Donald Ross 1917, Steve Smyers 2014) for a round of golf with my fiancé. Afer reading a few posts here, I was hesitant, but the course pickings are kinda slim in this area and I am a Donald Ross fan. The weather was great and although I was worried about the pace of play, my fiancé and I played 18 holes right at about 4 hours. The group ahead did not allow us to play through, but 4 hours and a few minutes was acceptable. Unfortunately, I had never played pre-Smyers renovation work. I am not sure as to what I was expecting, or what Mr. Smyers was actually contracted to accomplish, but I liked the course, but felt more could have been done with bunkering and maybe expanding the greens a little bit here and there. I will say that the greens rolled pretty fast (not all that much contour and break though) and were in nice shape, but were not all that receptive to holding iron shots. Anything long was a pretty tough chip shot back to the green. The high school golfer who we played with mentioned that the greens were FASTER prior to the renovation. The only other renovated Ross course I have played was Brunswick CC in Georgia, and those green complexes really stood out on a very boring piece of property. This may have been way I was expecting more. Maybe someone who knows more about the topic can intelligently add to the thread here. I took pictures of all 18 holes. It tips out at about 6600 yards now. Not a whole lot of trouble except for a few in play drainage canals that run through several of the holes. The new dog leg hole #5 must have replaced a hole that ran right long Rte 41/Cleveland Ave/Tamiami Trail. That was the only really shoehorned hole on the course and it looks like Mr, Smyers created a waste/drainage area with vegetation where I believe the old hole was located. I think once the course matures a bit it will be pretty nice place to play. I just discovered, that there just isn't a whole lot of decent/interesting golf to be played in the Fort Myers/ Cape Coral area. I liked it, and would play it again. On to the pics:
I am still trying to find a better routing picture..
Link to PDF from Mr. SMyers website:
http://www.stevesmyers.com/Fort%20Myers%20Country%20Club.pdf