Venetian Golf and River Club, Venice FL

[Rob Marshall]

Anyone ever play Venetian in Venice? They have some very interesting green complexes. The 9th hole has almost a half punch bowl in the front and a Biarritz on the par 3 11th. Nice layout. Not your typical beat you to death with water Florida course.

[SB]

The course is almost a tribute course, with many of the template holes that you mention plus many others.  Fairways are wide with plenty of room to get the correct angles.  Some fun greens to boot.  I thought it was a lot of fun.

[Tim Gavrich]

Haven't played Venetian yet, but its architect Chip Powell designed Duran Golf Club about an hour north of me in Viera, and it has some template stuff too. Probably the best course in the large but otherwise golf-weak Brevard County.

[Bryan Izatt]

I played there a few time some years ago.  At the time they had a link to a site describing the template for each hole, but that site is gone now,  I thought it was a fun course to play and did a writeup on the course.


http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,38821.0/


I think you'll need the Photobucket Hotlink Fix for your browser to see the pictures.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

It is indeed a " tribute course"  and fun to play. From 12 years ago:




https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,38821.msg1006253.html#msg1006253

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Without any publicity, Venetian was recently acquired by Heritage Golf Group whose president,Mark Burnett,  was previously  President and C.O.O. of ClubCorp:

I discovered this ad for an Assistant Superintendent which confirmed the acquisition:

Heritage Golf Group has recently purchased Venetian Golf and River Club. Venetian Golf and River Club  is the 5thcourse in Florida that Heritage has purchased.

https://careers.gcsaa.org/jobs/15865934/assistant-superintendent

[Rob Marshall]

This was brought up in another thread. I have a friend who is a member. The closing was supposed to be in October but got pushed out until December.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

No mention of the acquisition appeared in the Sarasota newspaper or any industry publication such as Golf Inc. magazine nor does it appear on Heritage Golf Groups website. 


I hesitated to confirm on the basis of word of mouth.

[Edward Glidewell]

My understanding is that Heritage Golf Group just purchased Brunswick Plantation and Cape Fear National along the NC coast between Myrtle Beach and Wilmington. Seems like they're on a buying spree.

[Rob Marshall]

No mention of the acquisition appeared in the Sarasota newspaper or any industry publication such as Golf Inc. magazine nor does it appear on Heritage Golf Groups website. 


I hesitated to confirm on the basis of word of mouth.

I understand, the membership made an offer I believe around 4 million and was turned down. It's a fun course. I enjoyed it when I played it. From the back tees there is a hell of a hard par 3 over a mangrove swamp or brush land.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Here's an article:



For the first 90 days after an acquisition, Heritage likes to look, listen and learn, he said.
Some immediate improvements are in the works, though, he added. Lennar was planning to redo the bunkers on the course and make some cosmetic improvements and that work will go forward, Miller said.
Monday’s email says that renovations totaling $1 million will also include replacing a coquina cart path on hole No. 2 replacing with concrete and upgrading the irrigation on the driving range.
The work will take about 12 weeks, it states.
Heritage also acquired the welcome center at VGRC and will be assessing alternate uses for it, Miller said.
The company is looking forward to getting involved in the area, he said.






https://www.yoursun.com/venice/news/lennar-sells-venetian-golf-club/article_99faaf0e-8823-11ec-a6bb-33c7392392a2.html

[Rob Marshall]

Played the Venetian today. Heritage has done a good job. The course was in great shape. The greens were nice. Running around 10. This a perfect example of green speed being right for the undulation in the greens. Much faster and they could get crazy. Great movement that you don’t see a lot of in Florida.