Question about sand and South Florida golf

[Matt_Cohn]

When I look at pictures or aerials of so many South Florida courses, a lot of them have a tremendous amount of sand or in many cases are lined/surrounded by sand: Bear's Club, Medalist, McArthur, Jupiter Hills, John's Island, Old Palm...


Is there actually that much sand in the ground there? Because it looks like they're all built out of marshes. Or is it just a stylistic thing they've all adopted and trucked in boatloads of sand from somewhere else to create the look?


Thanks.

[Terry Lavin]

Every worthwhile question about Florida sand is addressed in hysterical fashion in Carl Hiaasen's new book "Razor Girl".

[Tim Gavrich]

Matt--


There is a bona fide sand ridge that runs north to south through a sizable part of Florida, which means that a lot of the exposed sand on the courses you mention is native. Holes built directly on that structure (whose nature I believe has been discussed here a little bit in the past) drain quite well, such that such holes, even on public courses, tend to have non-continuous cart paths. I played a course called The Habitat (Bolly Horschel grew up playing there) once, whose back nine is built on the sand ridge, at the end of a month of torrential rains, and those holes were basically bone-dry.


Indeed, the county facility where I play golf here in Vero Beach (Indian River County) is called Sandridge Golf Club. This feature lends some intrigue to the terrain of a number of courses - even those pretty close to the coast - 'round these parts.

[Carl Nichols]

Matt--
Of the courses you mention, I can only speak to Medalist and McArthur.  They are both next to each other, and both seemed to have a lot of natural sand.  It was more obvious at McArthur, which seems to sit on a ridge of the kind described by Tim.