'Eliminate Back Pain Tour' Is Coming to Florida Golf Courses

The Core Spinal Fitness Systems, the worldwide leader in spinal strengthening, announced today the first-ever "Eliminate Back Pain Tour" is touring the state of Florida. John Reger, PGA Professional for The Core Spinal Fitness Systems by MedX, made the announcement. MedX is the parent company of The Core Spinal Fitness Systems.

The unique, traveling "Eliminate Back Pain Tour," launched at The Golf Industry Show in Atlanta on February 9 and running through November, is stopping at public and private golf courses and fitness clubs throughout the state of Florida.

Golfers will be able to test The Core Spinal Fitness Systems five medically based exercise machines designed to improve strength, stability, flexibility and endurance of the body's core muscles. The entire exercise session takes less than 20 minutes and only needs to be performed twice per week in order to gain and maintain results.

The Core consists of the following machines: The Core Lumbar Strength, The Core Ab Isolator, The Core 4-Way Neck, The Core Torso Rotation, and The Core Super Stretch.

Visitors will also be able to take home free giveaways and receive expert advice from trained onsite MedX staff. In addition, Florida golf course professionals will be able to learn more about how The Core Spinal Fitness Systems can set their facility apart from the competition.

"With interest in golf at an all-time high and the growing number of people who experience back pain continuing to rise, we felt it was important to start this grassroots effort to let people know there is a solution to back pain," said Reger. "Just as Florida golfers are looking to improve their game and prevent back pain, individuals suffering from back pain are always looking to improve their quality of life."

Buddy Alexander, Men's Golf Coach, University of Florida, said the following about The Core Spinal Fitness Systems by MedX: "The Core was an enormous help during my rehab after back surgery a few years ago. It is even more helpful now as it helps to reduce back pain, strengthens my core, and keeps me flexible enough to remain competitive. All golfers want to hit the ball farther and The Core not only helps with that, but also will keep you healthy enough to enjoy golf into your later years." Coming to a Florida golf course near you!

Bobby Ginn Adds Champions Event To Florida Golf Course

Ginn Resorts is bringing a Champions Tour stop to a Florida golf course in late March of 2007, a week before the Masters and two week's before the LPGA Ginn Clubs & Resorts Open at nearby Reunion.

Bobby Ginn is making an impact on tour golf, now sponsoring three events in Florida, including the 2007 ACE Group Classic at Naples and the LPGA Tour at Reunion. And more events may be coming.

"We're probably going to be making some more announcements in the next few weeks," said Ginn. "We're not going to let it all out of the bag in one day.

"Professional golf, integrated with our Florida golf courses, is a major part of our thrust going forward," said Ginn.

The Ginn Championship at Hammock Beach in Palm Coast will be played on another new layout by Tom Watson, who also designed the course at Reunion near Celebration.

"I've built a few golf courses in my life, and I have to say there's some with something always wrong," said Watson. "Some you wish you hadn't done it that way. But this particular Florida golf course, I know we've got 18 wonderful golf holes."

The Conservatory at Hammock Beach, just a few miles south of St. Augustine, will host the Champions Tour for the next five years.

The tournament March 30 to April 1 will feature the secondlargest purse on the Champions Tour, $2.5 million with $375,000 to the winner. Only the U.S. Senior Open has a larger purse, $2.6 million this year. Looks like this Florida golf course will have some cash to give away.

Turmoil at Florida Golf Course Could Turn Into A Battle Over Development

William Rogers lives on Brown Crane Court in Pelican Bay, one of the area's oldest master-planned communities, featuring a country club with tennis courts and golf courses.

Rogers likes to play golf, but he doesn't belong to the country club. Neither do a lot of residents in the gated community along Beville Road.

Therein lies the problem for Pelican Bay Country Club, a Florida golf course as it struggles to maintain the amenities it owns. It also serves as a cautionary tale to developers of new master-planned communities.

Faced with a declining membership and higher maintenance costs, the club recently sold its tennis courts and several acres near the south golf course in Pelican Bay to the owner of a Port Orange pawnshop.

J.C.J. Investments, headed by area businesswoman Lynda Labosco, paid $310,000 for the tennis courts and $410,000 for land bordering the FRlorida golf course at the end of Mallard Lane, public records show.

Labosco said she bought the land for an investment and has no plans to do anything with it.

While many residents don't join the country club, they don't want development either. So they are skeptical of Labosco and point to a meeting in which a representative of hers indicated there is a plan to get the land rezoned for development.

So far, no one has approached the city seeking any change, city spokeswoman Susan Cerbone said.

Country club officials declined a request for an interview about the sale or reports they plan to use the money for improvements, including construction of tennis courts closer to the main clubhouse.

But the sale has some homeowners in the 920-acre development here on edge. The country club owns about 300 of those acres, including both the north and south florida golf courses. One is private and the other is semi-private.

Rumors began flying even before the sale closed in February that there was a plan to build new homes on the golf course land, which borders The Estates, Mallard Cove and Cypress Cove neighborhoods.

Opponents charged it would increase the density in the development, drive down property values and decrease the amount of green space.

"I believe a strong and successful (country club) is essential to maintaining Pelican Bay as a thriving community and to keeping our real estate values," Rogers said.

At the same time, he said it is obvious the club has some assets it can't afford to maintain with its current membership, estimated at around 250 families.

Rogers said he hoped the homeowners might buy the Florida golf course land from the club and hold it as open space.

"They are good people," he said, referring to the country club. Still, "I think it will be a big fight when they try to get it rezoned."

Robert Dubian, a resident and member of the country club, has been one of the most vocal opponents. Dubian even drafted and circulated a flyer under the heading "Save the Bay."

"Most of us bought in this community because of the open land designated golf, tennis, recreational. Most developers know that any community would value their open land and therefore not permit developers in. Guess what? All that is now changed. We have opened the hen house to the fox," he said in the flyer, a copy of which was obtained by The News-Journal.

Dubian did not return several telephone calls seeking comment.

Plantation Golfers Teed Off Over Prices At Florida Golf Courses

They shelled out thousands of dollars for memberships at the city's Plantation Preserve golf course of Florida just a few months ago and now play alongside people who paid only hundreds for a discount card.

Some members are threatening an exodus. Many are demanding the city evaluate the prices and give them some type of incentive. Some have already taken their golf bags and joined courses elsewhere.

"From a monetary standpoint, if I knew about the Premier card from the beginning, I would have re-evaluated my membership," said Will Dudman. "I agree they have to fill the Florida golf course. They have to make money. But it's cheaper to be a Premier card member. I don't necessarily think it's fair."

City officials are listening.

"It's just not fair if the guy next to him doesn't have to put out the same kind of money," Councilman Rico Petrocelli said. "I want visitors to our city, but not at the expense of our residents. Every one of the people I talked to said our residents are upset. They want their money back; we are not being customer-friendly."

Last week, Dan Keefe, assistant to the mayor, said the city would review its use of the discount card and make a decision "prior to membership renewal in October."

When the Florida golf course opened in February, the city offered memberships for a city resident at $1,878 and for families at $2,528. The price has since risen, and golf officials say there are about 250 members. But to encourage more golfers, especially during the summer, Plantation Preserve began to offer a Premier card. When the course opened, the price was $185. In June, it was hiked to $212 and beginning July 6 it will be $100. The card is good only through Oct. 31.

Members pay $20 for a round of golf, and Premier holders pay $25. Members are allowed to book seven days in advance, but Premier holders have less time -- about four or five days. Course officials said 290 people bought Premier cards.

"We offered it because we're a brand-new Florida golf course and we want to get the most exposure possible," said Colleen Cashman-McSween, membership director. "We are a public facility and we are supposed to generate revenue; it helps keep costs down. Most golf courses across South Florida don't get much play in the summertime -- it's too hot, it's dead -- and we're very lucky to be the new kid on the block. We are very busy every day, much more busy than we anticipated."

She acknowledges that the Premier card "is taking up some of our member tee times" but said that will quickly change in the wintertime.

That's not good enough for resident Wayne Koppel. He paid his membership before the course even opened, and eventually requested a refund. He now plays at the Woodlands in Tamarac.

"At first, it was great but once the Premier card and discount programs set in, you couldn't get tee times anymore, the course was too crowded and I wasn't happy with management's response to our complaints -- that it was a public Florida course and we should be patient for the summer," he said.

Both he and a buddy left. Koppel said he is busy with his children's sports in the winter and he wants to be able to play without frustrations he encountered such as a half-hour wait because the Florida golf course was too busy, or the tee sheet was booked, or there were no carts left.

"For my couple thousand bucks, I should get preferential treatment," he said.

Resident Alan Siegel agrees, and hopes the city forces the course to change the policy quickly.

"When I joined Plantation Preserve, I joined it because it was going to be a beautiful, magnificent golf course and have a true, honest to God membership," he said. "I had every expectation I would be able to play golf whenever I wanted to at my own course given that I laid out a lot of money."

But now, he said, "There are so many non-members allowed to fill up the available times at this Florida golf course, there's nothing available for members."

Gators Should Be Hunted On Florida Golf Courses

I find it obscene that any official in our state would remotely consider prosecuting a police or wildlife officer for killing an 11-foot alligator on a Florida golf course that was threatening himself or others.

That this animal is still protected in this state escapes me. The four-decades-long environmental protection afforded the "gator" has allowed it to proliferate to the point where there are now large, dangerous, lethal-size beasts in practically every body of water on any Florida golf course.

The recent deaths of three people in one week from alligator attacks should be enough to alert even the most jaded bureaucrat to the fact we have a problem. It's called a clue.

The problem is too many alligators are competing with too many people for space. Something has to give. While it may give environmentalists the vapors, it's time to open "gator" hunting season on Florida golf courses.

Travel Magazine Names Grand Cypress Best Orlando Florida Golf Resort

"Conde Nast Traveler" magazine has listed the Grand Cypress Resort as Orlando's best in its annual Top 100 ranking of golf destinations in North America, the Caribbean, Ireland and Scotland.

Overall, Grand Cypress was ranked 46th among the top 100. Only one Florida resort, the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort in Naples, was ranked higher -- in 12th place. Three other Central Florida golf courses were included in the list: the Omni Orlando at ChampionsGate (80th), Bay Hill Club & Lodge (88th) and Grande Lakes Resort (90th).

Grand Cypress says it has remained the highest-ranked Orlando golf resort in the "Conde Nast Traveler" survey since 2001. The survey evaluated course design, speed of play, accommodations, service, food/dining and other facilities on the Florida golf course.

The Grand Cypress resort includes 1,500 acres with 45 golf holes designed by Jack Nicklaus, along with the 146-room Villas of Grand Cypress and the 750-room Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress.

Other amenities include the Grand Cypress Academy of Golf, Grand Cypress Equestrian Center, Grand Cypress Racquet Club, swimming, water sports, fishing and seven restaurants.

Grand Cypress Resort is owned and operated by Grand Cypress Florida Inc., which directly manages the Villas of Grand Cypress, Golf Club, Academy of Golf and Equestrian Center. Just another awesome Florida golf course.

Builders Target Florida Golf Course Fairways As Broward's Open Spaces Disappear

Less than six years after voters approved spending $400 million in bonds to preserve open space and revamp parks, most of the money has been spent and roughly 900 acres of Broward County land saved from development.

The 2000 Safe Parks and Land Preservation Bond Program bankrolled the county's purchase of former orange groves, riverbanks, pinelands, wetlands, trailheads and slivers of beach.

To the dismay of many residents, developers increasingly eye these remaining chunks of green space for houses, condominiums and hotel rooms.

Plans are in the works to build on more than 550 acres of Florida golf courses in Coral Springs, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Lauderhill, Margate, Oakland Park, Pembroke Pines and Tamarac, a South Florida Sun-Sentinel examination of development proposals, plans and interviews with city officials found.

"It's a function of the dwindling supply of land in Broward County. You are going to see a lot more Florida golf courses being redeveloped," predicted Dennis Mele, a land-use lawyer whose client wants to build on one of three Inverrary courses in Lauderhill.

Builders see Florida golf courses as the last remaining open space where large multimillion-dollar developments can be built. Politicians see benefits from increased property values and the large amount of cash that will flow into city hall. But many golf course neighbors prefer to keep the greens and large trees outside their windows rather than more houses and condominiums.

"They are destroying our way of life," said Sherry Taylor, who fears her quiet seniors community in Tamarac will be damaged by more than 750 new homes to be built on the Monterey and Sabal Palm, both Florida golf-course sites.

Politicians must weigh the anger of residents like Taylor against Broward's best-known lawyer-lobbyists, hired to pave the way for golf course redevelopment.

The group of investors that wants to build houses on part of American Golfers Club in Fort Lauderdale includes County Commissioner Jim Scott. The investors hired former Fort Lauderdale City Attorney Don Hall to advocate their project.

Beyond saying he was not a major investor in the project and that he would abstain from voting on it, Scott declined to comment.

Prestige Homes, which wants to build on the courses in Tamarac, has hired not only the veteran land-use lawyer Jerry Knight, but also Beverly Stracher, who was Tamarac Mayor Beth Flansbaum-Talabisco's campaign strategist in the March election.

Stracher explained her value to the developer: "I ran Beth Flansbaum-Talabisco's campaign so I know a lot about the city." Knight, who spoke for the developer, said he believes the project is best for Tamarac.

Tamarac city commissioners in March unanimously took the first step toward allowing Prestige Homes to build on the two Florida golf courses despite protests from hundreds of residents who wanted to preserve the 160 acres as open space.

The project replacing the two Tamarac courses will generate more than $1 million in new city taxes than the courses provided, according to a study prepared for City Hall.

Offsetting the city's tax benefit, the new development puts more cars on roads and more students in schools. The Sabal Palm project alone will add roughly two-dozen car trips a day compared to the traffic generated by a Florida golf course, and more than 300 new students in classrooms costing public schools more than $1.8 million annually, according to school system and county data.

In return for permission to develop two Tamarac golf courses, Prestige Homes agreed to donate 31 acres for recreation and earmarked $2 million to solve neighborhood traffic problems caused by the project. It also promised to sell 10 percent of the homes as affordable housing.

The Tamarac deal came after negotiations between city officials and developers.

Law professor Michael Allan Wolf said negotiations that consider the nearby residents are often the best route to take.

Wolf, a University of Florida law school land-use expert, said governments could hinder and maybe stop golf course projects, if they wanted, because nearly every developer seeking to replace a golf course needs multiple city, county and state approvals. But turning down such projects may not be the best policy, Wolf said.

"The alternative to compromise might be an overgrown, abandoned Florida golf course that is an eyesore," Wolf said. "Planning is about wise real estate development that has the fewest impacts and the most benefits."

Coral Springs City Manager Michael Levinson is looking forward to negotiations with the owners of the dilapidated 80-acre Broken Woods course. He envisions a mini-urban center, with homes, businesses and stores.

City records indicate Broken Woods has been cited for code violations since February stemming from failing to repair hurricane damage and removing debris. The city slapped liens on the land. In the wake of the violations, owner Sample Road Investments LLC is tearing down the former clubhouse, pool, maintenance sheds and tennis courts.

"It will never be a Florida golf course again," Levinson predicted.

To the south, Pembroke Pines city commissioners' negotiations with developer M. "Pat" Segall resulted in the preservation of the Grand Palms Country Club and Resort's 27-hole golf course. Commissioners voted unanimously this month to approve Segall's plan to add 308 hotel rooms and 292 high-rise units to the more than 1,100 homes at Grand Palms.

The Pembroke Pines commissioners didn't have as much luck with another Florida golf course -- Raintree Golf Course. Commissioners couldn't come up with the $40 million the owners wanted for the 123-acre course. A developer is now turning the course into 103 homes costing more than $1 million each.

County Commissioner Kristin Jacobs, a vocal advocate of green space, said the loss of such large amounts of land to developers at a time the county is buying land to preserve open space "is very disturbing."

Jacobs vowed that when Florida golf course redevelopments reach the county commission "they won't be rubber stamped. There have to be very compelling reasons to remove open space."

Sabal Point & Winter Springs Two Florida Golf Courses Sold

Fairway Advisors, together with its joint marketing partners, CBD Golf Properties and Kitson & Partners, have announced the sale of the Sabal Point Country Club and Winter Springs Golf Club two premier Florida golf courses. The 18-hole, semiprivate courses are located 15 minutes north from downtown Orlando. The courses were owned by Bank of America Strategic Solutions.

The new owner of Winter Springs Golf Club is Los Lagos Winter Springs LLC. RB-GEM Golf Brooke LLC was the buyer of Sabal Point Country Club. The sales prices were not disclosed.

Commenting on the transactions, Jeff Davis, president of Fairway Advisors, said, "The amount of investor interest in these Florida golf courses was tremendous. We received offers as soon as the disposition team was selected by the seller."

Sabal Point Country Club was designed by Ward Northrup and plays to 6,603 yards. The course was opened in 1981. Winter Springs Golf Club was designed by Bruce Devlin and Robert Von Hagge. Stretching 6,589 yards, Winter Springs was the first golf course in Florida featuring an island green when it opened in 1964.

Fairway Advisors is a boutique brokerage firm specializing in the sale of Florida golf courses throughout the United States.

NSU Manages Florida Golf Course

Residents of Rolling Hills a Florida golf course say they are pleased with their new neighbor.

Nova Southeastern University last month purchased the 205-acre Grande Oaks Golf Club, featured in the 1980 movie Caddyshack, and said it will continue to operate as a private club.

The property at 3201 W. Rolling Hills Circle includes the 18-hole championship Florida golf course, a nine-hole executive course and a driving range, said George L. Hanbury, NSU's executive vice president for administration.

The purchase included development rights for 130 multi-family units off Rolling Hills Drive and 10 single-family units off Pine Island Road. Hanbury said there is no development planned for the next five to 10 years.

"We think it's important to be a good neighbor," Hanbury said. "We'll be here for a long time."

With the acquisition, NSU has become one of the biggest landlords in the town's regional activity center -- 2,200 acres targeted for redevelopment between Interstate 595 and Griffin Road; and Florida's Turnpike and University Drive.

About two years ago, NSU unveiled plans to redevelop 30 acres in the 3400 and 3500 blocks of South University Drive into a mix of commercial and educational facilities. That $350 million project, scheduled to begin in 2007, includes residential towers, a 300-room hotel, shops, retail offices and a research center.

Hanbury has said that project "would transform Davie [into] the economic powerhouse in Florida for biotech and high-tech research."

NSU's plans for the Florida golf course are more modest.

The university said it will use the club, purchased for an undisclosed sum from the Blackstone Group, to entertain guests as well as to give students and interns experience in Florida golf course operations. It also wants to integrate the 9-hole executive course into the 18-hole course.

"I think it's wonderful that Nova not only bought the Florida golf course, but they are now a live-in resident," said Keyron Collins, 49, who has seen the course change hands more than three times since he moved to Lake Estates at Rolling Hills 10 years ago.

"Since Nova's been keeping it, it's exceptional," he said.

Jerry Licari, 42, president of the Lake Estates homeowners association, said that past owners have "minimally maintained" the 9-hole Florida golf course and treated it like a "forgotten stepchild."

He is optimistic NSU will manage it better.

"As a homeowner, it's upsetting to see our Florida golf course poorly maintained," Licari said. "As of today, we are pleased with what Nova has done."

Florida Golf Course Gator Proves Elusive

For the past month or so, golfers playing the Gasparilla Inn Golf Course have occasionally faced a hazard other than the traps, the bunkers and the water.

An alligator, estimated at about 8 feet, has been seen at different locations on the Florida golf course - normally near one of the water hazards that dot the Inn's 18-hole layout.

Trappers have twice come to the course in the aftermath of gator sightings, but the reptile has been nowhere to be found.

On Wednesday of this week, trapper Beau Davis spent nearly an hour trying to track down the gator after yet another sighting.

As in the past two efforts, Davis came up empty handed. Or, make that empty-noosed.

"The alligator has been around for a long time," Davis said. "But when we get over here, he's gone."

Davis said the gator had been seen in the water of one of the larger ponds that constitute the nearly dozen water hazards on the Florida golf course.

Davis believes the alligator is a male who wandered onto the course looking for a mate.

"I don't think he's staying on the golf course," Davis said. "It looks like he's going back into the bayou. Maybe he'll stay there more now that mating season has come to an end."

Davis is an agent trapper for "Gator John French," who died Tuesday morning following a heart attack suffered the previous day while subduing a gator in Bonita Springs. French was also commonly known to islanders as "Trapper John."

Davis worked for French for the past year under contract with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

"He was one of the most straight-forward upstanding people I've met in my life, he was a great guy, and he was the best alligator trapper I've seen in my life," Davis said.

"He died doing what he loved. He always said alligator trapping was like an addiction. There's nothing quite like the adrenaline rush you get when you got hold of something that can kill you. He was always steady, just a steady person."

We are glad he did not die on that Florida golf course!

Florida Golf Course Water Views Suit Golfers To A Tee

Leaving the fourth green of Captiva Island Golf Club, a Florida Golf Course with warm breezes buffeting the back of your shirt, only a stone’s throw from the Gulf of Mexico — director of golf Kevin McCune turns his golf cart east into the rising sun and a cloudless blue sky.

“This is where it gets better,” McCune says.
Better?

As if golf in the middle of an island paradise wasn’t enough, the recently reopened nine-hole Florida golf course at South Seas Island Resort plays its fifth hole with picturesque Pine Island Sound as a backdrop, then circles the northern tip of Captiva along Redfish pass to play its final four holes along the Gulf.

“We’ve actually allotted an extra four minutes of play for gazing,” says McCune, passing a collection of a dozen or so mostly barefoot visitors fishing for snook and snapper in Pine Island Sound between the fifth and sixth holes. “It’s the mind-set. It’s the experience itself.”

Captiva Island Golf Club reopened May 2 after a $4 million reconstruction necessitated by the devastation of Hurricane Charley in August 2004.
Possibly the only Florida golf course between Tampa and Marco Island with several golf holes directly on the Gulf of Mexico, Captiva Island is among a handful of island layouts in Southwest Florida that add a special flavor — and plenty of tourism dollars — to this golf mecca.

A 2002 report from the University of Florida reported statewide revenue from golf visitors being in excess of $4 billion per year.
“We’ll go to the mountains once in a while, but we always look forward to being on the water,” said Charles Roe of Portland, Texas, playing nine holes recently while wife Jean rode along for the beach and shelling. “We try to go places where there’s a beach and golf course together.”

Eight Florida golf courses in Lee and Collier counties — Gasparilla Golf Club in Boca Grande; The Sanctuary Golf Club, The Dunes Golf & Tennis Club and Beachview Golf & Tennis Club on Sanibel; Alden Pines Country Club on Pine Island; Fort Myers Beach Golf Club and The Island Country Club and Hideaway Beach Golf Course on Marco Island — all share in the breezy, casual experience that is island golf.

“It’s more relaxed, even though it’s a quality golf course,” said Brian Kittelson of Washington, D.C., celebrating his 32nd birthday with a round of golf at Fort Myers Beach Golf Club while vacationing on the island with family.
“Just the atmosphere,” said Kittelson, punctuating his comments by popping open a Bud Light. “It’s nice and light.”

Unlike at Captiva Island Golf Club, most of the holes at the area’s other island courses do not sit directly on the open water. Most are separated from the shore by homes, hotels and condominiums, or mangroves and hammocks — even though it usually takes less than a 9-iron to reach them.

Still, the abundant characteristics of the islands themselves make clear this is something apart from mainland Florida golf.

“It’s beautiful, the birds and the wildlife over here,” said Dave Minsterman of Fort Myers Beach, completing a round recently with his wife, Shirley, at The Sanctuary, where he also works as a starter.

“Our property abuts (J.N.) ‘Ding’ Darling,” Sanctuary director of golf Ed Lockard said of the national wildlife refuge on the northern side of Sanibel. “People say you see more wildlife here than at the refuge.”
Even a signature trait of Southwest Florida golf — the wind — is said to be greater on the islands, creating the duel effect of a cooler day but more challenging round of golf.
“Wind’s probably more of a factor here,” said Andy Bell, an assistant professional at Gasparilla Golf Club, which has five holes directly on Charlotte Harbor and 16 of its 18 holes separated from the water by little more than palm trees.

“We’ll have our residents on the island drive three blocks from their homes and say it wasn’t windy there,” Bell said. “(But) it’s a stout, 20-mile-an-hour wind here. That, and just the views ... you can’t help but have a good time.”

Exotic as they sound, Southwest Florida’s island courses are no more inaccessible to the everyday golfer than are other links in the area.

Four are semiprivate (The Dunes, Beachview, Fort Myers Beach and Alden Pines), open to anyone already on the islands or interested in taking a drive to these Florida golf courses.

New Heights On Florida Golf Course

Heaps of garbage will give Palm Beach County's newest Florida golf course something rarely seen on the golfing circuit: height.

Park Ridge Golf Course, scheduled to open west of Lantana in October, will feature hills as high as 85 feet. Courses typically climb about 20 feet.

"The elevation of the landfill has allowed us to create holes that wouldn't normally be seen in South Florida," said Paul Connell, the county's golf operations supervisor. "It gives people an opportunity to play a course they wouldn't normally get to play."

Golfers from nearby communities who have toured the course anxiously await its opening.

The idea to turn what was known as the Old Lantana Landfill into an 18-hole golf course dates to the 1980s. County parks and recreation officials and the Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County searched for the $7 million needed to build it as the garbage settled and methane was extracted from the soil.

It took another decade for the site to be declared methane-free, said Bill Wilsher, the county's superintendent of park planning and design.

Building Florida golf courses over landfills is not that unusual. About 70 of the nation's almost 16,000 golf courses are atop old landfills, strip mines or industrial sites, according to the National Golf Foundation in Jupiter.

Golfer Harold Heydt said it doesn't matter that Park Ridge rises from a landfill. He even called it an "established art on landfills."

Heydt lives in the Bellaggio community near the course. When he moved in about four years ago, word that a Florida golf course would be so close to home was an added perk.

"I envision using it often because of its convenience and the novelty of the elevations," the New Jersey retiree said. "Being a Northern golfer, I miss the elevations."

Hopping from course to course is common among golfers and Heydt is no exception. He plays courses from Boca Raton to West Palm Beach.

Park Ridge will be a par-72 Florida golf course on about 180 acres. With a lake at its side, the course will run from 4,200-6,800 yards long.

Because of the landfill below -- which means the course will settle some -- the clubhouse will be a trailer. Restrooms built of concrete block will be off the landfill on the course's perimeter.

A more substantial clubhouse at the Florida golf course will be built off the landfill at some point, Wilsher said. Cost to play will be $30 or less, which includes a cart. Wilsher said costs are low because a county bond and impact fees, money collected when homebuyers close on their homes, are paying for the project.

"There's still a need for golf, particularly for public golf," Wilsher said. "We're trying to keep the game inexpensive for people living here."

Park Ridge is meant to attract seniors, especially those in nearby communities, and beginning golfers. In the summer, the Florida golf course could be opened to children just learning the game.

Golf After Dark: It's Par(ty) For The Florida Golf Course At Dubsdread

Eric Connelly reached into his golf bag and pulled out a driver, we think, with a titanium clubhead the size of a toaster and rifled a perfect shot, evidently, down the middle of the fairway.

Though the ball's final destination was uncertain, the piercing peal of the rock-hard ball hitting the massive clubhead was deafening, and his playing partners quickly offered an array of effusive compliments.

"Aw, Stevie Wonder could hit the clubface with this thing," he said, examining his driver.

Actually, Stevie Wonder probably could beat these guys at their own game, since, for once, the singer's well-chronicled handicap might be advantageous, given the ground rules.

Connelly, alongside 70 other night owls, is essentially playing by Braille at Dubsdread Golf Course, an 82-year-old public Florida golf course where something decidedly contemporary is taking place. Finding a revenue stream in the steamy and slow summer months is always a challenge for Florida courses, but venerable old Dubsdread is staying in the black by playing in the black.

On a mineshaft-dark and moonless night last week, Dubsdread was rocking past midnight as the College Park course's residential neighbors peered curiously out their windows. Armed with glow-balls, flashlights and in some cases, enough libations to make their own noses glow, the intrepid golfers were dispatched to participate in a four-player scramble event. These offbeat tournaments have become so popular that course officials are staging them every two weeks and conducting separate corporate outings.

"We've had people calling all day to see if we had any cancellations," said David Evangelista, the general manager, armed with glow-sticks as he set up the course at dusk. "The response has been really cool. We all love it, because it's something completely different."

At 8:45 p.m., on the Friday night preceding Memorial Day weekend, players jumped into their electric carts and went roaming in the gloaming. The differences were immediate from the beginning -- when it's pitch black and you can't see straight, much less crooked, everybody swings the club like Tiger Woods. In theory, anyway.

"Whether you have played the game or not," Evangelista said, "everybody looks bad when they play on a Florida golf course at night. It's an art to try to figure it out."

Night golf with glow-balls has been around for years, but Dubsdread this year found a quirky niche and begun to scratch it furiously. The storied, city-owned layout, with events already set for June 16 and 30, has actually turned away players because of the tournaments' popularity. Because organizers can only use the front nine -- golfers would be forced to twice cross busy Par Avenue in their carts in the dark if the back nine were used -- Dubsdread can accommodate only around 70 players.

"We could probably sign up twice that many if we wanted," Evangelista said.

He might be right, because this is no frat-boy Friday night excursion. The players look like a demographic cross section of the city, ranging in ages from agile kids to gimpy retirees, with more than a smattering of female and minority players, too. For instance, 14-year-old Robert Smith just finished his eighth-grade year and is back to defend the unlikely title he won two weeks earlier with a trio of other teens.

"Made a 45-foot bomb for a birdie on the last hole to win it by one," Smith said.

Come to think of it, doesn't Orlando have a curfew law? Smith has been entrusted to a group with three players between the ages of 26 and 31, including Connelly. Hard to believe that on the Friday night before a three-day weekend, the three oldest guys didn't have anything better to do than chase a little green ball around a pitch-black pasture, to modify an old golf cliche.

"This is only the warm-up," laughed John Iemolo, 31, of Lake Mary, who brought a 12-pack of adult beverages to help keep his swing well-oiled.

Playing after dark in Florida has its advantages, since it rains less frequently, the temperatures are more tolerable and nobody needs sunscreen. But playing at night requires some serious modifications. For their $30 entry fee, each player is given two glow-balls, which are about as pliable as concrete and travel about 80 percent as far as a typical ball. Each cart is equipped with a flashlight and bug spray -- the pterodactyl-sized mosquitoes are thirstier than the players -- and the Dubsdread cart girl has been selling beer at an impressive clip. Glow-sticks are tied to the flagstick and placed in the cup.

Thereafter, the game becomes a matter of blind faith and is full of little surprises. For instance, whenever a player hits a shot fat with a driver, a shower of sparks fly after the club impacts the sand. Epithets seem louder in the dark. Everything is done by feel. Well-struck balls arc through the air like tracer bullets.

"It looks like Iraq," a player observed.

No kidding. A few weeks ago, in an effort to beat the system, some military guys came out while wearing night-vision goggles. "Those guys did real well," Evangelista said, smirking.

In an effort to keep play moving, players use the front set of tees, which measure a cozy 2,200 yards. Still, the nine-hole rounds can last 3 1/2 hours, because at night, a difficult game can be downright infuriating, if not a shade dangerous.

Safety isn't taken lightly. Evangelista spent an hour beforehand sticking glow-sticks in hazardous areas around the course so that nobody fell off any bridges or drove a cart into a watery abyss. As a precaution, Evangelista affixed a glow-light to each cart, reducing the chances that anybody might get brained with a drive before the group preceding it was out of striking range.

Past your bedtime or not, it pays to keep your eyes open. In his first Florida night-golf outing, John Hahn, 29, almost collided with another cart headed in the wrong direction.

"At the last second, I saw his glow-ball in his hand and swerved," Hahn said. "It would have been a head-on wreck on a Florida golf course."

Nonetheless, Hahn chose to remove the glow-light from his electric cart and elected to wear it as a necklace -- perhaps so he could see himself choke, as one wiseguy noted. As it turned out, his foursome finished in a tie for second, one stroke off the winning scramble score of 6 under. The last-place team finished 2 over and received a consolation prize -- free towels.

"The Dubsdread crying towel is a tradition around this Florida golf course," Evangelista said.

Wildlife Officials Angry Over Florida Golf Course Project

Another Florida Golf course community, another battle to save Collier County's vanishing wetlands.

A project that would destroy nearly 600 acres of wetlands is drawing sharp criticism from federal environmental officials and local environmental groups.

"I'm gagging over the wetlands impacts," said Nancy Payton, Southwest Florida field representative for the Florida Wildlife Federation. "It's just over the top."

Plans call for building up to 2,000 homes, a golf course and enough commercial space to cover 10 football fields east of Collier Boulevard near the intersection at Rattlesnake Hammock Road. The project lies in critical Florida panther habitat and straddles Collier's urban boundary line.

The nutrients generated by the new roads, rooftops and manicured lawns might cause "significant degradation and water quality impacts" downstream, James D. Giattina, director of the Environmental Protection Agency's water management division in Atlanta, wrote in a letter last month.

One of the proposed outfalls for the project is the Henderson Creek Canal, the main tributary for Rookery Bay, which is listed as an Outstanding Florida Waterway.

But the environment isn't the only consideration here.

Swamp buggies on the move?

Toll Brothers, a luxury home builder, paid $108 million for the land last year and is looking to acquire more. The Florida Sports Park, which has hosted swamp buggy races for 20 years, might be making way for the project — but not that far away.

Toll Brothers is negotiating to buy the 28-acre park in a deal that also would give the park owners a new spot for the "Mile-O-Mud" within the project area.

Rob Swift, president of the nonprofit Swamp Buggy Inc., said "it's hard to say" whether the deal will become finalized. There are several reasons to accept the offer, he added.

"The (existing) facility is really old," Swift said "We're talking a little more land than we have now, a new facility and money in the bank."

Swift declined to discuss several details of the potential deal, such as the exact location of the new park. Representatives of Toll Brothers and the Sembler Co., which is handling the project's retail aspect, were unavailable for comment Friday.

Talks involving the park's sale go back a few years to the surrounding property's previous owner, Mike Taylor of Vision & Faith Inc., Swift said. A proposal that had the swamp buggy track moving to the Orangetree area off Immokalee Road crumbled when nearby homeowners strongly objected.

Swift said there are no plans to move the attraction outside of Collier. The raucous shows routinely draw crowds of 5,000 people.

"This is where swamp buggy racing started, and that's where we plan on keeping it," said Sandy Montz, one of Swamp Buggy Inc.'s board of directors.

Wetlands woes

With its proximity to the Everglades, Collier County has found itself at the center of a nationwide debate over wetlands destruction in recent years.

A golf course development known as Mirasol, north of Immokalee Road, turned into an emblem for an environmentalist-led movement that aimed to curtail wetlands permits. That project involves nearly 600 acres of direct impacts to wetlands and a souped-up ditch that would have affected some 1,000 acres of wetlands beyond the subdivision's borders.

The wetlands' destruction would rob wood storks of a key feeding area, environmentalists argued. The project is a few miles west of Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, an Audubon-owned haven for the endangered birds. The proposed "flowway" will lower water levels as far away as the sanctuary, by some estimates.

The project's advocates said the flowway would reduce flooding to the north, particularly in eastern Bonita Springs, where heavy rains caused mass evacuations in 1995. The flowway would route flood waters into the Cocohatchee River.

In a rare move, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied the permit last December. Landowner J.D. Nicewonder has filed an appeal to the denial.

In the meantime, several environmental groups have filed a lawsuit challenging a Corps permit that will destroy 200 acres of wetlands at nearby Parklands, another proposed golf course community.

A battle looms

Enter Toll Brothers.

"How they think they can get permitted for that when there's this intense campaign over the Cocohatchee Slough is beyond me," Payton said.

Nearly 80 percent of the project's 2,250 acres consists of wetlands, according to surveys. Plans call for preserving nearly 1,200 acres of wetlands and removing exotics such as melaleuca trees to help nature rebound.

But with its proposal to dredge and fill in 582 acres of wetlands, the project "is one of the largest we've seen in Southwest Florida," said Skip Bergmann, team leader in the Army Corps' regulatory office in Fort Myers.

The federal Clean Water Act requires developers to avoid wetlands impacts and, failing in that, minimize the effect as much as possible. As long as the Toll Brothers project includes a golf course, the developer isn't doing everything it can to avoid clashing with wetlands, said Brad Cornell, a policy advocate for the Collier County Audubon Society and Audubon of Florida.

The EPA, in its review, asked the developer to "provide alternative site locations (for the development) that have been considered that would have less adverse impacts on the aquatic environment."

Reviewers with the South Florida Water Management District, which also plays a large role in wetlands permitting, have asked Toll Brothers to revise its plans to reduce wetlands harm. One of district's suggestions was to eliminate the swamp buggy track.

In response, Emilio Robau of RWA Consulting, one of the developer's consultants, wrote that "it is not feasible" to do away with the track because "Collier County recognizes the swamp buggy facility as part of its cultural heritage."

"We're going to try to work with them," said Ed Cronyn, senior supervising environmental analyst with the Water Management District's Fort Myers office.

The development also will need a growth management plan change and a rezoning approval from Collier County, officials say. The growth plan change could take years because the next review period doesn't begin until early 2008.

Nutrient loading

By the developer's estimate, the project will contribute 4,524 kilograms of nitrogen a year to the watery environment, about twice as much as what the sprawling property adds in its undeveloped state.

But environmentalists contend those calculations are flawed and that the difference in pre- and post-development water quality will be far greater.

The methodology is based on a developer-backed study that, environmentalists argue, incorrectly assumes that natural wetlands cause pollution. Wetlands act like kidneys, filtering nutrients that would otherwise trigger algae blooms in open water, experts say.

Part of the Parklands lawsuit questions the wetlands-as-polluters methodology, Cornell said.

Toll Brothers' consultants estimate that the site's wetlands produce 2,171 kilograms of nitrogen a year. "Water that goes through wetlands doesn't come out as distilled water at the other end either," Bergmann said in defense of the methodology.

He acknowledged, though, that the methodology "is not a perfect method" and will be replaced when the state develops a list of maximum pollutant loads for individual waterways in Southwest Florida.

One of the potential recipients of the polluted storm water would be the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, a federally protected 12,500-acre system of mangroves, pine forests and water.

"This area is extremely vulnerable to changes in timing and amount of water flowing through it toward Rookery Bay ... to the south," reserve administrator Gary Lytton wrote in January in response to the development proposal.

The development will "increase the anthropogenic (human) disturbance in the area," Lytton added.

Wildlife concerns

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists are still reviewing the project to determine its impact to wildlife, Bergmann said.

Toll Brothers' consultants note that Florida panthers, red-cockaded woodpeckers and wood storks have been found on the site, but, they argue, none of the species will be threatened by the project.

Four radio-collared panthers have wandered onto the property at one time or another. Last year, two panthers were killed on Collier Boulevard not far from where Toll Brothers intends to build.

There are about 80 panthers left in the wild, making them one of the most endangered species on the planet. South Florida is their last refuge. A federal recovery plan made public in January called for relocating some panthers to other southeastern states because subdivisions have eaten away too much of the panthers' habitat for the species to survive here.

Renovations Underway At Blue Monster, A Florida Golf Course At Doral

Doral Golf Resort & Spa, A Marriott Resort, one of the world’s premier Florida golf destinations, today announced that renovations are underway on the famed Blue Monster Golf Course. A 2007 World Golf Championships venue, the Blue Course, which is one of five championship golf courses on property at Doral, will be closed throughout May, June, July and August, with a scheduled re-opening on September 1, 2006.

“The Blue Monster stands among the best Florida golf courses in the world. As such, it requires constant refining to maintain playing conditions year-round, which will continually enhance the experience for amateurs, as well as the world’s best players who will compete here at the 2007 World Golf Championships-CA Championship,” said Darrin Helfrick, General Manager of Golf, Doral Golf Resort & Spa.

Highlighting the refinements being made to the Blue Monster include the re-grassing of all 18 greens, as well as the practice putting green, with TifEagle Bermuda. Additionally, the Blue Monster will undergo a complete bunker renovation to all bunkers on the course.

Other improvements planned for the Florida golf course include a cart path replacement project. All of the cart paths will be replaced with new concrete to help improve overall course management. Also, special 12’ wide paths, with extra re-enforcement, will be added to a few strategic areas of the course to help in World Golf Championships tournament set-up.

Adds Helfrick, “This renovation project is designed to re-fresh the Florida golf course, while keeping the design features unchanged. This will enhance the course on many levels, while allowing us to maintain the character and competitiveness that is the signature of the Blue Monster.”

The 693-room Doral Resort, which is managed by Marriott International and is officially named the Doral Golf Resort & Spa, A Marriott Resort, joined Marriott’s first-class portfolio of 60 resorts worldwide in August of 2004. In managing the golf business operations at Doral, Marriott International enlisted its in-house golf management arm, Marriott Golf, the world’s largest resort golf management company, and the first in-house golf management team ever established by a lodging company. Currently, Marriott Golf oversees more than 150,000 rounds of golf per year on Doral’s five championship Florida golf courses, managing more than 500 corporate and group outings per year.

Florida Golf Course's Tax Dispute May Go Before A Jury

Since 2002, Palma Ceia Golf and Country Club has challenged its property tax appraisal.

Several years ago, the Hillsborough County Property Appraiser's Office determined there is a big difference between a vacant grassy lot and a Florida golf course.

Contoured greens meticulously designed by landscaping architects made properties worth more, the appraisers decided. So the office changed the way it calculated values.

In 2002, those revised values appeared in the form of higher property taxes for Florida golf courses throughout the county.

Of the county's more than 40 golf courses, three Florida golf course owners complained about the increase.

But only one has kept the dispute in court for four years: the Palma Ceia Golf and Country Club.

Most of the people whose homes neighbor the golf course pay more than $1-million to live so close to the green. Last names of past and present members of the exclusive club read like landmarks on a Tampa treasure map: Frankland, Culbreath, Steinbrenner.

But when the appraiser's office upped the value of the Florida golf course by more than $1-million, therefore increasing taxes by about $30,000 a year, the golf course sued.

Every year since 2002, the country club has filed a lawsuit against the county appraiser, tax collector and executive director of the Florida Department of Revenue to contest the added value.

"Nothing had physically happened at Palma Ceia to warrant the change," said country club attorney Robert E. V. Kelley Jr.

As of this year, the Palma Ceia Golf and Country Club's eight buildings and golf course are worth about $6.3-million, including $1.2-million for the Florida golf course, according to the county.

"Given South Tampa real estate numbers these days, we think it's pretty conservative," said county property appraiser attorney Will Shepherd.

Stan and Frankie Harrell's 11,500-square-foot home on the edge of the fourth hole has a just market value of $7.2-million, according to the county appraiser's Web site. Two other neighboring homes sold this year for $2.4-million and $1.8-million.

County and Florida golf course officials have conducted their own re-evaluations of the property's value. At a mediation conference this month, they will trade their new numbers.

Shepherd said that after re-examining the property's value for the lawsuit, the appraiser's assessment has actually increased.

If the two sides cannot agree on a number, the dispute will go to a jury trial, where a Hillsborough Circuit Court judge will decide on the property value of this Florida golf course.