The Last Week in Florida

After a trip through alligator alley I visited a course in Palm Beach and cruised up the coast to Jacksonville to meet with golf course architect Bobby Weed and visited TPC Sawgrass. Sawgrass is where the Players Championship is played in March. It was designed by Pete Dye. It really didn’t fit my agenda, but was a course you have to see from an architectural stand point. It has one of the toughest finishing holes in golf and one of the most recognized holes in golf. You guys might recognize this hole even if you don’t know much about golf. Look at the pictures.

Island green at TPC Sawgrass

Tee box is on the right side - green on the left.
The course I looked at in Palm Beach was the Old Marsh Golf Club another Pete Dye course. I didn’t spend too much time on this course, but it was very unique and is actually rated the 28th toughest course in the country. It is a private community and golf club, but what I have found on these private community golf courses was how the residents take great ownership in the course. They really value the course and appreciate the setting and the environment.





I’ve been visiting a lot of Pete Dye golf courses. Pete Dye is one of the most influential architects in the modern era. He really took advantage at what could be done with modern technologies and construction techniques. His designs were really imaginative by using very unique and distinct features such as railroad ties.


On my way up to Hilton Head Island I stopped at a resort called Amelia Island. It was designed by Pete Dye and Bobby Weed . The courses were listed in Golf Magazines as a top 10 Environmentally Friendly Golf course. The course provides protection for the native tidal marshes, oceanfront dunes, grasslands and savannahs. The course also created a 40 foot vegetative buffer to allow waterways to remain pristine.
The article was in the March issue of Golf magazine. I thought I would stop and look at some of these courses on my trip. There are two golf courses on this resort. The ocean course had five holes routed along the ocean which is my first experience of a ocean side golf course. The other course Oak Marsh was very similar to the Old Marsh Golf Club. The course was built through live oaks and marshes. I didn’t get to talk to any superintendents about the course, but it was worth taking a look at since I was driving right by it.