Bobby Weed - Renowned Designer to Renovate Two Beach Classics

As probably the only member of both the American Society of Golf Course Architects and the Golf Course Superintendents Association, Ponte Vedra Beach-based Bobby Weed literally brings a down- toearth perspective to golf course design. From years of collaborating with an eclectic range of TOUR players and course designers ranging from mentor Pete Dye to Hall of Fame players Sam Snead and Gene Sarazen, comes a unique set of experiences that have resulted in the Weed “signature”, what he calls “half-par” holes. Nobody creates a wider variety of the shortest and longest par-3s and 4s you will ever play than Bobby, who loves to create fun and interesting holes that allow players to “step on and off the gas”.

You have likely played many of his works, or at least seen them on TV. His apprenticeship with Dye led to designs like the courses at Amelia Island Plantation and the Valley Course at TPC Sawgrass. He consulted with Snead and Sarazen before building the Slammer & Squire Course at the World Golf Village, a wonderful layout that pays tribute to how golf was played in the Golden Age of the ‘30s and ‘40s, when the game required a balance of mental agility and physical ability, imagination working the ball and exploiting “shortcuts” to the greens.

As the inhouse designer for the PGA TOUR, he constructed tournament courses like the TPC River Highlands, TPC Tampa Bay and the two TPC courses in Las Vegas.

Weed has received rave reviews for his local re-designs that have updated renowned layouts like the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, Timuquana Country Club and the Ocean Course at the Ponte Vedra Inn and Club, which traces its lineage back to Herbert Strong in the 1920’s and Robert Trent Jones in the ‘40s. His resurrection at the Ocean Course opened up many new options for players, without taking away the character and personality that brought generations of players over the years.

Now Weed is taking all that experience and imagination in a new direction, with the reconstruction of the Ocean Course’s sister, the Lagoon Course at the Ponte Vedra Inn and Club, and Selva Marina in Atlantic Beach. Weed says the Lagoon Course will be a brand new layout that will take the advantages of the short, tight, walker-friendly Joe Lee original that has stood the test of time. He hopes to open it up to the wider range of golfers now playing the game that still want to be challenged, but also desire to play a round in under four hours. You should be able to enjoy the fruits of his labors by early in 2008.

Then there is the re-routing of Selva Marina, where he will use today’s design and construction technology to create a totally new course, with many recognizable features of the present layout, updating all of the clubhouse amenities while providing a parcel of land for development that will fund the project. Weed calls it “repurposing,” and sees it as the next trend in revitalizing existing clubs, using the latest technological advancements to set the tone for how the game is played for tomorrow’s golfer.

Speaking of the future, Weed is always looking for that next great sandy piece of ground with no homes or boundaries where he can use his love of the natural landscape and new turf technologies to create courses in emerging golf markets.

But until that day his latest work in his own Jacksonville backyard is sufficient to show that every golf course, like every golfer and every architect, is.