Jacksonville Golf Scene

The four-man scramble is one of the most enjoyable formats for team competition in golf. After all, finding one decent shot out of four is a welcome proposition to many golfers. Beginning this spring, golf clubs across the country will be able to compete in The Great American Scramble and vie for the coveted title of National Champions in Las Vegas.

After the longstanding Buick/Oldsmobile Scramble shut down in 2005, golfers were left without a national scramble competition. PGA Professional Wayne Stone decided to change that. Stone created an event aimed at bringing excitement, camaraderie and team-building experiences back to golfers through the scramble format.

Stone, who is the director of Golf at Windermere Country Club in Windermere, Fla., decided there was enough interest to create a national scramble just by gauging the response of his members to the loss of the Buick event. Encouraged by the feedback, Stone set out to create the national tournament that was currently missing from the golf world.

When it opened a little more than 20 years ago, the Cimarrone Golf Club, located 20 minutes from downtown Jacksonville and 10 minutes from the World Golf Village in St. Augustine, was one of the most outstanding new courses in the state of Florida.

In order to maintain its reputation as one of the Sunshine state’s leading layouts, Cimarrone will close down all its original green complexes June 30 to regrass in an effort to stay ahead in the highly competitive Jacksonville golf marketplace. They will use temporary greens until the 1st of October, which will give the staff at Cimarrone plenty of time to work on the putting surfaces and take the course to a new level.

General Manager of the Cimarrone Golf Club, Mike Rich, said the new grass his club will use is Seashore Paspalum, which has been extremely successful at Cimarrone’s sister course, Oak Harbor Golf Club in New Orleans.

THE PLAYERS is one of the premier events on the PGA TOUR and is widely regarded as golf’s “unofficial fifth major.” The tournament brings the best golfers in the world to the greater Jacksonville area and at the same time makes a significant contribution to a diverse number of charitable organizations throughout Northeast Florida.

Last year THE PLAYERS raised $2.8 million dollars for local charities and continued the PGA TOUR mantra as being the official sport of giving back. The tournament raises money primarily through ticket sales and sponsorships which greatly benefits a large number of groups.

“Realize that the money raised stays right here in the First Coast,” said Ron Natherson Jr., PLAYERS tournament chairman. “The dollars we give span the gamut of human services, youth initiatives, health care; all sectors you could ever imagine. We really touch them all, it’s wide reaching.”

Amelia River, renowned as one of the best conditioned courses in North Florida, continues to feature public and private play on its links-style layout. This Amelia Island gem, first opened in 2001, is one of the few in the area featuring TifEagle greens resulting in smoother surfaces for testing the golfer’s short game.

Add to that the wide-open putting green – and the spacious practice range – both of which allow golfers to be at their best after warming up for a round of golf. In the spring and summer of 2008, Amelia River Golf Club will be implementing an amazing price structure to keep golfers of all ages and abilities even more happy with the course.

In April and May 2008, golfers can play for $100 per round, per person when booking a foursome, including cart and range balls. In June and July 2008, golfers can book a foursome and pay only $75 per person per round, including cart and range balls. These prices will be available even after extensive renovations that added the new clubhouse and improved playing conditions at the public/private course.

Giving Players a Chance to Compete and Play on Some of Florida's Finest Layouts

The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach annually serves as the home to golf’s unoffi cial "fifth major" championship and currently features the richest purse in the game at approximately $9 million.

This coming December the fabled course will serve as the venue for the final event in the Hampton Golf Executive Tournament Series, capping a yearlong string of tournaments that will allow a contingent of amateur golfers from across the state of Florida to compete like the pros.

Hampton Golf, a management company that promotes courses throughout Northeast Florida, Ft. Myers, Orlando and Tampa Bay, started a competitive series for its members in 2007, and because the participants were so receptive to the idea, drastically expanded the number of events this year. 

There are public golf courses, and then there is Mill Cove Golf Club. An extensive redesign, changes in distances and tee markings, manicuring of areas around lakes and upgrades all around the facility over the past couple of years are now in place and ready to be enjoyed to the fullest.

Which is exactly what a group of NFL living legends did during Super Bowl week. Doug Williams, Warren Moon, Antwan Randle-Eland Donovan McNabb’s parents were among those playing in an outing hosted by the National Football Players Father’s Association. Now’s the time to bring your son or daughter, or dad, out to enjoy a walk or ride around the first public Arnold Palmer Signature Course in the area and one of Jacksonville’s truly public courses.

Owner/Operator T.C. Newman credits superintendent Mitch Wessel with getting Mill Cove into what many recent players believe is the best condition it has been in 15 years. The quality of the greens are as good as any in the entire Jacksonville area! 

The Ten Essentials for Golf Improvement

The Answer, when it comes to cutting strokes and recovering more quickly on the course, is actually ten components. On their own, each is powerful. Together, they lead to sustainable improvement – and the ability to overcome plateaus in skill and score.

Crediable Guidance from a PGA Professional is the place to begin. Select an instructor based upon their ability to develop client ability over time, not simply in a one-off, 30-minute lesson. 

Objective Feedback using proven technology can eliminate guessing and time-consuming trial and error. Digital video, motion analysis, biofeedback and a Tour database should be integrated into a total view of your progress.

A Proven Path developed by your Coach should be goaloriented, visual and trackable. Using a documented, time-based approach provides a far-clearer view of progress.

If this is your first time looking at Northeast Florida as a golfing destination, you have a new understanding of the phrase "Like a kid in a candy store." Northeast Florida is a candy store chock-full of lip-smacking golf. Woulyou like some play along the ocean, a round on a cottish-style links course, some knee-knocking carries over marsh and water? How about one half of the round near the Intracoastal Waterway and the other half in a pine forest? Or 18 holes so hilly, gas carts are required? No matter what, your favorite flavors of play are here in Northeast Florida. With limited time, you would want to be sure to play those whose style you'll enjoy the most. That's why there's Florida's First Coast of Golf, to guide you in those decisions.

Golf legends Gary Player and Arnold Palmer recently celebrated the “grand” reopening of The Grand Club in Palm Coast by playing separate ceremonial inaugural rounds on their newly renovated courses each designed, and then redesigned after their purchase by LandMar in 2004. LandMar and Hampton Golf brought back Player to rework his Cypress Course and Palmer to update his two designs, the Matanzas Course and the Pine Course, bringing world-class amenities to all three courses under the Grand Club umbrella.

“The Cypress Course at The Grand Club is a reflection of Player’s impeccable style,” according to LandMar Regional Manager Jim Cullis. “And Palmer’s appearance was pure Palmer, gracious, entertaining, humorous and fun. He epitomizes the spirit of hospitality and fun that defines our concept for The Grand Club. And the dramatic improvements made by both men to their original course designs have created one of the finest golfing opportunities in Palm Coast.” Separate fund-raising events coinciding with the openings raised nearly $25,000 for the Monique Burr Foundation for Children, a non-profit organization founded by LandMar to spread awareness of and prevent child abuse.

Ponte Vedra based designer Bobby Weed continues to bring the fun back into golf course design with his amazing transformation of the Lagoon Course at the Ponte Vedra Inn and Club that just re-opened for play after Thanksgiving. Area golfers will be giving thanks for this interesting and exciting experience for years to come as the Lagoon Course takes its place as the perfect complement for brawnier Ocean Course that Weed re-designed in 1998.

Longtime players at the Ponte Vedra Inn and Club will recognize some of this Robert Trent Jones original that was later tweaked by Joe Lee, but what Weed’s done to the Lagoon course, in an almost unheard of five months, and despite 44 inches of rain during construction, is truly remarkable. Low handicappers will still be challenged by the par-70 layout, despite its scorecard length of just over 6000 yards from the tips. The rest of us will get all the test we want, but also an element often missing in new course designs, the fun of a mental challenge.