Ormond Beach, Fla. – Plantation Bay’s renovated Club de Bonmont course will open the front nine of the 18-hole layout in early January, according to general manager Greg Brousse.
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The changes have made this a more cerebral course, according to director of golf Derek Morrison.
“I think it’s going to be the best course in this area that I’ve played,” says Morrison “You have to think your way around the course, play the contours of the greens and fairways, decide whether you want to risk the birdie or ensure your par. It’s spacious, so it’s a good long-driving course, and there are a lot of backstops on the greens, which are great.”
Smyers, who last year renovated Isleworth Golf & Country Club in Windemere, Fla., the home of Tiger Woods and other PGA Tour players, is known for modernizing golf courses for today’s game. At Plantation Bay, members have two other golf courses – 18-hole, 6-year-old Prestwick Golf Course and nine-hole Westlake, which opened in March, that are considered player-friendly.
The members, Brousse says, wanted Club de Bonmont to be more challenging “and Steve’s the guy to get when you’re doing that.”
“The front nine has turned out great,” Smyers says. “That’s a beautiful piece of property and the renovation truly made it sparkle.”
Plantation Bay members, Brousse says, are “very excited because they can see the new course from their homes and from the road. At this point, everyone is just dying to get out there and play some golf.”
Since golf course builder MacCurrach Golf began construction April 25, Smyers and design assistant Patrick Andrews have been in the field often on this project, and holes 10 through 16 are finished. Now, the club is waiting for permits to allow work on a lake on the 17th and 18th holes. Part of the lake will be expanded and part of it filled in to allow construction of a new clubhouse.
The clubhouse will overlook the 16th through 18th holes, “so we want them to be breathtaking,” Brousse says.
Bill Foley is designing the clubhouse and a new turf-care center for superintendent Rick Herman. Construction of both structures should begin within the year, according to Brousse.
Smyers says he has no target yet for opening the back nine holes. That will be determined, in large part, by the time it takes to obtain the permits.
“Plantation Bay is a wonderful client, with great members, including a growing number of young professionals,” Smyers says, “and we’re giving them what they deserve: a wonderful golf course that will be a lot of fun to play. Dramatically longer. Great contours. Multiple angles of play on a number of holes. Variety. An intriguing ground game made that much better not only by the new contours, but by the winds from the Atlantic Ocean just two miles away. It’s a course that will make golfers think their way around it. It will make them better players.”
Seven of Smyers’ 40-plus golf course designs have been listed in one or more rankings of America’s top 100 golf courses.
Editor's note: Photo by Derek Morrison, Plantation Bay director of golf.