Source: The Miami Herald
Planners of the new, city-owned Plantation Preserve Golf Course and Club want to make their course stand out in golf-saturated South Florida.
To help broaden the course's appeal, designers are sculpting its 18 holes around a 1.5-mile nature trail with a wetland preserve and a canopy of oak and pine trees.
''We knew it had to be more than just a golf course. That only attracts a certain component of people,'' said Jeffrey Flairty, nature park project manager from Miller Legg and Associates in Pembroke Pines. ''Our whole intent was to re-create the resource for the whole community.''
Course architect Michael Smelek designed the nature trail to be buffered by water on both sides, and placed it out of the way of most errant golf balls.
''The vast majority of golfers are right-handed, and when they mis-hit a shot, it's most often a slice from left to right,'' said Smelek, vice president of Texas-based von Hagge, Smelek and Baril, who has designed courses from Japan to Mexico. ''We put the trail on the left side of any holes it winds through to take away that risk factor.''
Plantation paid $7.2 million in 2002 to buy the 211 acres from Panther Plantation Golf, an H. Wayne Huizenga company. The money came from state and county preservation grants as well as a city bond.
It will cost an additional $10 million to build the golf course, clubhouse and nature park, said Dan Keefe, assistant to Plantation Mayor Rae Carole Armstrong.
Some of those funds will come from Plantation businesses that purchase corporate sponsorships. For $100,000, platinum sponsors will get a 50-person golf outing each year, plus three free rounds of golf a month for five years.
The golf course is on the site of the former Plantation Country Club, which opened in 1956, three years after the city's formation, and closed in 1998.
But golfers who played the old course won't recognize it after Smelek's redesign. He carved out lakes and is using the dug-up earth to create mounds and slopes along the otherwise flat course.
''Our goal was to create 18 holes that are very unique and distinct from one another,'' Smelek said. ''We want there to be some mystery from tee to green.''
When Plantation Preserve opens in September, it will be the only public course in Broward County with a type of grass called Sea Dwarf paspalum.
Smelek said paspalum has three distinct advantages over hybrids of Bermuda grass often found on South Florida courses: It requires less water, its weeds can be killed with salt instead of toxic herbicides, and it maintains its green color year-round.
Golfers will be able to tool around in golf carts equipped with global positioning systems that calculate how far a shot will have to fly to reach its target.
The club is offering memberships for Plantation residents exclusively through August. After that, other Floridians and out-of-staters will be able to join. The golf course and nature trail also will be available to nonmembers.
''Some people have already expressed interest in giving memberships as Christmas presents,'' Keefe said.
Colleen Cashman-McSween, the course's membership and sponsorship coordinator, is a Plantation resident and 1994 St. Thomas Aquinas High graduate who became a professional golfer in 1998. She played on the Futures Tour and has won about $60,000 since turning pro.
But after missing a few qualifying cuts for tournaments last year, she decided to take the job at Plantation Preserve, where she said she can talk with fellow golfers and potential members about the highlights of the new course.
''It was time for a change in my life,'' Cashman-McSween said. ''It's possible that I may get back out there [playing professionally] soon, but right now I'm happy where I am. This is going to be a top-notch course. They're not holding anything back.''