ORMOND BEACH, Fla. — The totally rebuilt 18-hole Club de Bonmont at the Plantation Bay here will be unveiled in a special soft opening for members on Oct. 20, followed on Nov. 6 by Fred Funk Day.
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The cornerstone of a $20-million renovation at the Plantation Bay golf community, Club de Bonmont looks nothing like its former self, according to general manager Greg Brousse.
“We’re all extremely impressed with the job Steve Smyers has done,” Brousse said of the golf course architect brought in to modernize the 20-year-old layout. “The front nine, which reopened in January, is exceptional. The new back nine that we are opening now is spectacular.
“From the tee, it is visually stimulating — which is really what we were looking for, along with the strategy of the golf course,” he added. “You now have to strategize your way around the golf course, which is a neat feeling we never had before.”
The event Oct. 20 will begin at 8 a.m. “It will be a low-key event,” Brousse said. “We’ll let members enjoy the golf course, take their time playing it, and look at the intricacies of each hole.”
On Nov. 6 Funk, one of the most popular players on the PGA Tour and now the Champions Tour, will play Club de Bonmont with the facility’s staff professionals and visit with guests as Plantation Bay members express appreciation to the surrounding community.
Brousse said members have been exuberant about the construction they have seen on the rebuilt golf course, and he is confident the layout will win them all over when they play it.
Course builder MacCurrach Golf Construction worked with Smyers to improve drainage, build greens to U.S. Golf Association specifications and create a new lake that will be a centerpiece of the facility — serving as a hazard for the new 17th and 18th holes as well as scenery for a new clubhouse that is expected to get under construction in the first quarter of 2007.
Plantation Bay has two other golf courses — 18-hole, 6-year-old Prestwick Golf Course and nine-hole Westlake, which opened in March 2005, that are considered player-friendly. Smyers, who last year completely remodeled Isleworth Golf & Country Club in Windemere, Fla., to make it more challenging for such members as Tiger Woods and Mark O’Meara, was asked to add muscle to Club de Bonmont’s layout.
Smyers took the cue to completely redesign of the existing 18 holes. He infused his design with an array of bunkers, one of his signatures, throughout the spacious, wooded property.
He modified the existing routing, keeping the playing corridors but changing tee and green locations to alter the angles and strategy of the golf.
Modern Bermudagrasses have also been planted: Tifeagle on the putting surfaces and Tifsport in the fairways.
Brousse said that besides a new clubhouse, the $20-million in improvements will include a fitness center, which go under construction by the end of this year; renovation of all 10 tennis courts, beginning this fall; and a new turf-care facility. The fitness center will contain pools, workout and group fitness rooms, massage rooms and a sauna.