Source: Palm Beach Post (Florida)
From northern St. Lucie County to the southernmost point of Martin County, golf along the Treasure Coast is flourishing in some places, stagnating in others.
At Fairwinds Golf Course, in northern Fort Pierce, the public facility has become so popular that St. Lucie officials plan to add 18 holes to the east and north of the existing course.
This year, readers of Golf Digest voted Fairwinds the second-best public golf course in North America. Fairwinds, with approximately 62,000 rounds of golf per year, was second only to famed Pebble Beach.
"We've been busy, year in and year out," said Tim Coolican, golf course manager and head professional at 13-year-old Fairwinds for more than eight years. "Since 1991 we've been keeping a real consistent level of play, always over 50,000 rounds. And most of our play, of course, is from December through April. We're turning away over 100 players a day in the winter. We just don't have room for them."
The 6,700-yard course hosts the county amateur championships and co-sponsors the high school state championships each year. Coolican said Fairwinds owes its popularity to its amenities.
"For a public facility, we offer excellent service, and the course is always in excellent condition," he said. "(It's) playable and not too difficult."
In Port St. Lucie, the PGA Club serves as the hub of golf on the Treasure Coast. The facility features two Tom Fazio-designed courses and one Pete Dye-designed course, and like Fairwinds, co-sponsors the high school golf championships.
But the PGA's prize may be the Learning Center, a 35-acre teaching and practice area that allows players to hone their game by hitting almost every type of shot imaginable.
The Learning Center also provides video analysis, computer imaging and detailed club-fitting in an effort to improve each player's game.
Although golf in St. Lucie County is on the upswing, the game in Martin County is at a standstill, partly because of smaller population increases than in St. Lucie.
"The big problem is that Martin County doesn't have the growth St. Lucie County has," said Bob Erickson, director of golf operations at the semi-private Ocean Club on Hutchinson Island. "It's the same number of people and players moving from course to course down here."
Erickson, who has been at the resort course for 27 years, said real estate development directly affects the area golf in a major way.
"Any new course that's going to come in down here (in Martin County) is going to have to be developed out west. The area between Fort Pierce and Vero Beach hasn't been developed, so a place like Fairwinds has lucked out because they have that last little niche there where they can add a course."