The PGA of America announced today that it has entered a licensing agreement for the first-ever PGA Village to be developed outside of the U.S., on Cat Island in the Bahamas.
The PGA Village The Bahamas is the result of an agreement between the PGA of America and Cat Island Partners, which leads the development of the Cat Island Golf & Beach Resort. The PGA-licensed property will be owned by Cat Island Partners and operated by Southworth Golf, a subsidiary of Southworth Development, Newton, Mass.
The new PGA Village The Bahamas will feature the first Rees Jones original designed championship golf course in the Caribbean. Construction of the facility is scheduled to begin in conjunction with phase one construction of the master-planned Cat Island Golf & Beach Resort. Construction of the first phase is expected to take three years.
“The PGA Village in the Bahamas is an example of the global growth of golf and will be a premier destination for PGA Professionals and the golfing public,” says PGA of America President Brian Whitcomb. “We are excited about the impact it will have on the Bahamas as a tourist destination as well as the employment and golf opportunities it will create for the Island.”
Like its sister Villages in Port St. Lucie, Fla., and Las Vegas, the PGA Village The Bahamas will focus on growing the game of golf while providing world-class experiences and services to its members and guests.
The property that will one day become PGA Village The Bahamas sits on 1,906 acres of pristine Bahamian beachfront. Located 325 miles southeast of Miami and 130 miles southeast of Nassau/Paradise Island, Cat Island is the sixth-largest island in The Bahamas and features the highest elevations in all of The Bahamas.
Phase one of the master-planned resort community, anchored by the PGA Village, includes the PGA Golf Club The Bahamas, featuring the first of two 18-hole Championship golf courses the first of which will be designed by Rees Jones; a PGA Learning Center and a PGA Historical Center. In addition to the PGA Village, phase one also includes the development of a five-star, luxury hotel with a 12,000 square-foot spa and additional condo/condo-hotel units.
Additionally, the resort community will consist of low-density, single-family residential home sites averaging over an acre each, village town homes, PGA-branded golf cottages, an apartment complex, a casino, tennis center, and a full-service beach club with multiple oceanfront swimming pools, a beach café and cabanas.