The first of no doubt thousands of divots will be made Saturday as construction is formally opened at the Plantation Preserve Golf Course & Club.
The new course, at 7050 W. Broward Blvd., will cover the 211 acres that made up Plantation Golf Course until it shut down in 1998. Plantation Preserve, to be owned and operated by the city, will need a year of construction and is expected to open in September 2005.
"This is going to be a tremendous asset, not just for the Parks and Recreation Department, but for the entire community," said Parks and Recreation Director James Romano. "It's something that will be used by all ages."
Saturday's groundbreaking, scheduled for 10 a.m., will be the next step in a project that began three years ago, according to Daniel Keefe, assistant to the mayor. City officials spent months arranging funding, interviewing designers and developing a management and marketing plan.
It's been a long process of assembling everybody, and now we're ready to begin turning some dirt," Keefe said. "We think it's going to be a first-class public golf facility."
The 18-hole course was designed by Texas-based von Hagge, Smelek and Baril, which also laid out the famed "Blue Monster" at Doral Country Club in Miami and the PGA National Golf Course in Palm Beach Gardens. Keefe said the new course would have considerably more undulations than the course it replaces.
"It's going to be a dramatic change from what that course used to be," Keefe said. "It used to be open and flat, and now there will be mounds and contours."
The 18 holes will take up about 120 acres, with wetlands taking 30 acres and the remainder being open water and parkland. The front and back nines will be separated by a linear park, which will be open to non-golfers.
"It's not just a golf venue, and that's why we think the name Plantation Preserve is important, because we were re-creating some of the special portions of Florida," Keefe said.
The property will feature a driving range, a pro shop and a restaurant, and city officials think the course will become very popular with the area's younger golfers.
"Whether they play golf on our par 72, 7,000-yard golf course or hike our mile and a half nature trail, visitors to Plantation Preserve will take comfort in the knowledge that a large and historically significant parcel of land has been preserved and protected for all to use, including local wildlife," said Mayor Rae Carole Armstrong.
Source: Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)
