Tag: jupiter

Where to play golf around South Florida: Golfweek’s Best 2023 public-access courses

Thanks to Golfweek’s Best rankings, we break out the top courses around South Florida.

Call it South Florida or be more specific and call it southeastern Florida, one thing is for certain: The area stretching south along the coast from Port St. Lucie to Miami is packed with golf courses.

But which are the best? If you’re willing to drive a bit, there are several courses in this region that appear on the Golfweek’s Best rankings of top public-access layouts in Florida. All the courses listed below are within reasonable driving distance of cities such as Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Jupiter.

But it’s not as easy as pulling up our state-by-state rankings, which list Florida courses that might be a full day’s drive away from South Florida (which is not to be confused with southwest Florida, such as Naples, which is considered by most Floridians to be a distinct region).

None of this is to say there aren’t plenty of other worthy public-access courses to play around South Florida. There are. These are only the layouts ranked among the very best in the whole state that happen to be in South Florida.

There is one course worth mentioning that isn’t on the best-in-state list yet, but surely will be in years to come. Architects Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner recently renovated the former West Palm Beach Golf Course into the Park, complete with 18 holes and a short, lit  par-3 course. The main 18 didn’t open in time to appear on various Golfweek’s Best lists in 2023.

Included with this list is a general map of where to find all these courses. Each one on the list below is represented with a number on the map – keep scrolling to see the numbers.

Included with each course is its position in Florida on the Golfweek’s Best public-access list. For any course that appears on our other popular rankings lists, those positions are included as well.

A little background: The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them on 10 criteria on a points basis of 1 through 10. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings are averaged to produce all our Golfweek’s Best course rankings.

The courses on this list allow public access in some fashion, be it standard daily green fees, through a resort or by staying at an affiliated hotel. If there’s a will, there’s a tee time – no membership required.

South Florida map golf
(Google Earth/Golfweek)

LOOK: Alabama HC Nick Saban purchases new beachfront home in Florida

Nick Saban purchases a staggering $17.5 million beachfront home

Despite being 71 years old, Alabama head football coach [autotag]Nick Saban[/autotag] doesn’t plan on stepping down anytime soon. In fact, this offseason Saban doubled down on that by telling five-star recruit Ryan Williams that “he plans to coach until he croaks.” With seven national championships to his name and some historical recruiting classes as of late, Saban is at the top of his game and it doesn’t seem like he will be leaving.

Unfortunately, there will eventually be a day when Saban finally steps away, but he has made sure that when he does step into retirement, he will enjoy every minute of it. Saban is currently under contract with the University of Alabama through the 2029 season on an eight-year deal that will pay him $90 million throughout its entirety.

Recently, Coach Saban decided to treat himself to a brand new $17.5 million beachfront home in Jupiter, Florida. Jupiter is the home to many great golfers and has one of the greatest golf scenes in the world, Saban is a known avid lover of the sport. He will now be neighbors with guys like Tiger Woods, Justin Thomas and Gary Player, which I am sure helped finalize his decision on the new home.

The beachfront property is gorgeous as it features six bedrooms and five bathrooms at over 6,200 square feet. It will also come with floor-to-ceiling glass walls, a private garden, a dock, a boat lift and so much more.

Cheers to Nick Saban for living his best life!

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Tropical Storm Nicole, forecast to become a hurricane, threatens a Florida golf industry already battered by Ian

Many Florida golf courses suffered in Hurricane Ian, and now comes a potential double whammy with Nicole.

ORLANDO – Tropical Storm Nicole, forecast to become a hurricane before making landfall somewhere Wednesday night or early Thursday morning in South Florida, threatens to bring potentially damaging high winds and heavy rains to hundreds – possibly thousands – of golf courses along the eastern coast of the U.S.

The storm was over the Bahamas on Wednesday morning with sustained winds of 70 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center’s 10 a.m. report. It was forecast to reach the U.S. somewhere just north of West Palm Beach near the golf hot spot of Jupiter, home to many golf professionals. The storm is then forecast to cross Florida toward a region just north of Tampa and into the Gulf of Mexico before curving to the northeast into Georgia.

The storm’s projected path is likely to change slightly, as most tropical systems do, making it difficult to predict exactly which specific areas will be greatly impacted. And while most attention is – and should be – focused on any potential human toll and the threat of general property damage, there definitely will be impacts to a Florida golf industry that already suffered greatly from Hurricane Ian in September.

The National Hurricane Center’s 10 a.m. Wednesday projections for the path of Tropical Storm Nicole, which is forecast to become a hurricane before reaching Florida on Nov. 9 or Nov. 10 (Courtesy of the National Hurricane Center)

While Ian blasted Fort Myers and Florida’s southern Gulf Coast before crossing the state headed northeast, Nicole threatens to head northwest, crossing Ian’s path somewhere south of Orlando. While the greatest damage to golf courses is likely near landfall, there exists a serious threat where this week’s storm crosses paths with Ian’s track, making for a forbidding “X marks the spot” of potential flooding, tree damage and temporary closures in the center of the state.

In all, there are more than 1,200 courses in Florida. Except for those in the Panhandle to the northwest, few Florida course operators will escape some level of impact – ­ranging from a simple loss of tee time sales all the way to suffering catastrophic damage – from either Ian or Nicole. Because of Florida’s great amount of courses, more than one in 12 courses in all of the United States was impacted just by Ian.

Florida has hundreds of golf courses along Nicole’s projected path. Just among Golfweek’s Best ranking of top public-access courses in Florida, the storm’s landfall could impact PGA National Resort in Palm Beach Gardens and its No. 8-ranked Champion Course (site of the PGA Tour’s Honda Classic each year) as well as the resort’s other courses; PGA Golf Club’s 14th-ranked Wanamaker Course and 21st-ranked Dye Course in Port St. Lucie; Trump National Doral Miami’s Blue Monster (No. 15); Turnberry Isle’s Soffer Course (No. 16) in Aventura; possibly the waterfront Crandon Park (No. 19) at Key Biscayne; and The Breakers’ Rees Jones layout (No. 22) in West Palm Beach.

Among top-ranked private courses in Florida near the projected landfall are No. 1 Seminole in Juno Beach; No. 4 John’s Island Club’s West Course in Vero Beach; No. 5 Indian Creek in Miami Beach; No. 6 The Bear’s Club in Jupiter; No. 9 McArthur in Hobe Sound; No. 10 Loblolly in Hobe Sound; No. 12 Medalist in Hobe Sound; No. 13 Pine Tree in Boynton Beach; No. 14 Trump International in West Palm Beach; No. 16 High Ridge in Lantana; and No. 19 Country Club of Florida in Village of Golf. Those are just the courses ranked in the top 20 among Florida’s private clubs ­– there are dozens more private courses near projected landfall.

Golf carts at Sanibel Island’s The Dunes Golf & Tennis Club caught fire Sunday, Oct. 16, 2022, several weeks after Hurricane Ian passed by. The Dunes suffered significant damage when Ian slammed in Southwest Florida on Sept. 28. (Photo by Mike Dopslaff/Special to USA Today Network)

As Nicole crosses the Florida peninsula, the projected path takes it just beyond Streamsong Resort, home to three highly ranked courses. As Nicole nears Tampa, it is likely to halt play in this week’s LPGA Pelican Women’s Championship at the private Pelican Golf Club in Belleair near the coast west of Tampa. Just down the street from Pelican is Belleair Country Club, where a major restoration is underway of that club’s Donald Ross-designed West Course. Farther north of Tampa, work is underway on a renovation to the two courses at World Woods, which recently was rebranded as Cabot Citrus Farms.

The storm’s effects already were felt with Wednesday-morning squalls north of the projected path near Orlando, where some courses are still recovering from Ian’s massive rainfall. Some courses in this area are still repairing washed-out bunkers and haven’t completely dried out more than a month after Ian passed not far to the south.

Anyone with golf travel plans this week to Florida should check with their air carrier to see if cancelations are in effect, as several airports in the Sunshine State have closed or will close Wednesday, with potential reopenings yet to be determined. Orlando International Airport announced it will close at 4 p.m. Wednesday, and several regional airports in Central Florida likewise have announced closures. Palm Beach County Airport in South Florida also announced a closure Wednesday morning. Other closures and extended delays are likely around the state.

As Nicole turns north after passing Tampa, its nearly 1,000-mile projected path will take it over central Georgia between Atlanta and Augusta, then into South Carolina and north along the Appalachian Mountains through North Carolina, Virginia, beyond Washington DC and toward New York before passing back into the Atlantic Ocean. With heavy rains likely and severe flooding possible, that projected path will hamper operations and possibly cause damage at more than a thousand golf courses along the way.

Even for golf courses that don’t suffer severe damage from floods, many layouts in year-round golf environments already have begun winterizing efforts, such as spreading rye grass that could be washed away in heavy rains. Results potentially include the expense of reseeding and a downturn in seasonal turf conditioning.

In Florida, the most likely damage will be downed trees and flooding. Many courses along Nicole’s projected path already are suffering from saturated ground in the wake of Ian, making it even more likely that root systems of trees are weakened and trees can topple. Not even counting the dozens of courses that suffered Ian’s greatest damage near Fort Myers, many others are still working to repair bunkers that were wrecked by more than a foot of rain in a 24-hour period – several courses just south of Orlando still have standing water along fairways from Ian.

Most course superintendents along the projected path will spend Wednesday and Thursday readying their courses for the rain and wind, moving loose items and even taking down signage. But there’s only so much that can be done – it’s impossible to board up a whole golf course. The days preceding a hurricane or tropical storm in Florida are always an uncomfortable period of scrambling, waiting, watching weather reports and hoping for the best.

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While MLB season hangs in the balance, commissioner Rob Manfred works on his backswing

The photo has been mocked as a sign that Manfred hasn’t taken the negotiations seriously.

Major League Baseball labor negotiations continued this week in Jupiter, Florida — smack dab in the heart of golf country.

While the two sides have struggled to find common ground and games were officially removed from the 2022 schedule, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred was spotted Tuesday during a break in the steamy talks working on his backswing.

The photo, taken by the Associated Press, has been ridiculed by many who insist the upstate New York native hasn’t been taking the negotiations seriously.

The talks have run through eight consecutive days in Jupiter — home to a number of PGA Tour players — including one 16½-hour marathon session.

Manfred officially canceled the first week of regular-season games through April 7, marking the first games wiped out by a work stoppage since 1995, and indefinitely suspended the start of spring training. Even if an agreement is miraculously reached within a week, spring training won’t start until mid-March.

“Today is a sad day,” MLB Players Association executive director Tony Clark said. “We came to Florida to navigate and negotiate for a fair collective bargaining agreement. … The reason we are not playing is simple: A lockout is the ultimate economic weapon.

“In a $10 billion industry, the owners have decided to use this weapon against the greatest asset they have, the players. What is the ultimate economic weapon? Let me repeat that. A lockout is the ultimate economic weapon. In a $10 billion industry, the owners have made a conscious decision to use this weapon against the greatest asset they have: the players.”

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred looks on during the continuation of the second round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on November 14, 2020, in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)

This isn’t the first time golf has stirred a bit of controversy for the commissioner.

After MLB pulled its 2021 All-Star Game out of Atlanta over opposition to voting laws by Georgia legislators, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio sent a letter to Manfred asking if the baseball leader would be relinquishing his personal membership to the Augusta National Golf Club because the club was located in Georgia.

“Taking the All-Star game out of Georgia is an easy way to signal virtues without significant financial fallout. But speaking out against the Chinese Communist Party would involve a significant loss of revenue and being closed out of a lucrative market,” Rubio’s letter to Manfred said. As of early 2022, it is believed Manfred is still a member of the club.

“I am under no illusion that Major League Baseball will sacrifice business revenue on behalf of its alleged corporate values. Similarly, I am under no illusion you intend to resign as a member from Augusta National Golf Club. To do so would require a personal sacrifice, as opposed to the woke corporate virtue signaling of moving the All Star Game from Atlanta.”

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Beloved Golf Channel personality Tim Rosaforte dies at 66 from Alzheimer’s Disease

The former Palm Beach Post sportswriter, 67, was golf’s original insider.

Tim Rosaforte, who rose from a newspaper reporter to become one of the top American golf journalists, died Tuesday of Alzheimer’s Disease. The Jupiter resident was 66.

Rosaforte was only the second person in his family to go to college, using that determination to become a sports writer and eventually one of the most popular announcers on Golf Channel and NBC Sports as golf’s first true insider.

He didn’t have outrageous opinions or wasn’t a former player. Rosie, as he was known, simply told you what was happening behind the scenes, and he had the perspective to make sense of it. With his recognizable bald pate, he became almost as famous as the stars he covered.

Honda Classic honors Rosaforte: Honda Classic media room now Tim Rosaforte Media Center

Rosaforte misses Masters: Masters will miss longtime golf journalist and Jupiter resident Tim Rosaforte, who’s battling Alzheimer’s

Rosaforte rubbed shoulders with presidents, literally, and he had phone numbers to other heads of state. More importantly, he had access to the game’s superstars such as Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and anyone else who mattered. Rosaforte had so many contacts, he walked around with two phones. Legendary announcer Jim Nantz said Rosaforte once had Woods on one line and Palmer on the other.

Rosaforte has been recently honored in several ways: The PGA of America made him its 12th – and first journalist — honorary member. He received last year’s Memorial Golf Journalism Award. The University of Rhode Island, where he graduated in 1977, endowed a scholarship in his name in the neuroscience department. And his hometown Honda Classic named its media room after Rosaforte and created the Tim Rosaforte Distinguished Writers’ Award.

The son of a sanitation company owner in Brewster, N.Y., Rosaforte used his hard-as-tungsten work ethic and can-do personality to attend the University of Bridgeport, where he played as an undersized linebacker and on special teams. There, Rosaforte’s tenacity caught the eye of future Dallas Cowboys head coach Dave Campo, at the time an assistant.

Tim Rosaforte poses between Jack and Barbara Nicklaus during The Jake 2017 event for the Nicklaus Children's Hospital when Tim was the emcee
Tim Rosaforte poses between Jack and Barbara Nicklaus during The Jake 2017 event for the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital when Tim was the emcee. (Photo: Jim Mandeville/The Nicklaus Companies)

“Tim was a good player who studied film, took angles, understood limitations, and played hard,” Campo told longtime golf writer Jaime Diaz before Rosaforte won the 2014 PGA of America Lifetime Achievement Award. “He was one of those rare athletes who almost got all of it out of himself.”

Diaz said Rosaforte read that quote and nodded. “That’s me. I took that football formula and that’s my life.”

And what a life it was. Rosaforte’s work took him to places golf fans can only dream about. He covered 147 major championships and 17 Ryder Cups at iconic golf venues such as Augusta National, Pebble Beach, St. Andrews and Oakmont. He didn’t just attend these events, he covered them like the morning dew.

Rosaforte was golf’s original “insider,” one of the first print journalists since Will McDonough to make the transition to network TV. Rosaforte worked at The Palm Beach Post from 1987-94, after stints at the Clearwater Times, Tampa Times and Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, and before moving on to Sports Illustrated and Golf World/Golf Digest.

His first TV gig was alongside veteran Jay Randolph on the old Sunshine Network in the 1990s. Rosaforte moved on to PGA Tour Sunday on USA Network in 2003 before he started appearing regularly on Golf Channel in 2007.

And we do mean regularly. If a story broke, Rosaforte would soon have the inside info.

“I’d receive a call from Tim when nobody else would call me,” said Nicklaus, who first met Rosaforte at the 1980 PGA. “He’ll say, ‘Jack, I need your opinion on something.’ Not many guys would do that.”

“I think one of the reasons Tim was so good is because he knew the game,” World Golf Hall of Famer Nick Price of Jupiter Island said. “He was very passionate about playing the game. Tim would always ask very specific questions. He always wanted to get the answers correct, and that meant a lot to me.”

In a sense, Rosaforte was like Ben Hogan; their success was based on digging – for scoops or the ball out of the dirt. Rosaforte would always make the extra call. Or four. It was in his DNA.

“There’s a lot of insiders in sports today, people like Adam Schefter, Peter Gammons and Tim Kurkjian,” said Geoff Russell, who was Rosaforte’s boss at Golf World and later at Golf Channel. “If you go back 30 years, Tim was doing that before most of them.”

Just not in the same manner.

“He was clearly the trailblazer in this role,” said Tommy Roy, NBC golf’s executive producer. “It seems like there’s so many people out there who are ‘gotcha’ writers. They find a way to rip people and attack them. Tim wasn’t like that. He was so well respected.”

Tim Rosaforte was always comfortable in a golf tournament media room.
Rosaforte gradually built trust with the players – and a list of contacts that his colleagues would dream of having. It wasn’t the number of phones; it was the phone numbers he had that was so impressive.

“I used to kid Timmy, ‘How many U.S. Presidents do you have in there?’ ” said Golf Channel host Rich Lerner. “The question should have been, ‘Who don’t you have?’ The answer was ‘nobody.’

“And he was the last person to let you know about it. He wouldn’t brag like some journalists. There is not an ounce of conceit in him.”

Getting a phone number from the world’s top golfers in the 1980s and 1990s wasn’t easy – you had to build years of credibility — and it’s more difficult these days. Rosaforte kept himself relative with today’s stars through his hard work, perspective and knowledge of the game.

“You have to know when to toe the line between knowledge that you can divulge and you can’t,” Woods said. “I think Tim has done a fantastic job of that.”

In 2013, Rosaforte actually scooped the White House press corps when he broke the story that President Barack Obama was playing golf with Woods at the Floridian in Palm City.

Rosaforte’s only error came when he met President Obama on the range. “I patted him on the shoulder when he walked over,” Rosaforte said. “I didn’t know you weren’t supposed to touch a President.”

Rosaforte wrote four books and served as the president of the Golf Writers Association of America. He was a 12-handicapper whose low-piercing shots were as direct as his opinions.

“You could always trust Timmy,” Ernie Els said. “He would ask the tough question, but he would always treat you fairly.”

Rosaforte started having memory-loss issues at the 2019 U.S. Open. He was taken off the air as doctors originally thought he was having anxiety issues. He was later diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s and retired at the end of 2019.

Nantz, whose father died of Alzheimer’s, reached out to Rosaforte in 2020 to have him visit the Nantz National Alzheimer Center in Houston. Doctors determined the Alzheimer’s had advanced and decided against trying experimental treatment because of the potential side effects.

“Tim’s mind was razor sharp for so long and then, all of a sudden he was lost,” Nantz told the University of Rhode Island magazine. “Sadly, due to my own father’s own battle with this insidious disease, I know the heartache it has caused for all who love Tim. (Wife) Genevieve and the girls (Genna and Molly) have handled the caregiving side of this with beautiful grace.

“It’s the untold story of Alzheimer’s. There are more people whose lives are changed almost overnight than just the one who is suffering from the disease.”

Survivors include wife Genevieve, daughters Genna (Nick) Bezek, Molly (Mason) Colling, nephew Grayson, and grandchildren Graham, Finn and Saylor.

Memorial arrangements are pending.

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Why do so many PGA Tour players live in one small Florida golf mecca? It started with Jack Nicklaus.

More than 30 active members of the regular PGA Tour – and many more men and women professionals – call the area home.

Keegan Bradley was born in Woodstock, Vermont. The perfect spot for his first sports crush: Ski racing.

Bradley, an elite skier, decided to pursue golf as a teen, probably much to the delight of his aunt and World Golf Hall of Famer, Pat Bradley. But an area that sees 82 inches of snow annually with an average high temperature of 37 degrees for five months is not good for a game not meant to be played on the frozen tundra. So Bradley started a slow migration south, spending his senior year in high school in Hopkinton, Mass., attending St. John’s University in New York, before making the big move and deciding there was just one place to settle for a blossoming star on the PGA Tour.

“I don’t think anywhere in the world they have what we have here in Jupiter,” said Bradley, 35, a four-time winner of the PGA Tour, including the 2011 PGA Championship.

This is a story that can be repeated over and over: Golfer grows up in cold country; spends too many late fall and winter days shivering on hard, brown courses; realizes the only way to further the career is to find the perfect spot where greens are, well, green year-round.

Every search leads them back to one area of the country: Palm Beach County.

Whether it’s Jupiter or Jupiter Island, Palm Beach Gardens or North Palm Beach, Delray Beach or Boca Raton, this area is to golf what Silicon Valley is to technology.

This is the mecca for golf royalty.

“All these golfers have the luxury of being able to live wherever they want, and they recognize Jupiter, northern Palm Beach County has the greatest lifestyle,” said Jupiter mayor Todd Wodraska. “(There’s) great golf courses and the ability to have a boat in your backyard. … Those guys recognize it’s pretty spectacular here.”

More than 30 active members of the regular PGA Tour – and many more men and women professionals – call the area home. From Tiger Woods (and soon Phil Mickelson) in Jupiter Island to Gary Woodland in Delray Beach. Half of the top 10 in the current World Golf Rankings and more than 20 in the top 100 live in the area.

Among those is No. 8 and four-time major winner Brooks Koepka and No. 16 Daniel Berger. Koepka and Berger are the two most recognizable names who did not need to google the area and arrange for their belongings to be shipped across state lines. Both were raised in Palm Beach County, now live in Jupiter and continue to greet their peers making the move to their hometown.

Then there are the retired legends led by the Godfather of Golf, Jack Nicklaus, along with those on the back nine of their professional careers and regulars on the Tour Champions.

Want to put together an old-timers match? Here’s a list of Hall of Famers/major winners who could jump in their car to join: Ernie Els (the baby of the group at 51), Greg Norman, Nick Price, Bernhard Langer, Raymond Floyd and Mark Calcavecchia. Nicklaus and Gary Player – both in their 80s – could pick sides. All live in the Jupiter area with the exception of Langer, a longtime resident of Boca Raton.

That’s 81 major championship trophies or jackets on the PGA Tour belonging to golfers either living in the area or planning to arrive soon among the two groups.

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Jack Nicklaus started it 55 years ago

Jack and Barbara Nicklaus moved to Palm Beach County in 1966, settling in North Palm Beach. Jack already was 17 PGA Tour wins into his career, including four majors, and that year won the Masters and The Open Championship.

Jack and Barbara founded the Bear’s Club in Jupiter 22 years ago and it has become the hotbed for local professionals. Currently, 30 pros are members of the club.

Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy and Patrick Cantlay are among the members who Nicklaus said have sought his advice.

“I don’t go out and seek this, but I am available,” Jack said. “I’ve always felt like I might have some knowledge – you might call it wisdom I don’t know whether it is or not. I might have something to impart to the kids that might help them and I’m delighted to supply that to any one of them.”

Speaking to Jack Nicklaus about golf … that certainly is knowledge. Need proof? Nicklaus said he spoke with Cantlay about playing his course at Muirfield Village two years ago before the Memorial Tournament. What’s happened since? Cantlay won the event soon after that first conversation with Jack in 2019 and again this week, which pushed him to No. 7 in the world.

How many golf courses in Palm Beach County?

As the area was booming around the turn of the century, so too was its reputation for golf. Not only does Florida boast the most golf courses in the country with more than 1,250, but Palm Beach has the most of any county in the country with more than 160.

Add to that the weather, lifestyle and a significant reason that goes unspoken – tax breaks – and the movement has been well underway.

“I knew I needed to come somewhere warm year-round,” Thomas said. “I had a bunch of buddies here. I wanted to be around people that were going to make me better. I wanted to be able to play with great players. That’s been the biggest benefit.

“I can’t see myself living anywhere else at least if I want to continue to play golf.”

Thomas is ranked No. 2 in the world behind Johnson, No. 1 for the past 10 months. Johnson recently sold his Palm Beach Gardens estate for $16.5 million, $11.5 million more than he purchased it for in 2015, and moved to Harbour Isles in North Palm Beach. Johnson won the 2016 U.S. Open and 2020 Masters.

Thomas and Rickie Fowler live on the same street and are as close as any Tour pros in the area. Fowler has lived in Jupiter for more than 11 years and he has witnessed professionals from all levels streaming to the area.

“There’s always guys to play with, there’s always good games, and that’s something I’ve always enjoyed … being around guys that I can compete against and help push each other to be better,” Fowler said.

While the old “iron sharpens iron” theory probably works, it’s not necessarily for everyone. Shane Lowry, the 2019 Open champion and native of Ireland, was hooked on the area after playing the Honda Classic in 2014. After renting for four years, he closed on a home in Jupiter in the spring.

For Lowry, it was not as much his neighbors, but the neighborhoods that attracted him to Palm Beach County.

“It’s Palm Beach … Jupiter literally has everything,” he said. “It’s got good weather, great golf courses, great practice facilities. That’s why we’re here. We’re not here because everyone else is here. It just so happens that everybody comes here because it’s the best weather during the winter, the best practice.”

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If Tiger Woods builds it, they will come

Tiger Woods’ connection to the area started 15 years ago, when he was living in Orlando. In 2006, the 15-time major winner (second to Nicklaus’ 18) spent $38 million on a 13,700-square-foot home that sits on a 10-acre parcel stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Intracoastal on Jupiter Island in southeast Martin County.

“I miss the ocean,” he said at the time. “Being in Orlando … there’s a bunch of lakes, but it’s not the ocean.”

The purchase reportedly was at the urging of his wife at the time, Elin Nordegren. Tiger made Jupiter Island his permanent address in 2011 after the couple divorced.

By then, a smattering of Tour pros already had preceded him, including Luke Donald, Bradley, Johnson and Fowler. But many more would follow. McIlroy, the four-time majors winner, arrived in 2013, first living in Palm Beach Gardens. In 2018, he bought Ernie Els’ 17,000-square-foot estate in the Bear’s Club.

Next up is Mickelson, the recent PGA Championship winner. Mickelson is being tight-lipped about his potential move to Jupiter Island from California but recently said “the plan” is to move here.“ A lot of great things around the area,” was all he would say.

“A lot of the guys went to Orlando first,” said Donald, who was living in Chicago before relocating in 2006. “And then from Orlando they seem to come to Palm Beach County.”

Specifically, northeast Palm Beach County, but with a few exceptions. Woodland, the 2019 U.S. Open Champion, was born in Topeka, Kansas, and attended the University of Kansas. He decided about a decade ago a move was necessary. He chose Delray Beach.

“I see everybody every week, I don’t want to see them when I’m home,” he said, smiling. “We always travel together. So I see them all the time.”

Woodland trains in Miami and wanted to be in south county. “We fell in love with Delray,” he said. “I don’t ever see leaving that place.”

‘For golf pros, this is heaven’

Professional golfers will settle for nothing but the best when it comes to facilities. Luxurious clubhouses, pristine fairways and immaculate greens are as important to them as finding the right accountant, caddie and chef.

And part of the lure is area courses.

While Nicklaus has made Bear’s Club a go-to destination, others such as Dye Preserve, Medalist, Turtle Creek and Michael Jordan’s The Grove XXIII, which opened in 2019, could host practice rounds featuring top players in the world any day of the week.

“Any given day, there are the favorable golf courses where games are being played at anytime,” said Jeff Leishman, a PGA Tour coach out of Dye Preserve who coached Berger for 12 years. About 20 pros from the PGA, Champions and LPGA tours are members at Dye Preserve.

Leishman called those games money matches. “We joked we were possibly giving out world ranking points,” he said.

Denny McCarthy, who moved to Jupiter in 2014 after graduating from the University of Virginia, said these practice rounds help “get those competitive juices flowing in an off week.”

“I’m such a competitor, so even for a small money game, I get up to play,” he said.

“Small money” is relative. Locals who continue to play the regular Tour have made nearly $1 billion combined on the course. That does not include outside ventures, which adds up to hundreds of millions more.

With so many world-class venues to chose from, several are members or play out of multiple clubs like Berger (Dye Preserve and Bear’s Club), Thomas (Bear’s Club and Medalist), Bradley (Bear’s Club and The Grove), Fowler (Medalist and Turtle Creek), Johnson (Bear’s Club and The Grove), McIlroy (Bear’s Club and The Grove), Donald (Bear’s Club and The Grove).

Woodland plays out of Pine Tree Golf Club in Boynton Beach, which Ben Hogan once called “the best course I have ever seen” and where Sam Snead was once a member.

“Other parts of the country or world, it’s pretty shocking when a tour player is at their course,” Bradley said. “But down here it’s very normal. The practice facilities are set up for us, we get to hit our own balls on the range.

“For golf pros, this is heaven.”

And they not only can be seen on the courses, but dining at restaurants or popping into their favorite Starbucks or watching their kids on a local ball field.

It all happens in Palm Beach County.

“At least once a week,” Jupiter’s Lucas Glover said. “For the most part, we frequent the same places, grocery stores, everything within five, six miles in Jupiter.”

Wodraska has been the Jupiter mayor since 2016. He’s become friends with Ryan Armour, who blends in like any other dad watching his sons’ games.

“In Jupiter, certainly the secret has been out for some time now,” Wodraska said. “I think they’re comfortable being out and about. When they’re here, they’re home. And home is being comfortable and finding your favorite restaurant and finding your favorite place to grab a cup of coffee so you don’t have to be hounded by autograph seekers.”

And no place is more welcoming and comfortable than The Woods Jupiter. Tiger’s flagship restaurant offers privacy and protection from celebrity seekers and has held several celebrations, including Thomas’ 2017 PGA Championship and Fowler’s and Thomas’ Honda Classic titles in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

All of which can be a huge boon to the area. The migration of not just great PGA pros but those from the LPGA tour along with other iconic athletes and entertainers makes the golf phenomenon happening in our area a Chamber of Commerce dream.

Realtor Brian Coffey of One Sotheby’s International has seen the benefits.

“I think it is a selling point,” he said. “If these people that could afford to live anywhere have chosen the Jupiter area and Palm Beach area to live, why wouldn’t I want to be around them.

“They are smart, very successful people. They can live anywhere they want. They’re living here. The homework’s been done for them.”

Active Tour players who live in Palm Beach and southern Martin counties

Active members of the regular PGA Tour who live in Palm Beach County and southern Martin County. (World Golf Ranking in parenthesis)

  • Ryan Armour, Jupiter (261)
  • Daniel Berger, Jupiter (16)
  • Keegan Bradley, Jupiter (73)
  • Patrick Cantlay, North Palm Beach (7)
  • Corey Connors, Palm Beach Gardens (36)
  • Luke Donald, Jupiter (514)
  • Matthew Fitzpatrick, Jupiter (21)
  • Rickie Fowler, Jupiter (87)
  • Lucas Glover, Jupiter (112)
  • Branden Grace, Jupiter (71)
  • Dustin Johnson, North Palm Beach (1)
  • Brooks Koepka, Jupiter (8)
  • Tom Lewis, Jupiter (127)
  • Shane Lowry, Jupiter (40)
  • Denny McCarthy, Jupiter (164)
  • Rory McIlroy, Jupiter (10)
  • Phil Mickelson, Jupiter Island* (31)
  • Joaquin Niemann, Jupiter (30)
  • Alex Noren, Jupiter (93)
  • Louis Oosthuizen, Jupiter (18)
  • Patrick Rodgers, Palm Beach Gardens (228)
  • Charl Schwartzel, Palm Beach Gardens (110)
  • Cameron Tringale, Palm Beach Gardens (74)
  • Justin Thomas, Jupiter (2)
  • Peter Uihlein, Jupiter (250)
  • Erik van Rooyen, Jupiter (88)
  • Camilo Villegas, Jupiter (222)
  • Aaron Wise, Jupiter (98)
  • Matthew Wolff, Jupiter (33)
  • Gary Woodland, Delray Beach (59)
  • Tiger Woods, Jupiter Island (134)

* Mickelson expected to move to the area

Las Vegas becoming the ‘Jupiter of the West’ for up-and-coming golf pros

There is a migration of young pros that are eschewing Jupiter, Florida, and the typical hotspots to make Vegas the trendy spot it once was.

Count Charley Hoffman among those who will be watching to see how Shadow Creek Golf Club stacks up against the pros.

As a student at University of Nevada, Las Vegas in the early 1990s, Hoffman, who didn’t qualify for this week’s CJ Cup field, has witnessed some spirited matches there. This is back in the day when he caddied at Shadow Creek and didn’t have two nickels to rub together but often lined up putts with $10,000 a hole on the line.

“These guys would roll up with chips in colors and sizes I’d never seen before,” he said. “I’d try to keep it light. I’d go, ‘Are you going to pull this one like you did the last one because my read will be a little different.’”

Hoffman stuck around after school and called Las Vegas home for 20 years and never struggled to find money games when he was away from the Tour from the likes of former Running Rebel golfers such as Bill Lunde, Chris Riley, Ryan Moore and fellow touring pros Chris Perry, Dean Wilson, Eric Meeks, Ernie Gonzalez, just to name a few.

“If I didn’t have family in San Diego, I’d still be out there,” Hoffman said. “I’d recommend it to anybody.”

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The reasons for Tour pros to set up shop in Las Vegas are many, but the most cited are access to two TPC facilities – TPC Las Vegas and TPC Summerlin, which hosted last week’s Shriners Hospitals for Children Open – a hospitably sunny climate and no state income taxes.

Doug Ghim, a native of Chicago who played his college golf in Austin, Texas, for the Longhorns, was looking for warmer climes and followed friends to Viva in Las Vegas.

“I hate humidity,” Ghim confessed. “That’s really why I chose it.”

But it didn’t hurt that two college teammates at UNLV: John Oda, who grew up in Hawaii, and Shintaro Ban, a Northern California native, were there, part of a migration of young touring pros that are eschewing Jupiter, Florida, and the typical hotspots of Orlando and Jacksonville area and Scottsdale, Arizona, to make Las Vegas once again the trendy spot to be. “The Jupiter of the West,” they are calling it, and the list of residents include PGA Championship winner Collin Morikawa, Aaron Wise, Wyndham Clark, Norman Xiong and Maverick McNealy.

It was actually McNealy, who helped make Ghim’s decision to move to Vegas a “no brainer,” by offering a room in his pad for the princely sum of $400 a month.

“That seemed too good to pass up given I figured I’d be struggling on the Korn Ferry Tour for a little while,” Ghim said. “I was sleeping on a twin bed. Once I got my (Tour) card I was like I can’t justify living on a twin bed anymore.”

Ghim has gotten his own place, but McNealy found a new roommate in Joseph Bramlett, another Northern California transplant who played at Stanford and at 32 calls himself, “the old guy.” He moved there about a year ago at the same time as another San Jose, California product: Justin Suh. For Bramlett, it’s tough to beat living six minutes away from two TPC facilities, having the ability to catch a flight anywhere, and as he put it, “being around a lot of motivated people trying to do exactly what I want to do.”

“It’s a really good place,” he said. “You can always find someone to play with.”

That group would include vets of the area such as Scott Piercy, Kevin Na and Alex Cjeka as well as LPGA players Danielle Kang and Inbee Park and American-based European Tour pros David Lipsky and Kurt Kitayama. There’s also several top-notch instructors teaching there including Jeff Smith at TPC Summerlin and Butch Harmon at Rio Secco, which was part of the original attraction for McNealy to move there. But Bramlett may have said it best when asked why he decided not to join so many of his Tour brethren in taking a Florida mailing address.

“I’m definitely a West Coast boy,” he said.