Tag: Mike Nuzzo

Cabot Citrus Farms in Florida, formerly World Woods, to add non-traditional layout named The 21

Formerly World Woods, the rebranded Cabot Citrus Farms in Florida will feature two full-size renovated layouts as well as the short course.

The Cabot Collection ­– the rapidly expanding Canadian golf developer and operator purchasing or building courses in areas ranging from Scotland to St. Lucia – has announced plans for a new 21-hole non-traditional course at its Florida property, Cabot Citrus Farms.

Formerly known as World Woods, with two courses originally designed by Tom Fazio and opened in 1994, Citrus Farms is seeing a complete renovation and rethinking as it becomes Cabot’s first property in the United States. About an hour’s drive north of Tampa International Airport, Cabot Citrus Farms is constructing a new clubhouse, luxury accommodations, practice facilities, shopping, dining, event spaces and new homes that go on sale in February.

The two renovated 18-hole courses, which feature sandy soil and somewhat surprising elevation features for Florida, are scheduled to open in December alongside the new short course.

The planned layout for The 21, a non-traditional short course at Cabot Citrus Farms in Florida (Courtesy of Cabot Collection)

The old Pine Barrens 18-hole course is being redone by architect Kyle Franz and will be renamed Cabot Barrens (pictured atop this story). Franz is partnering with Mike Nuzzo and advisor Ran Morrissett on the renovation of the old Rolling Oaks layout into the rebranded Cabot Oaks. The architecture team of Keith Rhebb and Riley Johns originally was pegged to complete the Cabot Oaks layout, but Cabot switched to Franz, Nuzzo and Morrissett in 2022.

Both Pine Barrens and Rolling Oaks appeared in various years among the top 100 on Golfweek’s Best Modern Courses list, but over the past decade the property had lost much of its premium luster before Cabot purchased it in 2022 and announced plans for a complete and overdue overhaul.

Nuzzo will be in charge of design for the property’s short course, a non-traditional layout named The 21. Nuzzo was challenged to design as many holes as would fit in the 100 acres dedicated to the project, and he came up with 21 of them, many of them half-par holes, all of them promising interesting green complexes and a variety of strategies involved. The 21 also can be played as two distinct short courses instead of as one complete layout.

“We always want to keep the game fresh and exciting,” Ben Cowan-Dewar, CEO and co-founder of The Cabot Collection, said in a media release announcing The 21. “While (Bandon Dunes Golf Resort founder and early Cabot investor) Mike Keiser and I were looking at the terrain and courses we have in play, the idea was born to shape our 10-hole course and the 11-hole-course into a new 21-hole concept. The 21’s layout beckons golf aficionados who just can’t get enough of the rolling terrain in the Floridian countryside. This trifecta of courses at Cabot Citrus Farms will both challenge and delight players of all levels, with each paying homage to a handful of the most beloved places in the golf world.”

Check out several images of the redeveloping property below:

Cabot selects course designers to renovate the former World Woods in Florida

Younger designers have chance to shine on their own at Cabot Citrus Farms in Florida.

Cabot, the developer and operator of several golf resorts around the world, has selected the golf architects who will tackle the Canadian company’s latest venture in Florida – and several younger designers have a chance to shine.

Kyle Franz and the team of Keith Rhebb and Riley Johns will renovate the two 18-hole courses at Cabot Citrus Farms, the former World Woods, an hour’s drive north of Tampa. Cabot also tagged Mike Nuzzo to build a short course, a new nine-hole course and the practice facilities.

There had been much speculation among golf architecture fans of who might land the jobs to redesign the two 18-hole layouts originally built by Tom Fazio nearly 30 years ago. Cabot announced in January that it had purchased the 1,200-acre property with plans to reimagine the entire experience. Those initiatives include real estate development, retail operations, restaurants, fitness and spa amenities, communal gathering points and a farmer’s market.

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Pine Barrens at World Woods in Florida, which will be turned into Cabot Citrus Farms (Courtesy of Cabot/Evan Schiller)

Cabot, co-founded by Ben Cowan-Dewar and Bandon Dunes founder Mike Keiser, also owns Cabot Cape Breton, site of Cabot Cliffs and Cabot Links, the two highest-ranked courses on Golfweek’s Best Modern Canadian Courses list. The company plans to open Cabot St. Lucia, with 18 holes designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, this year in the Caribbean. The company also is building Cabot Revelstoke, an 18-hole layout by Rod Whitman scheduled to open in 2024, in the Monashee and Selkirk mountain ranges near the city of Revelstoke in British Columbia in western Canada.

Franz will tackle the renovation of the Pine Barrens 18 at the former World Woods, which at one point was ranked by Golfweek’s Best among the top 50 modern courses in the U.S. but by 2021 had fallen to No. 172 on that list and No. 5 in Florida on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list for public-access layouts.

“Cabot Citrus Farms is going to be an extraordinary destination, and we are thrilled to be a part of this effort,” Franz said in a statement announcing the news. “Our goal for Pine Barrens is to take its dramatic, sandy land and maximize it into one of the most spectacular golf courses in the region and country.

“In our view, the perfect formula for Pine Barrens combines rugged sandscapes and vegetation that meld with the natural topography, classical contouring and creative short-grass recovery shots around the greens, wider corridors of play and multiple strategic routes to the pin, fascinating grassing patterns and varied tee box placements so that players get a fresh look at the different options every time they tee it up.”

Franz worked for years for famous designers such as Tom Doak, Gil Hanse and the team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. His solo efforts in recent years include such highly acclaimed courses as Mid Pines, Pine Needles and Southern Pines – all near Pinehurst, North Carolina ­– and the Minikahda Club in Minneapolis.

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Rolling Oaks at World Woods in Florida, which will be turned into Cabot Citrus Farms (Courtesy of Cabot/Evan Schiller)

Rhebb and Johns will renovate the Rolling Oaks 18, which ranked No. 22 among Florida’s public-access layouts in 2021. The pair has worked for years on projects with Coore and Crenshaw, and their independent efforts include the much-heralded Winter Park Country Club near Orlando, Point Grey Golf and Country Club in Vancouver and the new Bootlegger par-3 course at Forest Dunes in Michigan. Rhebb, in particular, has spent much of the past two years working for Coore and Crenshaw at the new Cabot Saint Lucia.

Nuzzo’s largest success has been Wolf Point Ranch, which Golfweek’s Best ranks as No. 7 among private courses in Texas. As with all the architects selected to rework the former World Woods, he expressed his excitement to work in such a sandy site that allows for extreme creativity.

“Both the site and the client are essential to creating a special golf course,” he said in the media release announcing the designers. “With Cabot Citrus Farms, we have the best of both worlds, a natural sandy site and an innovative, forward-thinking client. Having fewer traditional golf constraints for our portion of the project presents an extra layer of opportunity for creativity. We’re looking forward to seeing the whole project come together!”

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