St. Johns County in Florida has scheduled two public meetings in September to get more input on the uses of the World Golf Village property that will be vacated after Sept. 1 by the World Golf Foundation.
The meetings will be Sept. 27 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. and Sept. 28 from 9-11 a.m. at the St. Johns County Administration Building Auditorium, 500 San Sebastian View in St. Augustine.
The World Golf Foundation announced last year that the Hall of Fame will be moved to the United States Golf Association’s new headquarters at Pinehurst, N.C. The museum’s locker room will be moved to Pinehurst and other assets are being returned to Hall of Fame members or their families.
The World Golf Village Resort in St. Augustine, Florida. Photo by Troon
The St. Johns County commissioner staff has been taking ideas online but wants to hear verbal comments at the meetings. That input, along with other research being conducted, will be used to develop a report to the board of county commissioners.
The meetings also can be viewed lived or replayed online on GTV.
The county set up an informational website earlier this summer and set up a survey for county residents. The survey will end Sept. 30. Comments can still be emailed WGV@sjcfl.us.
It’s been widely speculated since PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan was lukewarm on the facility.
Will the World Golf Hall of Fame move from its current location in St. Augustine, Florida, when the current lease runs out in 2023?
That’s been widely speculated since PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan was lukewarm in his public address at The Players Championship about the facility.
Florida Times-Union columnist Gene Frenette hopes if there is a shift, it means moving trucks will simply head south down I-95.
If the WGHOF moves after a quarter-century in St. John’s County, one logical destination could be a place that deserves consideration as the golf capital of the world – Palm Beach County.
Just Jupiter alone is home to five of the world’s top-10 golfers — Rory McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa — as well as four-time major champion Brooks Koepka. Oh, yeah, and Jupiter Island is where the 757th-ranked player in the world, Tiger Woods, has a residence.
With a brand-new interchange off Interstate 95 and a location 20 miles south of Jacksonville, one million visitors were projected to pull off and attend the Hall and IMAX Theater, the 400,000 square feet of shops anchored by a 32,000-square-foot golf shop, golf-themed restaurants and two championship courses that would host a PGA Tour Champions event and episodes of Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf.
LPGA Hall of Fame member Pat Bradley, who attended the first induction when Nick Faldo and Miller joined the exclusive membership, summed up what it meant to have a place where the greats of the game were celebrated: “It’s thrilling to know that long after I’ve left this world, people can gather and see the history of golf in this facility.”
The church has purchased the old PGA Tour Stop retail store in the center of World Golf Village’s commercial complex just off I-95.
Reverb Church, a non-denominational faith organization, is once again trying to put down permanent and more expansive roots in St. Johns County.
The church, which is part of the international Association of Related Churches, has plans to construct a 32,000-square-foot “house of worship and ministry hub” in the World Golf Village by year’s end.
The church has purchased the old PGA Tour Stop retail store at 395 South Legacy Trail, north of St. Augustine, in the center of World Golf Village’s commercial complex just off I-95.
According to its website, Reverb Church has been holding Sunday services at nearby Pacetti Bay Middle School since 2012.
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The church’s capital fundraiser campaign has reached $250,135 of a $500,000 goal and with at least half of that in the bank, according to Reverb’s website, can begin its work renovating the previous golf and pro shop in the complex, including adding a 508-seat auditorium. Additionally, the new facility will include a Reverb-branded café, a kids’ worship theater, and a lobby gathering space for congregation and community.
It isn’t the first time the church has tried to set down more permanent roots in the county, though. In 2018, Reverb had made initial steps toward securing a new facility in the Nocatee community.
“We do this by resounding the message of Jesus, making disciples and planting churches,” Lamoureux said. “Our new campus in Nocatee fulfills Reverb Church’s longtime vision to provide a place for Nocatee and Ponte Vedra families to experience the life-changing message of the Gospel, to grow in their faith, and to see families and children worship together in a vibrant and passionate environment.”
It is not clear when or why those plans fell through.
An architectural drawing shows the proposed new 32,000-square-foot building the Reverb Church hopes to build in the World Golf Village area, north of St. Augustine. (Contributed photo)
Church representatives did not respond to a request for an interview earlier this week.
Renovation of Reverb Church’s World Golf Village project is being overseen by Bent Construction which is based in Jacksonville.
In addition to the World Golf Hall of Fame, the surrounding complex includes golf clubs, an IMAX theater, several restaurants and the Renaissance World Golf Village Resort.
The stretch of Florida known as the First Coast offers tons of options, with TPC Sawgrass and Hammock Beach leading the way in the rankings.
Florida is synonymous with golf. It’s the Sunshine State, where fairways roll for miles and there’s always another course to sample – more than 1,250 of them in all.
Want to play where the top PGA pros live? These days, that’s Jupiter on the southeast coast. On vacation with the family? Plenty of tee boxes are available around Orlando and Disney World. Looking for a retirement home where you can tumble out of your own bed and land on a fairway? Naples and its surrounding towns are ground zero for those fortunate transplants. Three top-ranked courses in one comprehensive, golf-focused resort? Streamsong, just southeast of Tampa, ticks that box nicely.
Just about anyone who travels to play Florida golf is at least somewhat familiar with those regions. But what if you’re looking for something different, maybe a coastline where the game is on an uptick? Keep reading, because the region south of Jacksonville has something for any golfer, ranging from elite PGA Tour courses to municipal standouts with long histories and cheap green fees. And it doesn’t hurt at all that this First Coast, as it is called, is the first bit of Florida that anybody driving south on I-95 will reach.
The pool scene at Hammock Beach Golf Resort & Spa (Courtesy of Hammock Beach)
Golf in Northeast Florida roughly can be categorized as three geographic areas along an 80-mile stretch of coast starting at the Georgia state line. There’s the smaller area north of Jacksonville proper, with the resorts at Amelia Island and a handful of courses. Continuing south, there’s Jacksonville itself, the largest city in Florida by population and the largest in the contiguous United States as measured by land mass. And then there’s south of Jacksonville all the way down toward Daytona Beach, a stretch that includes Ponte Vedra Beach, home to the PGA Tour.
The top-rated courses in the Golfweek’s Best public-access rankings are found in this stretch south of Jacksonville, so this story takes us to this region dotted with beach resorts, high-end gated communities, daily-fee destinations and even a recently revamped municipal that shouldn’t be missed. The full scope of green fees and amenities to suit any budget. Oceanside holes. Inland holes. Old layouts and renovated tracks. Even one course with three, six, 12 or even 18 holes, depending on how you want to play it. Options abound.
Mention the region and most golfers flash right to TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach. Completely understandable. The Players Stadium Course – and, of course, its famed par-3, island-green 17th – hosts the PGA Tour’s Players Championship each year. It’s the top-ranked public-access layout in Florida, home to one of Pete Dye’s monsters.
But just as there is more than one island green along this stretch of coast, there is much more to the region.
“People are always aware of TPC Stadium and the Players, but they are often surprised by everything else,” said David Reese, president of Florida’s First Coast of Golf, a non-profit organization established nearly 30 years ago to promote the region. “Once people set foot in northeast Florida, they are blown away. … You’ve got the beaches, of course, but there’s a lot more to do. I could go on for hours, so many courses.”
Beginning in 2021, women in the space between amateur golf and the LPGA will have a place to test their match-play skills thanks to PXG.
Beginning in 2021, women in the space between amateur golf and the LPGA will have a place to test their match-play skills thanks to PXG. The equipment company has announced the creation of the PXG Women’s Match Play Championship for Oct. 25-Nov. 5, 2021. The unique event will take place over two weeks at World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Florida.
The event will feature 64 female professionals. Eligible players include those who are pursuing their dream of playing on the LPGA.
The players will compete over two weeks in two separate, but connected, tournaments. The first week will feature a 54-hole stroke-play format on World Golf Village’s King & Bear course, which will also seed the second week’s event, a 64-woman match play championship at Slammer & Squire. There will be no cut in the stroke-play event and all players will advance to the match-play tournament.
Each tournament will have its own prize purse, plus the champion will receive the opportunity for a tour-caliber full-bag fitting and equipment from PXG.
“We are thrilled for the opportunity to further celebrate and support women in golf with our sponsorship of the PXG Women’s Match Play Championship,” PXG founder and CEO Bob Parsons said in a release. “This highly competitive playing experience creates an exceptional opportunity for these talented women to hone their skills and fight to progress their golf career. I can’t wait to watch them play!”
The PXG Women’s Match Play Championship is one of 14 official events on the Women’s All Pro Tour, which is the Official Qualifying Tour for the LPGA’s Symetra Tour.
“If the Symetra Tour is the Road to the LPGA, then events like ours and tours like WAPT and Cactus Tour are the on-ramps,” said Mark D. Berman, a managing partner at MediaShare Consulting Group, which is producing the event along with On the Green Consulting. “For the past 10 or so years, the industry has done an amazing job at cultivating young girls to play this great game, much of that messaging centered on playing professionally. Now those girls are coming out of college wanting to further their career. This is a passion project inspired by our personal experiences with players at this level who are looking for another path in.”
The event falls in line with PXG’s support of women’s golf. The company carries more than a dozen LPGA players on its pro roster and provides equipment to many other top-ranked female pros.
Tournament week will also feature women’s initiatives such as leadership forums, executive networking and education. The programming is being developed and provided by Generation W, a national nonprofit founded and led by Donna Orender based in nearby Jacksonville Beach, Florida. The program’s mission embraces the guiding tenets of education, inspiration, and connection and the power of women’s leadership.
A slew of other sponsors have also signed on for the event, including Bentley & Maserati, Sqairz Golf Shoes, and Cox Media Group and Kessler Creative.
The Orca Golf Bags Women’s Match Play Championship will be held at the two World Golf Hall of Fame courses Oct. 26-Nov. 7 of 2021.
The First Coast has hosted PGA Tour, PGA Tour Champions, Korn Ferry Tour and LOCALiQ events.
It’s now adding a women’s professional tournament to the mix — which will be played under two formats.
The Orca Golf Bags Women’s Match Play Championship will be held at the two World Golf Hall of Fame courses Oct. 26-Nov. 7 of 2021, an official event of the Women’s All-Pro Tour.
A field of 64 players will compete in 54 holes of stroke play at the King & Bear, which will seed the players for the match-play portion of the event the following week at the Slammer & Squire.
There will be separate champions, chasing a total purse of $50,000. The WAPT has been a stepping-stone to the Symetra and LPGA Tours and has produced players such as Yealimi Noh, currently 63rd on the LPGA’s Rolex Rankings, and Symetra Tour winners Sarah White and Matilda Castren.
In addition to the competition, there will be a pro-am, junior clinics and other community activities.
There also will be leadership forums, executive networking and educational seminars provided by GenerationW, a national non-profit based in Jacksonville Beach by former PGA Tour executive and WNBA president Donna Orender.
The idea for the tournament began with MediaShare Consulting Group managing partner Mark Berman, whose daughter is former Jacksonville University player Hannah Berman. When the Symetra Tour was shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the only alternative for many female professionals was a hodgepodge of mini-tours and state opens around the country, which was expensive, to say the least.
Berman got Orca Golf Bags, one of his clients, on board as the title sponsor and in short order, the two tournaments became part of the schedule of 14 official WAPT events for the 2021 season.
“From the get-go we loved the vision of this tournament and knew we had to help make it happen,” said Erica Bennett, co-founder of Orca Bags, in a statement. “As a women-owned business, we always root for the underdog. Our whole message is to support the up-and-comer. We know what it’s like to fight for a seat at the table, so putting our name on this event matches our mission.”
Information on elevated hospitality, the pro-am, tickets, sponsorships and volunteering is available at TheOrcaGolf.com.
While the Players Stadium Course gets almost all of the attention – especially during the Players – there is other quality golf in the area.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass is a fun risk-reward par 5, stretching 499 yards with water all down the left. But you already knew that, right? Because everybody knows about the world-famous 17th at TPC Sawgrass?
Sorry for the misdirect, but that short par 3 with the island green next door isn’t the only 17th hole in town. Not even the only 17th built by Pete Dye. While the Players Stadium Course gulps down almost all of the attention – especially during the Players Championship – there is a more-than-worthy track that begins on the other side of the practice range at TPC Sawgrass.
Dye’s Valley, which Dye built with fellow architects Bobby Weed and Jerry Pate, is a watery test of its own. Opened in 1987, Dye’s Valley is likely to rejoin the Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list for best public-access courses in Florida when the annual list is revised in May.
No. 16 at TPC Sawgrass Dye’s Valley (Courtesy of TPC Sawgrass)
But that doesn’t make Dye’s Valley any less fun, what with its generous-enough fairways, seemingly everywhere water and mounding straight out of the famed architect’s textbook.
For golf fans looking to tee it up themselves in northeast Florida as the Players Championship revs into high gear in March, there are several solid options.
About 20 miles by car from TPC Sawgrass are two courses that have grabbed plenty of televised commercial time in recent years, with Gary Player extolling the virtues of the World Golf Hall of Fame and its two neighboring courses: the King and Bear, and the Slammer and Squire at World Golf Village.
The King and Bear at World Golf Village (Courtesy of World Golf Village)
The King and Bear, with 18 holes built by Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus in 2000, is the wider and more forgiving of the two layouts. Billed as the only course in the world co-designed by the two legends, it presents a fun chance to take mighty cuts off the tee – Palmer and Nicklaus enjoyed the long ball, after all – and still find room to recover from a few foul balls.
The layout features what Palmer called one of his favorite holes that he designed, the 360-yard par-4 15th with water all down the right and a green perched atop boulders. In immaculate shape for a recent mid-winter round and with water in play throughout, the King and Bear is more than worthy of a side trip inland from TPC Sawgrass during Players Championship week.
The Slammer and Squire at World Golf Village (Courtesy of World Golf Village)
The Slammer and Squire is much more old-school Florida golf, with tighter fairways nestled between thick native foliage and frequent water.
Design credit goes to Weed in collaboration with a different pair of Hall of Fame legends, Sam Snead and Gene Sarazen. Offering close views of the World Golf Hall of Fame’s tower, the Slammer and Squire perhaps requires more thought and patience than the King and Bear. Its elevated greens also exact a steeper price for approach shots that fail to find the putting surfaces.
Hammock Beach’s Ocean Course (Courtesy of Hammock Beach)
About an hour south of TPC Sawgrass is another pair of highly touted standouts at Hammock Beach Resort.
The Ocean Course, designed by Nicklaus and ranked No. 10 in the state among Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play, features a surprising Florida rarity: six holes along the Atlantic. A face-lift that wrapped up in 2018 included wall-to-wall re-grassing and better views of the beach.
The resort’s second course, the Conservatory, is an inland design by Tom Watson that ranks No. 18 among the state’s public-access courses.
So while the spotlight will shine brightly on the Players Stadium Course for the Players, as it should, there are plenty of worthy options along the coast. In the Sunshine State, there’s plenty of light to go around.
