Tara Golf and Country Club celebrates 30 years of family

Martha Brandon and her late husband, Charles, were driving to their vacation home on Longboat Key from Nashville, Tenn., in 1990 when they saw a sign for the new Tara Golf and Country Club.

Curious, they pulled up to the trailer that served as the community’s sales center, and began talking with the sales people. A couple, dressed in tennis attire, arrived and caught the Brandons’ attention. They, too, loved the sport.

“We asked if they would like to play tennis some time,” Brandon recalled. “They said, ‘How about right now?’”

Brandon laughed at the memory.

Joyce and Herb Furman became fast friends.

“We’ve met the nicest people here,” Brandon said.

It’s one of the reasons she has loved living in Tara Golf and Country Club, which just finished its 30th anniversary celebration. From Feb. 25 to March 2, residents enjoyed a variety of celebration activities, including a bocce bash, golf tournaments and a dinner dance with fireworks March 2.

The Brandons had originally purchased their Verandas condo unit as an investment, but it only rented for one season before they decided to rent their Longboat Key beach condo and live at Tara instead.

“We found ourselves coming here all the time,” Brandon said. “We came over to play golf and tennis. We played lots of tennis.”

Brandon still golfs twice a week and enjoys trivia at the clubhouse every other Tuesday night. A group of friends

usually comes over Wednesday afternoons to play bridge before bocce begins.

Brandon’s neighbor, Helen Kunzman, quit golfing two years ago, but she still uses her neighborhood pool almost every day and plays bridge at least twice per week. She and her late husband, Thomas, moved to Tara in 1989 as their retirement home. They were the sixth couple to move in, Kunzman said.

“My husband loved it here, loved it,” she said. “It’s been a nice life, it really has.”

Tara-Manatee, a division of Naples-based Power Corp., opened the Tara Golf and Country Club Golf Course on Labor Day in 1989. There was a trailer on-site until the clubhouse opened in January the following year.

The community was the first part of the overall Tara development to open. Although it initially accepted members from other courses, Tara Golf and Country Club now is private to its residents, who have equity membership to the course and clubhouse. The larger Tara Development of Regional Impact also includes The Preserve at Tara and the Twelve Oaks Shopping Center and surrounding commercial property. The Preserve Golf Club opened in January 2001 after the Tara CDD, whose territory includes the residences around it, formed in December 1999.

Tony Greisling has served as Tara Golf and Country Club’s general manager since 1994.

“When Tara was first opened, it was all about golf — mostly retirees, but it was golf,” Greisling said. “Everybody played five days a week, or seven days a week.”

The community’s makeup has changed as newer residents have moved in, Greisling said. He said younger owners do not mind paying for the mandatory membership at the club, which is tied to their home lot, because of the amenities offered.

“They’re buying the wellness services, the food and beverage,” Greisling said. “The golf is not that important to them, but they’re wiling to pay for the golf even if they don’t use it.”

Residents say the area has changed, with more traffic on State Road 70, residential development to the north and east and commercial plazas now to the north. But Tara Golf and Country Club itself has largely remained the same, keeping its familial feel.

“I call it the Midwest feeling,” longtime Tara Golf and Country Club resident Wilma McCray said.