Bobby Jones Golf Club officially reopens

When the Bobby Jones Golf Club officially reopened on Saturday, golfers were welcomed by the almost-never December conditions of heavy rains and high winds. 

During Friday’s grand reopening celebration of the project, which was eight years in the making, golf course architect Richard Mandell gave a forecast of what those first golfers on the restored Donald Ross layout could expect.

“My primary goal was to give a great golf course that you guys deserve,” Mandell said. “So tomorrow we've arranged what we call a British Open challenge. It’s going to be 100% rain. It’s a full tee sheet, so we expect everybody to be there.”

Mandell along with several local elected officials including city commissioners, County Commission Chairman Ron Cutsinger and State Rep. Fiona McFarland delivered remarks before a packed tent of more than 100 moments before a ceremonial first tee-off and the official opening of the adjacent nature park.

Photo by Andrew Warfield

“I was elected in 2015, and I can tell you we were talking about renovating Bobby Jones way back then,” said Mayor Liz Alpert. “We were also considered really crazy that we were going to spend $20 million to make this golf course and nature park happen.”

The golf course restoration budget was $12.5 million of that $20 million, paid for by a bond by issued by the city, which also secured a $3 million Southwest Florida Water Management District grant for wetlands improvement, which required a 50% local government match; and a $487,500 grant from Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

The original Ross 18 holes played from 6,240 yards, but Mandell lengthened the back tees to 6,714 yards. The course plays from seven different yardages, the shortest from 4,583. Golfers have the unique opportunity, though, to play the original length with Ross tees available on every hole.

The conversion of more than 100 acres of former golf course property into wetlands and nature park work in tandem to filter millions of gallons of stormwater through the property before being discharged into Phillippi Creek, and to preserve the entire 307-acre property as green space.

“When I was elected to the commission there was nothing that the community talked about more than the future of this golf course. The pressures to develop this land were incredible," said Vice Mayor Jen Ahearn-Koch, who was first elected in 2017. “We as a commission, including all the former commissioners, fought very hard to make sure that this land was protected.”

Now designated as a conservation easement, Bobby Jones Golf Club and Nature Preserve will be protected in perpetuity.