- January 9, 2025
-
-
Loading
Loading
It was a collection of some of the world's top golf course designers and builders, but you would have thought the group doing a "walkabout" at the Miakka Golf Club site were members of the local garden club.
The subjects of the special day in December were live oaks, sand-capped surfaces, Lazer and Stadium zoysiagrass, soil amendments, filtration basins and indigenous vegetation.
Leading much of the veritable agronomy clinic was Jason Straka, who has a Bachelor of Science in landscape architecture from Cornell University along with a master's degree in professional studies in agriculture, agronomy and environmental golf course design.
He could talk plants and soil with the best of them.
The status of the land surrounding Straka could best be described as "ready for the planting season." Dirt, dirt and more dirt, with row after row of plants and pile after pile of turf.
But, oh, the potential of Steve Herrig's 1,100-acre property along the Myakka River.
"This is one of the highlights of my life," said Dana Fry, half the Fry/Straka Global Golf Course Design team which is designing Miakka Golf Club for Herrig with help from Bradenton's Paul Azinger, a Major champion on the PGA Tour and former Ryder Cup captain. "This will be the place where all other courses will be judged. I assure you this will look completely natural. It will look like it has been here for eternity."
Fry's comment about the Miakka Golf Club design being the highlight of his life is impressive when considering that the Fry/Straka team has top-rated courses throughout the U.S. and the world. The designs include Calusa Pines of Naples, rated the No. 3 course in Florida by Golf Digest and 60th in the nation, along with Erin Hills, the No. 2-rated course in Wisconsin by Golf Digest and one that hosted the 2017 U.S. Open and will host this year's U.S. Women's Open.
How can Miakka Golf Club compete with that?
Straka said it starts with Herrig, who said he wanted "the best of everything" when it came time to hire Fry/Straka Global Golf Course Design.
What excited both Straka and Fry was that Herrig didn't want just a wonderful golf course; he was demanding a layout that would leave the land in better shape than when he came.
Since Straka and Fry are both environmental zealots, they took the job.
"For example, it was Steve and his commitment to having 1,500 trees moved," Straka said. "Not many would do that kind of thing."
He said all of Herrig's demands amounted to a "huge win environmentally." He said the indigenous vegetation available to him will provide an ever-changing kaleidoscope of colors, textures and heights all year round.
"When you play in October, it will look different than in January," he said.
Straka talked about the system that would prevent water used on the 7,700-yard course to reach the Myakka River.
"There is no direct discharge," he said, explaining that water used on the course is directed into a 40-acre lake and filtration basins dug on the property.
The ground dug up to form the lake was moved around the course to build elevation changes.
He also talked about the actual golf side of the equation.
"This course will have a lot of playability," he said. "The regulars ... that is who is is built for. Everything is built almost like a putting green, with no rough."
With no rough around the greens, and smooth surfaces cascading from the greens, high handicap golfers will be able to leave their pitching wedges in their bags when they have a tight lie and use their putters from off the surface to get close to the hole.
"We can do that without chunking a shot," he said.
Most of the fairways, some which will be 100 yards wide, will be zoysiagrass, which is popular in Asia, and a favorite of Fry/Straka when working there. Since it is not in demand in Florida, Herrig purchased 1,600 acres adjacent to the course to found a sod farm — Miakka Turf — that will grow the Stadium and Lazer zoysiagrass that will be used on the fairways, tees and green complexes.
The grass maintenance requires much less water, fertilizer and pesticides.
Straka said it is an "extraordinarily environmentally sensitive" design.
Capillary concrete is used on the putting surfaces because it drains well, while Pro/Angle bunker sand is shipped to Florida from Ohio for the course.
No date has been set for the opening, but the entire course is expected to be sodded in the next couple months.
"It is getting exciting," Herrig said. "You can now imagine what a hole will be like to play. You get a sense of how it is unfolding."
