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One of golf’s greats joins the Watersound Club team to design a course that’s second to none

Written By Paige Aigret

A new 18-hole golf course for Watersound Club Members is starting to take shape. To help bring to life a course that will be one for the ages, the Watersound Club team has enlisted the design team from Love Golf Design, founded by none other than the PGA legend Davis Love III. In a nod to the World Golf Hall of Fame inductee who twice led America’s Ryder Cup team, and in recognition that this will be the third private course in Watersound Club’s golf course portfolio, the new course will simply be known as “The Third.”

Watersound Club director of golf Patrick Richardson, a PGA member since 1999, oversees all Watersound Club golf operations. Richardson said that he and a team of Watersound colleagues have found their working relationship with the Love brothers and lead golf course architect Scot Sherman of Love Golf Design to be a comfortable and engaging one.

“Davis Love III is steeped in Southern heritage, and he’s played and studied courses all around the world,” Richardson said. “The entire Love Golf Design team is able to bring that knowledge and those experiences together to design a world-class course that feels at home at our Club.”

Josh Parker, a 16-year veteran of The St. Joe Company and the Watersound Club director of agronomy, agrees. “The Love Design group has been very easy to work with — they keep the client in mind when they’re designing these courses, as far as making sure they’ll be able to be properly maintained down the road,” he said. “It has their name on it, so they want to make sure that the client is going to be able to keep the course in excellent condition. They do a good job of communicating their thoughts and getting our ideas, and putting those together to come up with the best plan possible.”

With a portfolio of 17 original designs and counting, the Love brothers boast a wealth of design experience. Davis has 21 PGA Tour wins to his name and Mark Love has worked for 28 years as a director of golf events and design projects. With the help of Scot Sherman, and in collaboration with the Watersound Club team, they took their vision for the new golf course to the drawing board and worked through five separate design phases for the newest Watersound Club golf course.

golf course developers reviewing plans outside in the pines

The result? Plans for a one-of-a-kind, par-72 layout with six sets of tee distances for each hole. Given those options, the course will play from 4,900 to 7,600 yards in length and suit a variety of skill levels — providing an enjoyable round for the casual golfer, while even the longest tour players will enjoy the challenge of hitting from the back tees.

The fairways will use Tifway Bermuda grass — a tried and true turf type known for its fine texture and quick recovery times — while the greens will follow the example of the existing Watersound Club courses in employing TifEagle Bermuda grass. Naturally, the final design didn’t come overnight, and it didn’t happen without a good deal of onsite work.

“We did a lot of riding through the area with Scot, Davis and Mark, looking at the native plants, saying ‘Let’s use this, let’s use that, let’s avoid these,” said Parker. “Surveyors put out color coded posts for the tees, fairways and greens, and we cleared lines of sight so the design team would be able to get a sense of how their plans would look on-site. I think it confirmed some of their layouts, and they were able to adjust others. There are areas of longleaf pines and big oaks that Davis specifically marked to make sure we were able to keep. They had a vision when they stepped on property.”

For Richardson, it is important to ensure the playability of the new golf course for Watersound Club Members. He said that The Third will “play a little bit firmer and faster” than the existing two private Watersound Club golf courses (Shark’s Tooth and Camp Creek golf courses) and offer its own unique set of magnificent views.

Richardson said the course can be described as “coastal links” in style, and expects it to have a look reminiscent of an Australian Sandbeltstyle course, using native grasses on the perimeter and lots of fairway cut grass. White sand dredged during the formation of the nearby Intracoastal Waterway will be used to create stunning waste bunkers and add to the unique character of The Third.

“The whole site is about 300 acres,” said Parker. “You could probably build a course in half of that, but I think it’s a testament to what we’re doing as far as wanting to make it look as natural as possible. We’ve planned to use lots of native grasses — there will be fairway that bleeds off into native areas. There’s no rough, it’s just a hard transition so the course will have a secluded feel when you’re playing it.”

Love Golf and St Joe executives pose for a team photo
Love Golf Design and Watersound Club teamed up to traverse the 300-acre site of the upcoming golf course, “The Third,” assessing the best plans for their blueprint.

“After exploring the property on our first few visits, we found so many options it was hard to narrow the new course down to just 18 holes,” Davis Love III said. “Lead architect Scot Sherman, Mark and I believe the site lends itself to building a course with a timeless character.”

The Love Golf Design team plans to incorporate existing hills and dunes into their design, honoring the natural beauty of the Emerald Coast while offering a new style of course to Members.

The golf course plans being reviewed by members of Love Golf and St. Joe.

“We’re pleased to be working with white sandy dunes, diverse native plant materials and beautiful pockets of old-growth cypress and pine trees to frame the golf holes,” Davis said. “We are really thrilled with how the routing of the golf course is coming along at this point.”

According to Parker, the design of the course not only dovetails with the area’s natural beauty, but also makes for a superior golf course in other ways. “What we have planned is a course that will be self-sustaining, eco-friendly and low maintenance — not the typical Florida golf course that you see on every corner.”

The new course design is laid out across acreage north of the Shark’s Tooth golf course. The Shark’s Tooth clubhouse, parking area and driving range will be renovated to serve both courses.

“The huge emphasis on why we’re doing this is to provide another really fantastic amenity to Watersound Club membership, not only for today, but for the future,” said Richardson, who sees the addition of The Third golf course as an investment in the Watersound Club golf experience that will provide more options and value for Club Members and make the area more attractive as a whole.

“People are very savvy about where they want to play their golf,” he said. “I don’t know when the last golf course was built in this area or even in the region. It’s a very unique process we’re going through. To be able to offer our Members three 18-hole golf courses in addition to all of our other Watersound Club amenities will keep us among the top clubs in the country.”

Richardson is supremely confident in the Love Golf Design team.

“They’ve done it plenty of times and we’ve got a lot of trust that they’ll make this a really special place,” he said.

Patrick Murphy of St. Joe and an executive of Love Golf shake hands

The huge emphasis on why we’re doing this is to provide another really fantastic amenity to Watersound Club membership, not only for today, but for the future.

Ball Striking: What’s Required for Success?

Written By Ben Blalock

The term “ball striking” refers to the golfer’s ability to routinely send the ball toward the target at the proper direction, distance and trajectory. Good ball strikers are those players who retain this skill week after week and season after season. Of course, some days are better than others, but these golfers don’t need to get lucky to move the ball from tee to green with consistency and predictability.

If you feel like you need luck to get your shot in the fairway or on the green, incorporate the practice drills below to begin improving your ball striking.

CENTER CONTACT

Making contact with the center of the clubface is always the goal on full swings. Striking on the heel or toe, shanking, topping or chunking shots is less efficient and definitely less fun. The two drills listed below will help you make center contact more often:

1. INSIDE TEE AND OUTSIDE TEE

If contact on the club toe or heel is your challenge — shanks are just extreme heel contact — do this:

> Place two golf tees in the ground on the driving range tee, or backyard, so that they are in a line and perpendicular to the target line. They should be about 2½ inches to 3½ inches apart and at the same height.

Golf club lined up to swing between two white tees.
Golf spacing. 

> If you hit the toe, adjust your stance and posture so that you are in place to hit the closer of the two tees. Now swing and strike the farthest of the two tees. Repeat 25 times.

> If you hit the heel, or shank, adjust your stance and posture so that you are in place to hit the farthest of the two tees. Now swing and strike the closer one. Repeat 25 times.

> Lastly, hit some iron shots at a comfortable level of effort and speed.

2. CLIP THE TEES

If you struggle hitting behind the ball or topping or thinning the ball, do this:

Stage 1:

> Grab a handful of tees — you might need 20–25.

> Place five tees in a line perpendicular to the target line. Each tee should be placed at a shallow depth so that the tee itself is sitting rather high out of the ground. If you use club tees with the stripes painted on them, allow three stripes to be above the level of the grass for this first stage.

Five tees in a row placed in the grass at descending heights.

> Begin by addressing the tee at the far left of the line if you’re right-handed, vice versa if you’re left-handed.

> Make a real, full size and speed swing with the goal of striking the tee only — no grass — and repeat until each tee has been struck. Should you have a mistake in which you hit the ground or miss the tee, start over. If you encounter continuing struggles, reduce the effort that you’re using for the swing until you find success. Once complete, move on to the next stage.

> Stage 2: same drill, but with two stripes showing above the grass.

> Stage 3: same drill, but with one stripe showing above the grass.

> Stage 4: same drill, but with no stripes showing above the grass.

> Stage 5: same drill, but with no stripes and a ball sitting on top of the tee.

> Stage 6: normal shots.

Creating center contact on every swing will go a long way toward improving your distance and trajectory on full swings, but you need to know how to practice. As with any practice routine, just thinking about practice isn’t actually practice! You’ll need to carve out some time to spend working on these concepts. In most cases, tendencies within the golf swing are stubborn and take a long time to change permanently. The best players in the world know this to be a fact, and they practice accordingly.

Golfer swings at a ball aiming to make center contact with the golf ball.

Professional male and female golfers share a certain mentality. They try to:

> Practice the strengths of their game every day and play the game in a way that plays to those strengths.

> Check in on regular challenges every day in practice; but ignore them when they play.

In the next issue of Watersound Lifestyle, I’ll outline methods to improve your ability to control the direction of your full-swing shots.

If you’d ever like personal guidance on your game, I’m here and eager to help. Please reach out via email at Ben.Blalock@StJoe.com, or call (850) 231-6442 to schedule an appointment at the beautiful, new Camp Creek Golf Performance Center.

A group of golfers taking aim on the putting green at Camp Creek Golf Course.

Instructional programs tie fitness to golf proficiency

By Carrie Honaker

Standing on the first tee at the Tom Fazio-designed Camp Creek golf course, surrounded by lush wetlands, the only thing between you and a perfect game is making the right connections with that dimpled white orb. That isn’t the golf club’s job. It’s yours — your body, balance, flexibility, strength and endurance working in unison as you grip, bend and swing.

That’s where the new Watersound Club Golf Fit program and the abbreviated Golf Fit Express come in. Ben Blalock, director of golf instruction, and Amy Robison, director of wellness and outdoor pursuits, team up to lead Members through a regimen that combines targeted wellness and golf instruction.

“This program brings together Amy’s knowledge of flexibility and strength building with my knowledge of golf technique,” Blalock said. “The golf swing is fairly complex — it’s a compound movement that involves the whole body.”

Breaking down that movement is the first step in the six-week, intensive Golf Fit program. Using a diagnostic tool, Robison checks everything from neck, shoulder, wrist, elbow, hip, knee and ankle mobility to pelvic tilt and rotational capabilities. The score sheet reveals weaknesses in relation to degrees of movement, allowing Robison to target issues.

On the golf side, Blalock employs a computerized program, tracking data using a radar device.

“TrackMan measures every shot a player can hit across 34 different data points,” he said. “Some of those are related to the golf ball. Some are related to the club. It’s linked to video cameras that allow us to play things back to watch and analyze the movement.”

These initial assessments figure into a plan for each member. Blalock determines what the most needed areas of improvement are based on the software’s measurements and creates an individualized program for each person. Robison puts together exercises utilizing bands, kettlebells, medicine balls and mats to specifically focus on rotation, and to isolate the different movements in the body.

“When we start to break it down and focus on isolating the thoracic rotation, keeping the hips in a stationary position, you start to increase mobility and flexibility. You can really see a difference, even after one day of working with it,” Robison said.

Weekly class meetings augment the golf-specific work and exercises. Members spend 45 minutes with Robison and 45 minutes with Blalock. Between class meetings, Members get a one-on-one, half-hour session with each instructor.

“Each of the days in the program we address a specific part of the swing,” Blalock said. “It may be how the lower body works, or how the arms work, or maybe balance within the golf swing.”

Golf Fit participants often enjoy a 10% increase in club-head speed, which translates to longer shots and lower scores. Improvement is measured by comparing end-of-course assessments with assessments taken at the start of the six weeks of instruction.

“In real terms, when you can swing the club a mile per hour faster, the shot can go three to five yards longer,” Blalock said. “So if you were to make your club go eight miles an hour faster, that translates into 24 to 40 yards longer. That makes the game much easier. The further your shot goes, the closer it gets to the green.”

Not everybody can commit to a sixweek course, and that’s where Golf Fit Express comes in. The abbreviated oneweek version of the program doesn’t include the assessment, but includes the same focus on fundamentals that participants are exposed to in the longer program.

“Amy creates a handout with exercises you can take home and put in your workout room or use at the gym,” Blalock said. “It gives you prescribed movements, number of repetitions, how many days per week to implement the program. And then I do the same with golf training. You’ll have a prescribed practice regimen to net gains over the six weeks, three months or hopefully your lifetime as you continually work to improve your game.”

Golf Fit not only improves your game, but your functional fitness overall. Robison said she’s seen Members lose significant weight, radically improve their range of motion and regain balance.

Wellness and Fitness director Amy Robison shows stretches that help improve your golf game
Amy Robison, director of wellness and outdoor pursuits.

Member John Lebowitz said, “Being a high-handicap player and just getting back into golf, I decided to join the inaugural Golf Fit program. It surpassed all my expectations. The blending of complementary fitness by Amy and instruction by Ben was spot on. It gave me a wonderful foundation to improve my game. I highly recommend it.”

Whether they opt for the full program or the express version, Members learn tools with which to hone their swing and improve physical fitness.

“It really is important for people to tie in their fitness with their game,” Blalock said. “People want to play golf forever. I teach everybody from age 6 to 86; it’s a lifetime game. The longer your body allows you to play, the more enjoyment you can get out of it.”

A Watersound Club Member practices his golf swing at the performance center in Camp Creek.
Golf Fit classes focus equally on improving students’ golf technique and physical fitness.

Boats lined up in their wet slips at Bay Point Marina

The St. Joe Company’s Bay Point Marina gets rebranded and rebuilt after Hurricane Michael’s destruction

Written By Paige Aigret

In October 2018, Hurricane Michael ravaged the Florida Panhandle as a Category 5 hurricane with winds as high as 162 mph. Panama City Beach suffered some of the worst of Michael’s damage.

The St. Joe Company’s Bay Point Marina was no exception. The long-standing community boating hub was left in complete destruction.

But St. Joe wouldn’t let the marina’s destruction be its end, instead taking the opportunity to rebuild, reimagine and rebrand the place that many boat owners have called home for decades.

Now known as Point South Marina at Bay Point, newly rebranded under the Point South Marina umbrella, this long-time favorite home for boaters has gone through several phases of reopening throughout the summer and is now fully open to the public.

Aerial view of the rebuilding process at the Bay Point Marina

“Being under The St. Joe Company umbrella, people will know that they can expect a consistent level of excellence across the board,” said Justin Bannerman, marina director for Point South Marina at Bay Point. “When you see ‘Point South Marina,’ you’ll know that you’re getting top of the line.”

“We want our marina guests to receive the same Southern hospitality they’ve come to expect at our other properties,” said Preston Sutter, marina director for Point South Marina at Port St. Joe. “Branding a string of marinas across the Panhandle will allow transient boaters to pull up to any of our marinas and know they will be met with courtesy and enthusiasm at each stop by our friendly and energetic staff.”

The introduction of the Point South Marina brand will bring a consistency in style and level of service, but the marinas under that brand will differ in offerings. Point South Marina at Bay Point will cater to larger boats and yachts up to 125 feet, whereas Point South Marina at Port St. Joe will feature a massive boat barn, accommodating dry storage for 252 boats up to 45 feet, as well as 48 wet slips.

Bannerman believes that the rebuild of Point South Marina at Bay Point will eventually lead to greater success in the storied marina’s future.

“It gave us an opportunity to redesign the marina to accommodate much bigger boats and to fix some of the flaws that the original marina had grown into,” he said, explaining that older marinas couldn’t cater to larger modern boats in terms of width, as boats weren’t built as wide up through the ‘80s.

While the old marina had 180 slips, now Point South Marina at Bay Point has 127 larger slips that better accommodate modern boat designs. In this case, less is certainly more as this improvement makes for easier maneuvering and a better dock experience.

“That’s probably the biggest benefit of the redesign and the rebuild — these boats and these captains don’t have to stress,” said Bannerman.

Another great improvement in the marina’s new design is the use of longer finger piers (the smaller docks that run the length of the boat to create slips). Before the rebuild, they were just ¹⁄ ³ the length of the slip, about 20 feet long. Now the finger piers run the entire length of the boat slip. Bannerman said this makes it “easier to board, easier to clean and easier to load. All of that is helped by the full-length finger piers and the extra-wide berth.”

A less visible improvement, but just as essential: the new in-slip waste pump-out feature. “At the old marina, when your holding tank is full, if you’ve got to do the inevitable chore that nobody wants to do, you’d have to pull over to the fuel dock to empty your holding tank,” Bannerman explained. “Now we have in-slip pump outs. The dockhands can do that for you. You don’t even have to be here. You just tell us you need it done as you leave on a Sunday, and when you come back on Monday, it’s emptied for you.”

Bannerman said they also have an extended fuel dock that can accommodate six boats, a covered fish cleaning and display facility and state-of-the-art shore power with safety measures to help protect boat owners.

Among new amenities are a new swimming pool, laundry facilities, complimentary coffee, morning newspaper delivery, utilities and high-speed Wi-Fi. An amenities fee is rolled into one yearly fee, making it convenient for members to pay once and be done, rather than managing various fees or a monthly utility bill.

The Ship Store offers easy access to cold beer, drinks and ice, as well as Point South Marina merchandise and popular retail items from brands like Yeti, Toadfish and more.

Point South Marina at Bay Point is also home to Freedom Boat Club, a separate entity that offers boat rentals through membership. If all that is not enough, there’s also the nearby Serenity Spa — for ultimate relaxing and pampering within a short walk of the marina.

Bannerman, new to the area by way of Charleston, South Carolina, had heard of the longstanding reputation of Bay Point Marina as a community pillar and a welcoming place for boaters from all over, but he is now learning just how special the marina is to the community.

Through the phases of reopening he’s found that the community spirit and bonhomie “has absolutely remained the same.” He noted that “this marina means so much to the Panhandle, and more specifically to Panama City Beach. People have spent 20, 30 years here prior to the storm and couldn’t wait to come back.”

“I kept hearing people say that they were coming home, and that is not something you hear at a lot of marinas. You walk the docks right now, and it’s like they never left.”

The marina celebrated this sense of community by welcoming a group of the most prestigious run of boats, known as the “front row,” as part of the first phase of reopening. This celebration, a parade of sorts, was staged out in the open water and captains returning to their home marina radioed to Bannerman to ceremoniously request permission to enter the channel. This fleet of returning marina members was a perfect way to celebrate the reopening of Point South Marina at Bay Point. With emotion showing in their voices and faces, it was more than a reopening for marina staff and the captains and crew, it was a warm welcome home.

“A lot of marinas are just a place where you dock, and then you go home to your friends and family,” said Bannerman. “For those of us at Point South Marina at Bay Point, this is the place where your friends and family are.”

When asked about goals for the future of the newly reopened marina, Bannerman said, “fill it up, for one,” but also that he hopes to “continue the community feeling that is already in place and grow with that.”

Luxury boats docked at Point South Marina - Bay Point

A boat is situated in its wet slip with easy access on and off the boat with the finger dock

As for the growth of the Point South Marina umbrella, the rebuild at Port St. Joe will open in phases, similar to its sister location at Bay Point, and is planning an official reopening later this year.

Apparel and accessories on display at the outfitter store at Point South Marina - Port St. Joe.

“We are anxiously awaiting the opportunity to help you create memories with your family and friends on the water!” said Sutter.

A personal yacht sits perfectly in its wet slip at Point South Marina - Bay Point.

Watersound Club courses host big-time collegiate events

Written By Steve Bornhoft

Watersound Club and its Camp Creek ® and Shark’s Tooth golf courses have twice played host to an invitational collegiate tournament and this year welcomed the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship.

NCAA Men's Golf champions pose for a picture with their trophy at Shark's Tooth Golf Club in Panama City Beach, Florida.

A golfer takes his swing at Shark's Tooth Golf Course for the Men's Golf NCAA Championship in Panama City Beach, Florida.

For that, it has a retired baseball coach and the Florida State University sports fraternity to thank.

Mike Martin Sr., the winningest coach in the history of NCAA Division I baseball and a man who became synonymous with his uniform number — 11 — in his 40 years at the helm of FSU’s baseball program, is a member of the American Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame. He is also a longtime Watersound Club Member.

It was Martin who introduced Trey Jones, FSU’s head golf coach and director of golf, to all that the Club has to offer.

“A long time ago, Mike was one of my first Watersound Club hosts,” Jones said. “Today, a lot of the Watersound Club Members I’ve gotten to know are because of my relationship with him. He was a great first member to know, for sure. He is such a great guy and such an awesome person. Anyone who is a friend of his is a good guy to be around. I am very fortunate to know him.”

As Watersound Club Members, Jones says he and his family “use the entire club. The golf courses are great and I have a son (Drew) who loves golf. Playing golf with him at Camp Creek or Shark’s Tooth is something we always look forward to. My wife and daughter (Cathy and Jordan) love the Beach Club. The Watersound Club experience is a perfect fit for us and it’s only two and a half hours from Tallahassee.”

In 2020, the ACC canceled the conference’s fall golf season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, Jones and other coaches were anxious to get an early start the following spring.

Jones approached Watersound Club management with a brainchild.

“They stepped up and said the Watersound Club team would be glad to host an ACC event in February,” Jones said.

In its first year, what would come to be known as the Watersound Invitational was held at Camp Creek Golf Course and won by FSU in a playoff versus Wake Forest. Clemson’s Jacob Bridgeman was the individual low scorer. This past year, the field of competing teams was expanded to include two schools from the SEC, Arkansas and Alabama. Georgia Tech won the year-two event, which was played at Shark’s Tooth Golf Course. Canon Claycomb of Alabama was the medalist.

In year three, Jones said, the invitational will include teams from the Big 12 conference and the Air Force Academy.

“We thought it would be nice to have an academy team each year and with the Air Force’s presence in our area, its academy was a natural reach-out,” Jones said.

The invitational has served to spread awareness of Watersound Club golf courses and amenities among people who were not previously familiar with the area. Galleries include players’ friends and family members and fans of the game of golf.

“Most people with ties to ACC schools, when they go on vacation, they are bound for the East Coast,” Jones said. “When I was pitching the idea of the invitational, people were shaking their heads because they had never heard of Shark’s Tooth or the Camp Creek Course.

Aerial view of the 18th hole at Shark's Tooth Golf Course, overlooking Lake Powell and the Gulf of Mexico beyond.

“But the minute the event was confirmed and added to schedules online, people started getting calls from Club Members who were excited about them coming down. It didn’t take them long to realize that this was a special place, and they hadn’t even been here yet.”

St. Simon, Georgia, native Patrick Richardson, Watersound Club director of golf, arrived in South, Walton about a year ago after departing the Sea Island Resort and wasn’t around for the inaugural invitational, but has known Jones for years. In Georgia, he became familiar with the SEC championship, so he was no stranger to needs and expectations related to collegiate golf.

Invitational players arrive in time to get in a practice round on Saturday, and tournament play runs Sunday through Tuesday.

“Mid-February works out well for us and the teams,” Richardson said, but added that winter winds can make a course like Shark’s Tooth play especially tough. For a couple of days, a stiff breeze was enough to make the flags on the greens pop.

Jones concurred: “The wind added another dimension,” he said.

The coach is fond of both Camp Creek and Shark’s Tooth, but tends to be more vocally effusive about the latter.

“I think the great thing about Shark’s Tooth is that it is different from a lot of the other courses in the region; it’s different than the Camp Creek Course,” Jones said. “It challenges golfers off the tee and it really challenges them with the green complexes and pitching around the green.”

“The greens are not super large. We call it a second-shot golf course because you are going to have to be really good from that area to the hole to play it well. That is not something that is in modern golf. Golf today has large greens with different sections to them and Shark’s Tooth is not that way.”

For Jones, the setting for Shark’s Tooth Golf Course adds to its singularness.

“Weaving in and out of Lake Powell, you can’t have a bad day out there, that’s for sure,” he said. “With the trees and the water, when you’re on the course, you don’t feel like there is another hole around you. You are on your hole, no one else is there, it’s just you and your playing partners, and that makes the experience a lot different.”

In 2023, the University of Alabama will join FSU as an invitational co-host.

“That will take a little bit of the pressure off our staff,” Jones said. “Anytime you have something that is not on your campus or not in your town, it’s a little bit of a drain.”

Richardson said Watersound Club leadership wants to position its courses as championship layouts that are home to high-level events.

“It’s part of who we want to be,” he said. “I think it’s healthy for the Club, and it’s fun for our Members to have a chance to see the future of golf and to see players they will one day see on TV.”

The invitational presents one such opportunity. In April, the ACC conference championship, played at Shark’s Tooth Golf Course and won by Wake Forest, presented another.

LONG GESTATION PERIOD

Jones recalls that some 15 years ago, the pro at Shark’s Tooth suggested that his course might one day like to host the ACC championship.

At the time, the conference had a “permanent” site for its championship, the Old North State Club in New London, North Carolina, not far from Charlotte. But, as the conference added new schools, it became more open to the idea of moving the championship around among multiple locations.

Detecting that, Jones contacted Watersound Club management — Patrick Murphy and Mike Jansen — to take their temperature.

“They were super excited right out of the gate, and the support of St. Joe president and CEO Jorge Gonzalez was evident from the beginning, as well,” Jones said. “It was almost a disappointment that it took us until 2022 to bring the ACC championship to a Watersound Club golf course, but the conversation wasn’t so much about whether we were going to do it, but how we were going to make it great.”

The ACC, assisted by FSU and Watersound Club personnel and volunteers, was responsible for administering the tournament.

“The ACC managed the golf course, but they used our trainers and some of our sports information people because we were the institution closest to the site,” Jones said. “We did lean on Patrick Richardson and his staff to help with volunteers for live scoring and other duties and they predominantly were Members of the Club. That adds a very personal and special touch when the Members not only allow use of their golf course, but support the event by volunteering.”

Jones said that the ACC Championship, going forward, is likely to be rotated among two courses in North Carolina, one in Atlanta, and a Watersound Club golf course.

The coach said his players loved Shark’s Tooth Golf Course and that circumstances had ensured that it was new to all championship participants.

“We were not allowed to play it for the year prior, no one was, and the year before that was COVID, so I did not have anybody who had played the golf course,” Jones said. “It was truly a neutral site for everybody and I think that helped. I think that made it a better competition.”

A MATTER OF COURSE

Club Member encounters Golden Bear

FSU golf coach Trey Jones, like all Watersound Club Members with an affinity for golf, is looking forward to the development of a third course, which will be built just north of the existing Shark’s Tooth Golf Course layout.

Davis Love III, the winner of more than two dozen PGA tour events, and his brother are designing the course along with Love Golf Design’s lead architect, Scot Sherman.

Jones, then, will be in a position to compare the work of Love Golf Design with that of Jack Nicklaus and his son, Jack Jr., who redeveloped the Seminole Golf Course in Tallahassee.

Jones met Jack Jr. before he met the legendary golfer known as the Golden Bear. They walked FSU’s home course together after which Nicklaus had a proposal: “What would you think about giving my dad a chance to blow this course up and redo it? His vision is one of a kind and I think what you have here could be really special.”

Jones was powerless to say no to that.

“Any time that you get to know anyone who is as talented and as giving as Jack Nicklaus is, that is bucket list stuff,” Jones said. “He is very courteous, he is very smart and you don’t have to be around him long to realize how special and gifted he is.”

Jones said awareness of the new Seminole Golf Course will inevitably grow.

“We haven’t had the raters come out to see just where the new course stacks up, but the product is one of those things that you can’t keep under wraps,” Jones said.

No Better Time Jones cannot contain his enthusiasm for the status of FSU golf.

“We’re happy where we’re at right now,” he said. “The last 10-12 years have been very good when you look at the team’s success and the success of tour players that we’ve had, and now we have something that we have never had before — a great golf facility to recruit to. With the roster we are envisioning, we feel like it has never been a better time to be a Florida State golfer.”

In such a way, coaching legacies are built.

“I am really happy to have had a positive influence on college golf,” Jones said. “But I am also glad to have had a positive influence on the Watersound Club team, by bringing more exposure to a place that a lot of people hadn’t known about. But when they come to see a golf event at a Watersound Club golf course, they are impressed.”