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From the Beach Club to the golf courses and newest Club amenities, the Club is home to some stunning properties. These are places for family memory-making, and they are abundant around the Club. Not to be outshined by these popular gathering spots, the Club is home to countless unique experiences that lie just beneath the surface. Perhaps not as widely known as some of the Club’s signature amenities, these destinations significantly contribute to the Membership experience and help place the Watersound Club lifestyle into a category of its own.

Camp Creek Golf Course’s Comfort Stations

Golfers who take on the challenge of Camp Creek Golf Course have no shortage of opportunities to refuel mid-round. Two drive-thru comfort stations enable golfers to grab snacks, fruit, and cold drinks without delaying their trip to the next tee. These complimentary treats provide a great way for golfers to stay hydrated and full during their round. More noticeable is the much larger comfort station that golfers come across on their way to the twelfth tee.

In addition to the full bar, Members and their guests can’t help but stop at the restored 1958 Chevrolet Viking that the Club outfitted with a built-in woodfired over. Every day, golfers can stop for a complimentary mini flatbread pizza, freshly baked soft pretzels, or whatever else the Club’s culinary team has prepared for the day. With temperatures around 800 degrees, a hot treat only takes about a minute to prepare. This is surely a mid-round experience not found at any other club.

Gather Kitchen + Bar’s Outdoor Bar Area

Watersound Club amenities now include the pool and first-floor dining venue at WaterColor Inn, spaces only available to Watersound Club Members and WaterColor Inn guests. The indoor and poolside dining options provide ideal locations for enjoying Gather’s recently revamped menu of casual coastal favorites. Increasingly, Members are discovering the intimate outdoor bar area that provides a covered area perfect for grabbing a drink or a bite to eat.

Golf Performance Center

A Watersound Club Member practices his golf swing at the performance center in Camp Creek.

On the edge of the driving range at Camp Creek Golf Course sits an unassuming building with overhead doors that open out to the range. Inside, experienced and novice golfers alike will find everything they need to improve their game. Among the three bays, Members can experience the latest in swing analysis technology, simulators, and club fitting equipment.  Paired with the Club’s golf instruction staff, led by Ben Blalock, Members can work on everything from the basics to fine-tuning their game in advance of their next round.

Looking Ahead

As Club amenities continue to expand, there are sure to be more spots that become Member favorites and add to the unique Membership experience. The first floor of Camp Creek Inn will be home to two new dining venues with both indoor and outdoor spaces, men’s and women’s locker rooms, an outfitter shop, and more.

The opportunities for memory-making at the Club are numerous and sure to grow along with the Club in the years to come.

After years of planning, construction and anticipation, the newest Watersound Club amenities were met with enthusiasm when the doors opened on April 6, 2023. Members were discovering new experiences and making new memories throughout the property. There was no shortage of smiles at the pool, in the wellness center, on the tennis and pickleball courts, and around the tables at Bark ‘N Brine. We can’t wait to see how Members and their guests will make lifelong family memories at these new Watersound Club amenities.

Today, April 6, 2023, the largest Watersound Club amenity expansion project ever opened to Club Members after years of planning and construction. Amenity upgrades, additions and enhancements are not new to Watersound Club Members. Today’s milestone however, represents something different.

These new amenities usher in a new era of the Watersound Club experience. Members and their families have been making memories at Watersound Club amenities for years – at the Beach Club, on our golf courses and with their toes in the sand watching a Gulf of Mexico sunset. Now they can add a 12,000 square foot wellness center, sprawling pool complex, acres of tennis and pickleball courts and more to their list of memory making venues. The sprawling complex is also home to small nooks and intimate gathering spaces for a tranquil moment with friends and family.

The writing of the next chapter in the Watersound Club story starts today and we can’t wait to see how it unfolds. The best is yet to come.

For years, Watersound Club locations have gradually added new, world-class amenities for Members to enjoy. In 2018, the Club’s signature Gulf-front property, Watersound Beach Club, doubled the size of its pool deck and added a second pool complete with a lazy river. The following year, it added a second dining venue, now called Beach Break Grill, and added tennis courts and a basketball court. In 2020, the Club’s Pilatus PC-12 NG airplane was made available to Members for private air charter as was a state-of-the-art Golf Performance Center. With Shark’s Tooth and Camp Creek Golf Courses, Watersound Club properties have featured some of the best Member amenities of any Club in the Southeast. Those gradual additions and upgrades pale in comparison, however, to what is just around the corner.

A massive amenity expansion project has been in the works for the past few years adjacent to Camp Creek Golf Course that will put the Watersound Club experience in the conversation of the top private clubs in the country. Golfers have seen construction fencing and heavy equipment at the site for the past couple of years but this spring, those fences will come down revealing the Club’s largest and most diverse collection of world-class amenities creating a Membership experience that is unrivaled in terms of scale and quality.

Most visible upon entering the property is the Wellness Center, the Club’s first entry into health and fitness amenities. The two-story, 12,000 square foot space dwarfs any private or resort facility of its type in the area. Group exercise rooms, cardio and strength training areas, saunas and steam rooms are undergoing their final preparations before welcoming Members on opening day.

Outside, an adult-only pool and hot tub will offer a tranquil setting for swimming laps or just relaxing in the Florida sun. That is just the beginning for pool offerings at this new amenity complex.

The family pool area features two pools, one with a lazy river and waterslide, the other with a zero-entry design perfect for the club’s youngest Members.  Bark ‘N Brine, a southern smokehouse-inspired dining venue, sits just off the pool deck offering cuisine and refreshments perfect for a day at the pool or a casual dinner.

Currently, sprinkled at other Watersound Club facilities are a total of six tennis courts. Some double as pickleball courts to create space for the fast-growing paddle sport. These new amenities will more than triple the number of courts that Members can enjoy. Final touches are being placed on eight Har-Tru clay tennis courts and eight new dedicated pickleball courts that will be serviced by a new pro shop just across an event lawn from the pool complex. A playground and half basketball court are also being readied for Members.

A firepit, seating areas, and green spaces provide more memory-making opportunities that are sure to become Member favorites.

When the adjacent Camp Creek Inn boutique hotel opens on the property this summer, it will add two additional dining venues, an outfitter shop, locker rooms, and more gathering spaces.

For decades, Watersound Club Members have been treated to Northwest Florida’s top golf, beach and lifestyle amenities. Come this spring, the Club will reach a true milestone moment as Members get to experience these new amenities that, when paired with current Member favorites, will usher in a new era for the Club.

Aerial photo of Watersound Club members enjoying their complimentary blue beach chairs and umbrellas that are dotted along the sugar white sand shoreline looking out at the crystal clear emerald waters of the Gulf of Mexico

A humble chef exudes talent and leadership in his ever-evolving culinary career

Written by Paige Aigret

Chef Preetam Pardeshi has been a staple for The St. Joe Company for nearly 10 years, ever since he moved to the area for a position at WaterColor Inn’s Fish Out of Water restaurant in 2013.

Pardeshi has achieved several promotions within The St. Joe Company, quickly moving up in his role at Fish Out of Water to become the chef of cuisine and then the executive sous chef. He later made the move from WaterColor Inn to the Watersound Club team, becoming the executive chef at Beach Club and, more recently, working on the development of the Club’s future Camp Creek Inn restaurants and the adjacent Club amenities where he’ll serve as executive chef upon their openings.

But Pardeshi’s experience reaches further back than his time with St. Joe. He has always felt connected to food and the art of cuisine, even from a young age, growing up around his grandparents who were farmers. Originally from Pune, India, an area known as the “Oxford of the East,” Pardeshi was lucky in the fact that educational opportunities were plentiful, and he was able to take advantage.

Flounder Almondine

Pardeshi was classically trained in styles including Italian, French and Indian cuisine. But he learned the nuances of Southern-style cuisine at the Grand Hotel Resort in Fairhope, Alabama.

As an internationally trained chef, Pardeshi could have landed anywhere, but the Gulf of Mexico called to him, and it’s still his favorite part of living along the Emerald Coast. Now he calls the area home, having purchased a house in 2018 and settled into his role with the Watersound Club team.

Pardeshi’s day-to-day role is eclectic as he moves between Club amenities, depending on where he is most needed on any given day. But his role will soon evolve again with the opening of the Club’s three new dining venues in the new year: 1936, ANR and Bark N’ Brine. The addition of these dining venues to the Watersound Club portfolio will equally be an addition to Pardeshi’s plate, as he is set to oversee all three. Having already accomplished so much, Pardeshi is ready and excited for what lies ahead.

“I don’t see hurdles, I see challenges,” he said. “From my perspective, unless you have those challenges, you cannot become better. There is no excitement if there is no challenge.”

1936, named after the founding year of The St. Joe Company, will be an all-day casual dining option serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. Perfect for a quick bite before tee time, to take a break from the sun or to bring the family for dinner, 1936 will be located at Camp Creek Inn

Signature Burger, 1936

ANR, named for the historical Apalachicola Northern Railroad of the Forgotten Coast, will offer Members an upscale dining experience with a Southern flair. Pardeshi is looking forward to this elevated dining addition, saying that “ANR will offer an atmosphere of personalized service to our Members. It will be a complete experience.”

Bark N’ Brine will be a familyfriendly poolside dining venue with indoor and outdoor seating, offering smokehouse favorites along with health-conscious options. Nestled between the new Wellness Center and the resort-style pool area, Bark N’ Brine will be perfect for Members stopping by in between dips in the water or a class at the Wellness Center for a fast, yet quality meal.

Pardeshi’s goal, aligning with that of the Watersound Club experience as a whole, is to offer Members a spectrum of dining experiences so that everything they could possibly want is available to them without having to venture off Club property. He doesn’t want Members to go to just any 30A restaurant.

“I want them to come to mine,” Pardeshi said. “Our membership is growing, and my primary focus is to have a variety of options for the Members to enjoy different varieties within the Club.”

For now, Pardeshi spends most of his time at the Watersound Beach Club dining venues, where even on a slow day they serve around 500 people. On a busy day? Upward of 1,500 people. Hardly a one-man show, Pardeshi is grateful for the support of his team members and staff, especially on busy days.

“Without those teams, I’m nobody,” said Pardeshi. “I give all credit for my success to the teams I’ve worked with. They deserve more appreciation and credit for their hard work and efforts. Without them, I cannot do what I do.”

Pardeshi takes pride in supporting employees and helping them advance in their roles, just as he was able to do himself.