Florida was already the nation’s leader in golf prior to COVID-19. Now, the Sunshine State has more than 1,150 courses scattered from Pensacola to Palm Beach–and all locations in between–and shows no signs of a construction slowdown any time soon.
“Simply put, there weren’t enough golf courses to support people who were moving here,” said golf course architect Dana Fry of the Ohio-based firm Fry/Straka Global Golf Course Design. “So Florida has literally become the center of the golf development boom globally, and has been for the last three years now.”
Fry and his partner Jason Straka are in the middle of what is one of the more remarkable golf developments ever flaunted in the state, and that’s saying something.
The Miakka Golf Club 25 miles east of Sarasota will have just one 18-hole layout set across the site’s 1,100 acres with national golf memberships starting at $175,000. “We could have easily fit five or six courses on this land,” Fry said.
“It is by far the biggest project of my more than 30-year career,” he added. “Florida has never seen anything quite like this.”
For starters, Fry’s team is laying 86 miles of drain pipe in the fairways, draining all turf areas like putting greens with tile lines every 20 feet. Then, all turf areas will be sodded.
“There’s no rough on the course . . . and in a sense we’re building a 140-acre putting green,” he said. “As far as turf conditions we’re trying to create the fastest and firmest golf course that we can physically make.”
The course’s greens will go right to the edge of the bunkers and there will be no fringe to catch errant shots.
“The bunkers will be just a vertical dirt lip, kind of like the look at Royal Melbourne or Kingston Heath or Commonwealth National–the great sand belt courses in Australia,” Fry said. “The bunkering is unlike anything in the United States.”
A few of the holes border the Myakka River but there are no lakes on the course.
“That’s unheard of in Florida,” said Fry, who has built a 43-acre irrigation lake off the course to keep it lush.
The development will also feature a massive 120,000-square-foot putting course, a 360-degree driving range and 7-acre short game area. Like most new courses, it will also challenge golfers with a unique short course.
The site did feature 35 feet of natural fall, but Fry’s team filled the clubhouse area by 25 feet, giving the location a 60-foot expansive elevation view of the course.
That fill work was part of the four million cubic yards of dirt Fry and his team will eventually move across the course to create a stunning landscape.
The development is owned by Steve Herrig, the chief executive officer of nearby SUNZ Insurance Co., who will also build cottages to house as many as 72 golfers once built out.
“This is stuff that nobody has done ever on a golf course at the level he’s doing it at,” Fry said of the developer. “It’s one of the most significant golf projects ever built–period.”
And that’s not all. Fry is transporting and replanting large live oaks to the course from the owner’s farm across the street to add even more framing and flair.
“It’s really exciting to be a part of this project because it’s really a game changer,” said Fry, who estimates that nine holes will be sodded by July 1 with an expected opening by the fall of 2026. “There is so much going on in the construction side of it–a lot of underground infrastructure that people will never see.”
Fry lives nearby in Naples so he’s at the Miakka site quite often, and happened to run into Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently, who is a close friend of the owner.
“The governor brought up all the golf being built in the state of Florida, and the migration of the wealth of the people that are moving down here,” Fry said. “He encourages the development because he knows it brings all the tax base. And when you build projects like these you’re employing, in some cases, hundreds of people, and the growth is something he’s very proud of.
“It’s just amazing what is happening with golf in the state of Florida right now.”
Fry said the Miakka project will employ upwards of 200 before it is completed.
“Golfers just have to see it to fully understand the magnitude of what I’m talking about because once you set foot on the property you’ll instantly understand you are in a very, very different place,” Fry said.
Fry and Straka are also getting input on the design from 2008 Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger.