Course Closings
The Best Course I Ever Played Which No Loger Exists
Last week I played golf at a local public course which opened on Labor Day 1995. Dauphin Highlands has been one of the premiere public golf courses in the Harrisburg, PA area for the past 30 years. Sadly, the course will close at the end of the year as the property has been sold.
In our area, several long-standing courses have closed in recent years for the property to be developed into other purposes such as housing. The properties became too valuable to continue to operate as golf courses.
While playing yesterday, it got me to thinking of different golf courses I have played over the years which no longer exist. One in particular came to the forefront.
The Dunes Golf Club opened in Brooksville, FL1988. Arthur Hills designed a magnificent course on a rare piece of Florida property. While Florida golf courses rely on sand and water to create challenges on relatively flat land, The Dunes offered dramatic elevation changes and sand dunes not unlike the world’s #1 ranked golf course, Pine Valley.
The course sat just north of Weeki Wachee and Spring Hill, FL. The area at the time felt remote despite being close to established communities. Nothing but sand and pine trees for miles.
Hills was the perfect architect for the property. His design philosophy centered around using the natural topography and moving as little dirt as possible. The Dunes property required few changes to the land itself. If there was ever a piece of land suited for a golf course, the property for The Dunes was it.
But it wasn’t entirely natural. Thanks to the US military.
The Brooksville Turret Gunnery Range opened in 1943 comprised of 10,200 acres to train aerial gunners during WWII. Part of those 10,200 acres comprised the land used for The Dunes. Specifically, the golf course sat on land where bombs landed creating craters.
What Arthur Hills saw were craters which suited bunkering for green complexes. The layout of holes seemed to already be there when Hills walked the property. His finished product did not disappoint.
The course measured 7139 yards from the back tees with a course rating of 74 and a slope rating of 132. An expansive driving range with minimalist club house, the golf course served as the focus of the facility.
The course struggled from the outset. Originally, the owners planned on building housing, but rumors of a proposed nuclear or toxic waste facility being built nearby quashed financing for those plans in the early days of the course.
Locals had other courses nearby which were not as difficult. Although only ten to fifteen minutes away from local communities, locals chose the other local courses. Even when the owners reduced rates well below those of their competitors, the locals pretty much stayed away from The Dunes.
“It’s too difficult,” or “it’s too far,” were oft used excuses to not play The Dunes.
Which made no sense. You could arrive with a foursome and no tee time on a Saturday morning. Within a half hour of arriving, your group would be teeing off. And all for the whopping cost of $15 per person with cart. Other local courses ranged $30-$45 with cart on the weekends. You could play in under 4 hours at The Dunes on a Saturday while the other courses typically had 5 hour weekend rounds.
Due to financial struggles and storm damage, the course closed in 2013. Satellite imagery still shows the parking lot and abandoned clubhouse. The driving range is still visible as are the outlines of several of the holes. It is truly a shame the course never was embraced by the local community.
Training continues as I completed three full speed sessions this week. My speed stayed constant. I love the new SuperSpeed clubs. The new aerodynamic head creates more of a swishing sound which gives additional feedback in terms of speed. The oversized, softer grips promote grip strength which is an essential part of speed. The new shafts generate a pronounced feeling of the club setting and lag creation. They are a massive improvement over the original clubs which were really good tools for speed training.
As always, be grateful when you play. Be thankful for the privilege and opportunity to play this amazing game. Now, go golf!
