famous – Ultra Golfing https://ultragolfing.com Golf news & updates Sat, 07 Mar 2026 07:02:54 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 https://ultragolfing.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/cropped-UG_Favicon-32x32.png famous – Ultra Golfing https://ultragolfing.com 32 32 20 famous golf quotes to impress and inspire on the course https://ultragolfing.com/20-famous-golf-quotes-to-impress-and-inspire-on-the-course/ https://ultragolfing.com/20-famous-golf-quotes-to-impress-and-inspire-on-the-course/#respond Sat, 07 Mar 2026 07:02:54 +0000 https://ultragolfing.com/20-famous-golf-quotes-to-impress-and-inspire-on-the-course/

Golf is a game of endless complexity that has both captivated and frustrated those that play it for hundreds of years.

The sport offers up plenty to talk about and, over the years, many a true word has been spoken about the game.

In this blog, we trawl through some of the most inspiring (and at times, humourous) golf quotes to have enriched the game.

 

Our top 20 golf quotes

“The most important shot in golf is the next one.”
– Ben Hogan

Hogan was a man of few words, but he certainly chose them wisely. He is widely regarded as one of the finest ever exponents of the game, and this famous quote portrays that perfectly.

 

“Golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into an even smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill-designed for the purpose.”
– Winston Churchill

Churchill was known for his witty observations, and this one neatly sums up how all amateurs feel about golf from time to time.

 

“Golf is a day spent in a round of strenuous idleness.”
– William Wordsworth

The great poet probably preferred daffodils to mown fairways, but very few golf quotes encapsulate the sport’s distinct combination of physical exertion and leisurely relaxation quite like this one.

 

“If you’re caught on a golf course during a storm and are afraid of lightning, hold up a 1-iron. Not even God can hit a 1-iron.”
– Lee Trevino

Lee Trevino was actually struck by lightning on the golf course when sheltering from a storm under an umbrella at the 1975 Western Open. This quote came in response to a question on what he would do if he were ever caught in such a situation again.

 

“Golf is an awkward set of bodily contortions designed to produce a grateful result.”
– Tommy Armour

Tommy Armour was a Scottish professional golfer who won the 1931 Open Championship, so he could clearly contort his body rather effectively.

 

“To find a man’s true character, play golf with him.”
– P.G. Wodehouse

Wodehouse frequently included golf in his humorous writings and was a keen player himself.

 

“They call it golf because all the other four-letter words were taken.”
– Ray Floyd

Ray Floyd can’t cuss at golf too much, as he has won 65 tournaments as a professional, including four Majors.

 

“The more I practice, the luckier I get.”
– Gary Player

The Black Knight is known as one of the most determined and dedicated golf professionals of all time.

 

“If a lot of people gripped a knife and fork the way they do a golf club, they’d starve to death.”
– Sam Snead

Snead was a famously natural player with exceptional sporting aptitude. Clearly, he never gripped a knife and fork the way he did his golf club.

 

“Golf is a good walk spoiled.”
– Mark Twain

We’ve all agreed with the creator of Huck Finn on occasion as we’ve staggered off the 18th green.

 

“Golf is so popular simply because it is the best game in the world at which to be bad.”
– A.A Milne

The Winnie the Pooh author once played off a handicap of nine. Not so bad!

 

“If you drink, don’t drive. Don’t even putt.”
– Dean Martin

The legendary crooner loved golf—he even had his own line of golf balls (Dinos) and a PGA Tour event called The Dean Martin Tuscon Open!

 

“If you watch a game, it’s fun. If you play it, it’s recreation. But if you work at it, it’s golf”
– Bob Hope

Bob Hope is perhaps the most famous celebrity golfer of all time. In fact, he did so much for the game that he was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame.

 

“Golf, like the measles, should be caught young, for, if postponed to riper years, the results may be serious.”
– P.G. Wodehouse

Another accurate golfing observation from the creator of Jeeves and Wooster here.

 

“Golf is a fascinating game. I’ve taken nearly 40 years to discover that I can’t play it.”
– Ted Ray

A spot of unfounded self-deprecation here. Ray won 46 professional tournaments, including the 1912 Open and the 1920 US Open.

 

“They say golf is like life, but don’t believe them. Golf is more complicated than that.”
– Gardner Dickinson

The seven-time PGA Tour winner encapsulated the sport’s bamboozling complexity with this famous line.

 

“If you are going to throw a club, it is important to throw it ahead of you, down the fairway, so you don’t have to waste energy going back to pick it up.”
– Tommy Bolt

Tour professional Tommy Bolt was known for his fiery temper on the course.

 

“I’d give up golf if I didn’t have so many sweaters.”
– Bob Hope

Hope was known for sporting stereotypical golfing attire, including classic sweaters (or jumpers, as we call them…)

 

“Why am I using a new putter? Because the last one didn’t float too well.”
– Craig Stadler

“The Walrus” was prone to the odd fit of pique on the golf course.

 

“Don’t play too much golf. Two rounds a day are plenty.”
– Harry Vardon

When Vardon was at his peak around the turn of the 20th century, it was common for professional tournaments to feature 36 holes in a day!

 

 

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Please note the information provided on this page should not be taken as advice and has been written as a matter of opinion. For more on insurance cover and policy wording, see our homepage.

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]]> https://ultragolfing.com/20-famous-golf-quotes-to-impress-and-inspire-on-the-course/feed/ 0 Famous architect kicks off new clifftop golf course in Washington https://ultragolfing.com/famous-architect-kicks-off-new-clifftop-golf-course-in-washington/ https://ultragolfing.com/famous-architect-kicks-off-new-clifftop-golf-course-in-washington/#respond Mon, 09 Feb 2026 14:34:35 +0000 https://ultragolfing.com/famous-architect-kicks-off-new-clifftop-golf-course-in-washington/

David McLay Kidd has been blessed by cliffs. The golf architect got his lucky break in the 1990s as a 20-something dreamer building atop prime precipices overlooking the Pacific Ocean at what would become the original course at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon. Since, he has built highly rated clifftop layouts such as Gamble Sands (and its new sister course, Scarecrow) in Washington, the Castle Course at St. Andrews in Scotland, even the recently opened Loraloma in Texas. 

“Building on clifftops overlooking water sure has worked out well for me,” the Scotsman said. “Cliffs, sandy ground, really good clients – those are key ingredients, right?”

Kidd said he has all three again for a newly announced project: the in-development River Ranch Golf Resort in Pasco, Washington. Located in the southern stretches of the state, closer to Idaho than the ocean, the public-access River Ranch will sit above the Snake River not far from its confluence with the Columbia River. The cliffs at River Ranch rise some 40 to 60 feet above the river, and there’s plenty of elevation changes within the bounds of the planned course. Nine holes will play predominantly along the cliffs, Kidd said.

Kidd’s team, including design partner Nick Schaan, has worked through the winter to begin shaping on five holes. Kidd said the plan is to start grassing holes in April and to finish that task in October, then to complete all the bunkering in the summer of 2027. Preview play will follow, with the course potentially opening fully in the fall of 2027 or the spring of 2028. 

The site was once home to the Gordon Estate Winery, but in working with golf operator KemperSports and a four-person ownership team new to golf, Kidd plans to build 18 holes (at least, more on that later) that take advantage of a dramatic 320 or so acres. The site features abrupt elevation changes, long views and the kind of firm, sandy soils on which Kidd loves to build golf holes that cater to the ground game. 

“It’s even better than it looks in the photos,” Kidd said, “and it looks pretty good in the photos.”

After the winery was shuttered in 2020, the land was purchased by a group that includes Keith Tiegs, whose family owns one of the largest farming operations in the Pacific Northwest. The family is known for its potatoes and other crops that appear in pretty much every supermarket and plenty of restaurants in the United States. Tiegs and his new partners in this property had a thought, Kidd said: This land is too good for potatoes and houses, so what would golf look like here? 

Kidd, who lives in Oregon, hit a home run in building the two 18-hole courses plus a tremendous short course at Gamble Sands – also on cliffs, also owned by a family of farmers  – and the new partnership group was made up of golfing fans of his work. They approached Kidd, and he jumped at the opportunity to build on the cliffs above the Snake River. He advised the ownership group to bring in KemperSports, the owner and operator of golf courses for whom Kidd has just finished building a new course at the popular Streamsong Resort in Florida. 

“These are smart guys, very smart guys, and they did everything perfectly,” Kidd said. He intends to deliver on his end by adding yet another must-see destination layout in the great expanses of the Pacific Northwest, a region that Kidd said mimics the weather of his native Scotland but that is still somewhat underserved as far as great golf courses. 

“The Pacific Northwest is the only region of the continental U.S. that approximates the same weather as the United Kingdom, right?” Kidd said. “The Northeast doesn’t do it – it’s freezing cold in the winter. So the Pacific Northwest is the closest thing we have here to the United Kingdom. And yet you could count the top-100 courses on one hand, in an area that’s 10 times bigger than the United Kingdom. It’s time for more courses.”

River Ranch will be a resort, with plans for four-bedroom cottages in the beginning and possible expansions to come if the first course proves successful. Asked if there’s a chance to expand the golf offering beyond 18 holes, Kidd laughed and said, “The Tiegs have plenty of great land, so you never know.” Bandon Dunes founder Mike Keiser has famously said that one golf course is a golf course but that two courses is a destination, and that thought could serve as inspiration for River Ranch. 

Kidd explained that the countryside around Pasco was once the wintering grounds for tribes of Native Americans. It doesn’t snow too much, and golf will be possible 12 months a year with intermittent days possibly lost to frost. The site, some 150 miles south of Gamble Sands, also is within reasonable driving distance of Seattle, Bend in Oregon, and Spokane and Boise in Idaho. The highly rated Wine Valley Golf Club, designed by Dan Hixson, is less than an hour away in Walla Walla, Washington.

It’s very possible that the addition of River Ranch will boost the tide that lifts all boats, as far as developing this patch of the Pacific Northwest as a national and even international golf destination. At River Ranch, it all starts with the cliffs, just as it did for Kidd. All the converging and sweeping lines on the site’s topographic map don’t hurt, either. 

The course will begin on high ground, the front nine looping roughly clockwise to the north, dropping from above cliffs to a lower bench closer to the river. The back nine will loop counter-clockwise to the south, finishing with a long stretch atop the cliffs that includes the par-4 18th that parallels the river below. Kidd was particularly excited to describe the par-3 15th, which will play across the cliffs to a green located on a point above the water. 

Kidd plans to spend extra time on the micro-contours within the site, editing the rollicking ground until it allows a golf ball to roll and roll. He said the ownership group is open to experimentation on the granular level, allowing for creativity, especially with the green sites. He hinted that the greens at River Ranch might not be quite as welcoming to middling or poor approach shots as at some of his recent course designs, but as long as the ball can be found, Kidd said he is onboard. Don’t count on an overly penal layout, either – playability is baked into the DNA of all his recent courses. It’s all about making the most of what the ground offers.

“This has some really good terrain,” Kidd said. “There are parts that are pretty aggressive. … This is the kind of site that golf architects dream of. I mean, at least I do. There’s just aren’t that many sites like this, and I’ve been lucky to have a few. It’s just really cool.”

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]]> https://ultragolfing.com/famous-architect-kicks-off-new-clifftop-golf-course-in-washington/feed/ 0 Famous golfer sharpens Teeth of the Dog in the Dominican Republic https://ultragolfing.com/famous-golfer-sharpens-teeth-of-the-dog-in-the-dominican-republic/ https://ultragolfing.com/famous-golfer-sharpens-teeth-of-the-dog-in-the-dominican-republic/#respond Mon, 02 Feb 2026 21:34:57 +0000 https://ultragolfing.com/famous-golfer-sharpens-teeth-of-the-dog-in-the-dominican-republic/

The most famous interaction between Jerry Pate and Pete Dye surely came in 1982, when Pate won what would become the Players Championship the first time it was played at Dye’s new Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass in Florida. Following his victory, Pate pushed Dye and PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman into the water left of No. 18 green, an amusing scene with plenty of laughs that nevertheless highlighted the frustration felt by many players about the difficult new layout. 

Dye and Pate – also the winner of the 1976 U.S. Open at Atlanta Athletic Club – would go on to become friends. Pate even helped the famous golf course architect as a player consultant in the construction of the Dye’s Valley Course that opened in 1987 next door to the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. 

Their paths have crossed again, this time at one of the legendary architect’s greatest courses: Teeth of the Dog at Casa de Campo on the south shore of the Dominican Republic. After his playing career ended young because of shoulder injuries, Pate went on to a golf course design career of his own. Now the Florida native, 72, is wrapping up a restoration of Teeth of the Dog that kept Dye front and center in memory every step of the way. 

Opened in 1971, Teeth of the Dog sits at No. 4 on the 2026 Golfweek’s Best ranking of the top courses in Mexico, the Caribbean, the Atlantic Islands and Central America. But like all courses, especially those sitting tight to a sea, the layout had aged. Dye owned a home at Casa de Campo and continuously tinkered with Teeth of the Dog over the decades before his passing in 2020 at the age of 94, but in recent years there was work to be done on the visually stunning course that features seven holes carved into the rocky shoreline. 

Pate was retained nearly eight years ago to suggest modifications, but he never wanted to re-do Dye’s work. 

“Our goal was just to keep it looking like it used to look,” Pate said near the end of 2025, soon before first shots would be struck after the work. “We tried to keep the same philosophy that Pete instilled in just about all his golf courses. … I knew the golf course, I like the golf course and I respect the golf course, and I wanted to keep the same design philosophy throughout.”

Casa de Campo director of golf Robert Birtel said the project began as the resort’s operators considered resurfacing tees, fairways and greens with new paspalum grass. The scope expanded to a total refresh. 

Tees were flattened and enlarged to provide better playing surfaces. A few holes were lengthened with new rear tee boxes. The fairways were capped with three to four inches of sand and the greens were capped with seven inches, providing better drainage and bouncier, faster playing surfaces. Drainage was added. Bunkers were renovated and new liners were added, with some traps moving, a few being added and others just touched up in place. The faces of the bunkers were sharpened. Greens were expanded, offering new hole locations. Cart paths were added, mostly tucked out of view. 

But at its core, it’s the same golf course Dye constructed years before tackling such famous layouts as the Players Stadium Course, Whistling Straits in Wisconsin or the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina. The grand reopening of Teeth of the Dog is scheduled for March 10, though there will be several events and limited preview play before then. 

“The purpose, and Jerry would tell you the same thing, was not to take away from anything Pete did,” Birtel said. “The purpose of the project was to enhance Pete’s golf course. Jerry had that in mind the whole time, and we all had that in mind through this planning process. We’re really excited for how it’s going to come out.”

Pate had played the course since the 1970s. Just as he won the first event at Dye’s Players Stadium Course in 1982, Pate was the reigning U.S. Amateur Champion (at Ridgewood Country Club in New Jersey) when he arrived at Casa de Campo’s first big event, the 1974 World Amateur Team Championship. Pate won the individual title to lead the U.S. to victory. Pate’s relationship with the resort didn’t stop there: In the ensuing years, he developed a friendship with the eventual owner of the resort, Alfie Fanjul. 

Pate would regularly return to Casa de Campo, speaking about Teeth of the Dog and the resort’s other courses with Dye and his wife, Alice Dye. The last thing Pate wanted to do was remake a wheel that turned so well. 

“It’s like renovating a house,” Pate said of his work at Teeth of the Dog. “We’re putting down new carpet, new wallpaper, new faucets and maybe new doors. But it’s still the same house. And it’s going to look like the same house. It’s just been updated. So the golf course will look the same. … We had pictures that went back to 1971 and ’72, and we had photos of the progression of the changes over the years. We had a lot to work with.”

Birtel said discussions began with changing the main grass playing surfaces to paspalum grass, a hearty genus that can tolerate salty spray from the sea. Paspalum already was in play on the resort’s 27-hole Dye Fore course, and it also had been planted at the property’s private La Romana Country Club. The greens at Teeth of the Dog had been replanted with paspalum nearly two decades ago, but other grasses were still in play. 

“The main purpose of the renovation was we were growing the fairways effectively on clay, and we had multiple variations of grass that we were taking care of, whether it was Bermuda or paspalum and some zoysia,” Birtel said. “So the crux of the project was to sand cap the fairways and plant pure Dynasty paspalum. And by the time it takes to figure that out and do that, that’s an eight-month project anyway.

“So then we sat down and said, well, we can do bunkers, level tees and do cart paths all at the same time, along with a few other projects. And that’s how the whole project started.”

Birtel said golfers who have returned to play Teeth of the Dog dozens of times likely will notice some of the changes, but most of those changes won’t be overly obvious to those golfers who have seen the layout just a handful of times. 

Some of the biggest changes came at the greens, which in addition to being sand-capped were expanded to their original sizes in most cases. Birtel said the greens average around 5,000 square feet, and most of them were enlarged in the neighborhood of 200 square feet. Dye’s original greens stretched to the slopes around the putting surfaces, but as with most courses, those greens had retreated several feet over the decades. 

“We brought the fringes out to the edges of the hills, which brings the green closer to the apex of the hill, which will add for more movement of the ball as it approaches the sides of the hills,” Birtel said of the restoration. “You have to be a little more precise (with approach shots). Whereas the fringe might have saved you in the past, it won’t save you this time.”

A few of the greens received even larger expansions, most notably at No. 2, Birtel said. A back-right section of the green was visible in old photos, but it had vanished over the years, taking with it a challenging hole location. That section of the green has now been restored. Similarly, the green at the stunning seaside eighth hole was expanded to allow balls to better funnel into the putting surface perched above sparkling water. And Pate created a new version of the seaside 15th green, which is now a version of a Biarritz – a historically famous architectural template that features a high front, a low middle and a high back.

“It’s a subtle Biarritz,” Birtel said. “If the pin is back-right and you leave your ball in the middle, you have to go up a little plateau and then navigate that. Teeth of the Dog was always very subtle, and I think Jerry did a good job of maintaining those subtleties but adding in some new in placements that we had all kind of spoken about.”

The other main changes that catch the eye were to Teeth of the Dog’s bunkers. Over the decades, the faces of the bunkers had sagged and the bottoms of the bunkers had shifted. 

“I think, from my eye, the bunker work is so good with enhanced lips,” Birtel said. “They’re Pete Dye bunkers, so the sand is down at the bottom and grass comes down. The faces (of the fairway bunkers in particular) are just the right height now to really make you think about approach shots.”

New liners were added in the restoration, and the faces were pushed back up and more into play. Some new bunkers were added, such as a pot bunker on the par-3 13th where a tree once stood before a hurricane knocked it over. Other bunkers were shifted, such as the fairway trio on the par-5 14th that was flipped and moved a few yards closer to the line of play. The bunkers feature sand trucked in from near the capital city of Santa Domingo, and Birtel said it offers beautiful playability. 

All the work should shine brightly at the jewel of the massive resort, which offers some five miles of Caribbean coastline. With multiple styles of accommodations that range from luxurious hotel rooms to massive oceanfront villas, three full-size resort-access courses including Dye Fore and the Dye-designed Links, a world-class marina, even a ridiculously gorgeous cliffside Mediterranean-style village at Altos de Chavon, Casa de Campo never disappoints. 

“For anybody that goes to Casa de Campo, they’re going to find it’s a wonderful experience,” Pate said. “I mean, the restaurants are spectacular, everything is amazing – I’m on a sales pitch now, but I’m just being honest. I haven’t been going back there all these years just to play golf. I rarely play golf now. I go there because it’s one incredible experience.”

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]]> https://ultragolfing.com/famous-golfer-sharpens-teeth-of-the-dog-in-the-dominican-republic/feed/ 0 New golf resort in Florida starts construction with famous designer https://ultragolfing.com/new-golf-resort-in-florida-starts-construction-with-famous-designer/ https://ultragolfing.com/new-golf-resort-in-florida-starts-construction-with-famous-designer/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2026 07:44:28 +0000 https://ultragolfing.com/new-golf-resort-in-florida-starts-construction-with-famous-designer/

Golf course architects Tom Doak and Angela Moser, along with developer Michael Keiser, are off and running at one of Keiser’s three projects currently being built in three different states. Five greens have been constructed at Old Shores in the Florida Panhandle, and preview play on as many as 12 of the holes could commence as soon as October. 

Keiser and his brother, Chris, own the popular Sand Valley Resort in Wisconsin, and they are the sons of Bandon Dunes Golf Resort developer Mike Keiser. In addition to Old Shores, Michael also is developing Rodeo Dunes in Colorado and Wild Spring Dunes in Texas. Both of those resort and residential developments are farther along than Old Shores, which sits some half an hour north of Panama City and south of Interstate 10.

But Moser got into the ground at Old Shores in November, and Keiser is thrilled with the progress on what eventually could be an expansive project that includes multiple courses and several walking-based villages with estate homes, cottages, a hotel, restaurants, shops and more. 

The first course at Old Shores – so named because the Gulf and its sugar-white sand beaches used to reach all the way to this stretch of Northwest Florida – is being designed by Doak with Moser as lead associate. That’s the same duo that laid out Pinehurst No. 10, a course that opened in 2024 and has climbed to No. 15 on the Golfweek’s Best ranking of the top resort courses in the United States. Moser worked on multiple courses around the world with Doak, one of the game’s most decorated modern course architects, before Pinehurst. 

“I’m really excited for her,” Keiser said. “Pinehurst (No. 10) was great. I also know the work that she did with Tom for Rosappena at St. Patrick’s Links (a highly rated layout in Ireland), and I think that was really exceptional. I’ve talked to Tom about what she did at Te Arai (at the highly rated North Course in New Zealand), and I’ve talked to Bill Coore because she helped Bill out for a little bit on his course (South Course at Te Arai, also highly rated). I’m really excited for her, and just philosophically, we’re really aligned as we walk through the holes. 

“I was down there a few weeks ago with her just talking through what we’re imagining, what she’s imagining. She’s phenomenal. And her work on the routing – you know how good Tom is at routing golf courses, and she came up and her recommendations completely changed the final stretch of golf holes on the golf course. And it’s an incredible finish, thanks to her. So I’m excited and have full confidence in her abilities.”

Keiser said that as design and construction continue, the plans are to start grassing the first set of finished holes in May. Twelve holes could be available as a playable loop in October, and a full grand opening is planned for fall of 2027.

It all seems to be flying quickly, Keiser said. With the courses at Sand Valley being covered in fescue grass, he’s learning how quickly the Bermuda grasses used in the South can be installed and grown in. It’s similar to Wild Spring Dunes in Texas, where Keiser was able to offer preview play in late 2025 while the full opening is planned for this September. Rodeo Dunes in Colorado is slated to open fully in the spring of 2027.

“As somebody who is used to fescue and two-year to three-year grow-ins, it’s a bit insane for me,” Keiser said, “but also exciting.”

As an old pine plantation was cleared for Old Shores, Keiser grew even more thrilled about the Florida project. Florida golf is too often defined by flat ground with pushup greens and drainage ponds providing the greatest intrigue. At Old Shores, though, the sandy terrain is much more varied. 

“The first time I saw it, it was on a topo app from the neighboring site,” Keiser said. “I was drawn by the topography. Not only did it seem really interesting, it’s so unusual. Tom Doak has been talking about this a lot recently. He doesn’t use the word unusual. I think he says dynamic. It’s as dynamic a site as he’s seen in a long time. It’s such a different topography. So that struck me on paper, and I confirmed that on the ground. Its natural beauty has always captivated me. 

“But in recent months and really over the last two years, after we’ve removed the pine plantation, we’ve been growing in this prairie that just gets prettier and prettier. And then in the last three or four months, we’ve been mowing out the fairway corridors. And I saw this at Rodeo Dunes: When you go from 4-foot grass to essentially soil, all the little details emerge in the ground. And as I saw the little stuff in the ground, it has really exceeded any expectations that I had even six months ago on the quality of the site.”

Doak and Moser’s design will come first, but the plans keeps stretching out from there. Brian Schneider, a longtime Doak lead associate who completed his first original co-design at the highly rated Old Barnwell in South Carolina that opened in 2023, will design the second course at Old Shores. Keiser said the first phase of development at Old Shores includes those two public-access, 18-hole resort courses plus a par-3 course, a nine-hole private course that will accept some resort play and a 12-hole layout similar to The Commons, a community-based, non-traditional course in development at the heart of Sand Valley. 

In time, Keiser said, there are plans for Old Shores to expand from there to include more courses and a second village. Keiser drew inspiration for the villages from the great walking towns of Scotland, where a car might be parked and forgotten. With 4,000 acres owned by Keiser and a partner who wishes to remain anonymous, and with that partner owning another 60,000 acres, there’s plenty of room for Old Shores to stretch out.

“We spent a couple years planning the bones for the villages, and we went through I don’t know how many iterations,” Keiser said. “I always say, let’s measure 50 times and cut once, right? And we’re not on any schedule. So we’re going to start designing this, and we’ll move forward when we’re really excited about it, even if that slows the project down. So that’s what we did. We spent a lot of time on the village design, and it’s pretty cool.”

Founding memberships are available at Old Shores for $115,000, Keiser said, and the first offering of 21 estate homesites are available starting at $1.3 million with owners able to design custom retreats that include as many as eight bedrooms. The homes at Old Shores will be constructed around gardens, greens and shared gathering spaces. Amenities will include an entry plaza, a variety of restaurants, a community pool and multiple communal areas. 

But it’s the golf that will draw the most eyeballs. The Keiser family has established high expectations with home run after home run in golf course development, and Michael is thrilled to be building with Doak for the fourth time, especially with this first course at Old Shores on a very unexpected piece of ground. 

“The site for Old Shores is not at all what people will visualize when they think of Florida,” Doak said in a media release from Old Shores. “There is about 40 feet of elevation change from high to low on our site, and even more on the site for the second course, with big sweeping hills providing a variety of stances. Then there are the sinkholes, which are unlike anything I’ve seen on a golf course; in some cases there are abrupt banks 30 to 50 feet deep, and the largest of them, Long Lake, is a dry pond that is something like 50 acres in size.”

Keiser is a bit of a golf nut, in a great way. He loves to talk courses and dreams of building more, and a round of golf with him includes continuous conversation about what he likes with various holes and layouts. He learned from his father, Mike – who redefined resort golf in the U.S. with Bandon Dunes in Oregon – that the golf must always come first. Such is the case at Old Shores.

“It’s all happening really fast,” Michael said, “and I just really want to play the course.”

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