'Coastal inland heights' becomes newest Florida golf, development hotspot

William K. Wolfrum,
Staff Writer

The town of Freeport, Fla., will soon have something larger to brag about than being a viable pit stop between Panama City and Destin.

Arnold Palmer's design group - Palmer Course Design - has been selected to design a championship golf course in the small Florida-panhandle town of slightly more than 1,000 residents. The course will be a centerpiece of a new residential development by Owl's Head Development LLC, and groundbreaking is scheduled for Feb. 2006.

While the new Owl's Head course and housing development is big news for the until-now underdeveloped area, the region now also has its own moniker, ala the "Space Coast," or the "First Coast" that will help define the area that sits 100 feet above sea level and 20 miles from the beaches.

Now known as "Florida's Coastal Inland Heights," the developers see their location as one that will resonate with residents looking to remove themselves from the paths of possible deadly hurricanes, which have blistered coastal areas in Florida and surrounding states this year.

"Now what we call attention to first, is that Owl's Head is located on the 'Coastal Inland Heights,'" said Jeff Tucker, a partner in Owl's Head Development, LLC.

With the recent string of hurricanes hitting the Florida coasts, Freeport officials have been calling attention to the inland area and its relatively safer location in regard to weather systems, said Freeport City Planner Latilda Henninger.

"The recent storms have people thinking inland," Henninger said. "People are taking the idea of 'the high ground' literally and seriously."

According to Henninger, as many as many as 3,500 homes could be approved for construction within a year inside the expanding city limits of Freeport and the new Coastal Inland Heights area.

Freeport is currently home to the Windswept Dunes Golf Club - ranked by the USGA as the longest course in Florida. The new course will be situated on 220 acres, of which 180 will be used for the golf course.

"This is a great piece of land that we have to work with," course architect Thad Layton said. "We will utilize the unique features of the property to create a premier championship golf course at Owl's Head."

The new course - which is just known as the Owl's Head Development for now - will feature diverse nines, with the front nine playing more like a links course, while the back nine will have a "parklands" feel. The course will feature more elevation changes than most Florida courses, and Layton said Owl's Head would like the course to be a candidate for future PGA Tour events.

"This is pure golf," Layton said. "Like older country clubs, views from the course will be preserved, with housing set back and kept primarily to the outside boundaries of the course."

Owl's Head will be located off Highway 331, approximately 10 miles south of Interstate 10. The development will be within a 25-minute drive to the beaches of South Walton County. The entire development will encompass almost 1,600 acres of rolling landscape that was previously used for the Owl's Head Sod Farm and sand mining operation.

Bordered on two sides by a nature preserve, the first phase at Owl's Head will include approximately 400 home sites. Lots will go on sale in the first quarter of 2006 and houses will cost between $200,000 and $800,000.

Owl's Head is a private club, however it will be open to public play until the membership matures, with Owl's Head representatives saying it will likely take several years for the membership to fully mature.

Hurricane Updates

While South Florida suffered a terrifying one-two punch from Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma, the damage to golf courses in that area has not been as bad as first feared.

The small town of Miami Lakes - home to Don Shula's Hotel & Golf Club - suffered extensive tree damage. The golf club at Shula's will likely be closed through November as the course is fixed.

The Indian Creek Country Club had to cancel the recent Raymond Floyd Cup, a two-man event featuring some of the nation's top mid-amateurs. The course, which reported a loss of 205 trees, should be reopened soon, however.

Both the Doral Golf Resort & Spa and the Trump International Golf Club sustained damage, but both courses have already reopened.

November 25, 2005