Florida to get more Jack Nicklaus designed courses – Golf news
Florida, apart from its precious bounty of natural beauty also has one of the best state park systems in United States. The state is a more of a peninsula which harbours and directs the rich Gulf Stream from the Atlantic and boasts some of the most breathtaking
coastlines and natural wet lands. The tropical weather conditions and plenty of rainfall has made the state a natural reserve of flora and fauna and one of the world’s most visited tourist resort.
The state parks offer a wide variety of interests to tourists including rivers for kayaking, forest trails for trekking and beaches to spend the weekends in a leisurely way. According to the National Golf Foundation, which is based in Jupiter Florida, the
state is home to some 1000 golf courses but two of the state legislators, Senator John Thrasher of St. Augustine and Republican, Patrick Rooney of the West Palm Beach are of the view that the state should have a few more modern design Golf courses within the
state parks.
The Bill filed last week by the Senators requires the state division of recreations and parks to hire Nicklaus’s company for the course designs, which will design a course in one of the state parks in all the five regions of the state. Their vision stated,
“to stimulate the growth of tourism and the state economy by enhancing the state’s reputation as a premier golfing destination and encouraging the location of public golf facilities within Florida’s existing state parks.”
Florida has also produced some of the finest players of the sport including Nicklaus himself, who lives in Jupiter. It was in fact Nicklaus who initiated the idea and brought up the matter during his meeting with the Governor Rick Scott, to which they both
agreed. Nicklaus supports the idea more in terms of leaving a legacy of his brilliant career and a gift to his home state. Nicklaus’s company normally charges $2.5 million per course but the 71-year-old veteran has decided to waive the fee for the Jonathan
Dickinson State Park course in particular, and to do the rest of them for $625,000 per course.
The Bill says that “each course shall be designed and built in an environmentally sensitive manner” but also “may include a hotel.”
There has been wide spread criticism on the bill and many of the environmentalists and wildlife conservationists have dubbed the idea as hazardous for the state’s natural resource. Golf courses are often regarded as ‘polluters’ rather than ‘saviors’ of the
environment. They replace the green wetlands and swamps which support wide variety of wild life with fake water hazards. The courses also use excessive and unchecked use of fertilizers which thereby increases the acidity of the soil. They also use huge amount
of water for their maintenance.
Andy McLeod of the Nature Conservancy, speaking against the move stated, “We would make a very strong case that a huge component of Florida tourism is its natural beauty,” he said. “We would hope that proposals of this type could be made for places other
than a state park like Jonathan Dickinson.”
Manley Fuller of the Florida Wildlife Federation is of the view that Nicklaus’s idea can be productive but only in the areas which are already destroyed by human intrusions. He referred to wasted parking lots and damaged commercial property that needs rehabilitation.
Florida has been home of golf for more than hundred years and has witnessed tremendous growth in the popularity of the sport. The World Golf Hall of Fame is based in St. Augustine and classic golf comedy series, Caddyshack, was also shot on the Florida courses.
The common Floridians are also not very supportive of the idea since the sport is predominantly considered as a leisurely indulgence of the rich and they advocate better use of the money that would actually create employment.
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