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Golf

A community-friendly course

Northdale offers affordable greens, future haven for junior golfers.

By BOB HARIG, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 13, 2003

TAMPA -- When Ron Garl designed the Northdale Golf Club course in the late 1970s, there was no opulence, no grand plans for moving dirt and making headlines, as often is the case in course architecture today.

The idea was to give the people of a growing area a nice place to play golf. Back then there was little of what is seen today in the way of traffic and business near north Dale Mabry Highway.

"The area was much different," Garl recalled. "When we built that course, it was mostly just woods and cow pasture out there. It was wide open."

That is hardly the case today. If you're not familiar with the area, you need a map and a compass to find Northdale, which is part of the urban sprawl.

But the course that Garl designed 25 years ago has come full circle after a $750,000 renovation last fall. In addition to new TifDwarf Bermuda greens, the changes include updated bunkers, improved drainage and more than 4 miles of resurfaced cart paths.

"Golf courses back then were generally built a little more naturally," said Garl, a Lakeland-based architect who has more than 200 designs and remodeled courses in his portfolio. "Then after that, the next one had to be bolder and greater. Now we're getting back to where golf courses are more natural, where they sit softly on the land. Northdale does that. It's a really nice golf course. It's back to that walk-in-the-park test. We're coming back to that."

"We got a lot of positive comments when we first opened up before the weather went south on us," general manager Robert Stanley said. "One of the original goals was to improve the quality of the putting surfaces and give the course a fresh look without it appearing that we had changed a lot. We wanted the renovation to fit with what we had here. The biggest change will be in the longterm quality of the putting surfaces. That's where we put most of the money."

Make no mistake, Northdale is not a high-end, ritzy, glitzy place. It is a neighborhood course that is affordable to the masses and is about to embark on a program that makes it accessible to junior players.

Northdale is owned by Crown Golf Properties, a Chicago-based company that operates more than 20 courses across the country. Four of its five Florida courses are in the bay area: Northdale, Lansbrook in Palm Harbor, Largo's Bardmoor Golf Club and the private Bayou Club. The company also owns Highlands Reserve Golf Club in Orlando.

"When I first went there, I really liked the vibe," said Matt McIntee, vice president of course acquisitions for Crown. "The parking lot was always full. There were always people eating and drinking and playing cards. It was busy. The neighborhood itself was nice, middle class. I just thought, 'You come in here and give this a little bit of a facelift, you don't try to compete with the Eagles of the world, make it an affordable neighborhood golf course. ... You do it the right way.' We just wanted to establish a really strong neighborhood golf course. We figured that golf course could serve a very large group of people."

Northdale had a re-opening celebration last fall and is about to embark on a junior program to be implemented at all the Crown public courses in the area, including Bardmoor and Lansbrook. The details are being worked out, but in essence the courses would allow juniors 16 and under to play for free after school and on weekends after noon with a paying adult.

Crown sees this as a worthy investment in upcoming golfers.

"I think it's the future of golf," McIntee said. "It's a game that juniors can play. If you pick it up, you're better off. If you can break down the barriers of cost of entry and just focus on learning the game and etiquette, that's the biggest thing to overcome. Not all kids have parents with the financial wherewithal. There's a great opportunity to get some parents to play.

"And we think it's the right thing to do. And who knows? These might be the kids who work for us some day. It's much better for us to have them on the golf course and learning the game."

-- For more information about Northdale, Lansbrook and Bardmoor, visit www.tbgolf.com.

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