We’re ahead of schedule on this one, which is always good. We’ve never driven across this bridge in a vehicle before, so this is a first. That wasn’t very nice of you to put that bunker there. Well, you just can’t be nice all the time. With the recent opening of Woodlands Championship Golf, Bellaire Executive Golf, and all of the wonderful new experiences taking place here at Eastport, you may be surprised to learn that there is more golf on the horizon here in the Villages. Joining me today is longtime Villages golf designer and architect Kenny Ezell to share a little bit about what he has in the hopper and on the horizon as it relates to golf in The Villages.
Wow. Well, Harper, I’m happy to be here. I can honestly say we’re on a roll with golf. We’re glad to have people out playing, but now we have two more executive golf courses getting ready to open up probably in the first of the year, the first couple of months of the year, and that’s Beautyberry and Honeysuckle. We’ve got two more 27ole championship. We’re well on our way as far as all the design. And next to it, it’s an 18 hole executive also. And then we got all kind of golf after that. So, there’s a lot to see. There’s a lot to be excited for.
Well, that sounds wonderful, Kenny. Let’s hop in the Jeep and go take a look and see what you got going on. Well, that’s what we like doing. Yes, sir.
There is a certain vision that we start off with and Honeysuckle and Beautyberry are sister golf courses. One’s a little bit more like a a bigger brother and Honeysuckle’s maybe like a littler sister. They both have the same feel and flavor. They’re just one’s a little bit longer. One’s a little bit more challenging. This one is a little bit as far as Honeysuckle, a little bit more visual appeal to it. So that’s why I call it maybe the sister. And you you really just have to kind of start off and and link them together and try to provide as much variety as you possibly can, which is sometimes difficult with the par 3s like this one. You can see the nice rolling terrain that we’ve created. The first thing we really look for is where are the nice trees and we try to save as many of those as humanly possible. You have a wide variety of trees, ponds, wetlands and then the golf intermingling in and around those features. So this nine holes of beauty berry is really come along. There’s a challenge. That wasn’t very nice of you to put that bunker there. Well, you just can’t be nice all the time. What do you hope some of the feedback is from the folks that that play this course? Well, this is one of the courses that we had enough room to be able to put a little lengthier par 4s on. So, we have two par 4s in there back to back. So, the bunkers are framing this hole nicely. Still have quite a long width to it for hitting your T-OT. This golf course has got a little bit different grass on the greens. We’ve got the same as the championship. This has got the tip eagle potentially a little bit faster maybe. Honeysuckle is a little bit shorter golf course than beauty berry, but not much. And a little bit more movement on the greens, but uh that’s probably the biggest difference between the two. This is really the first hole has any water feature to it. And on the other side of this, we have several wetlands. First hole over on the left. Then the ninth over on the right with the ninth having a nice bulkhead all the way around it. So you have a a pretty good vista view from right here of the villages to the north. It’s all exciting. I mean, look, you got golf, you got waterfront, you got wetlands. Uh these are some beautiful home sites. Unbelievable. To the amateur eye, this course looks like it’s pretty well buttoned up. We could stick a flag in the ground and go play golf tomorrow if we wanted. I think we’ll be patient and wait. When can folks expect to to get out here? Do you have a rough estimate? I would say probably the first of the year. Of course, the longer the golf course has to mature, the better it’s going to be. I think we’ve determined that at Bair. When you said that golf was on a roll, you weren’t lying. So, where are we headed next? Well, we’re going to take a short jaunt over to Timberland and Lakes. Well, let’s head on over. Let’s go.
All right. Well, here we are. This is number one at Timberland. And you can just feel the difference between this golf course and the Beautyberry Honeysuckle. As you can tell by the name of the nines, one’s Timberland. And we’re so so happy the way we’re able to save all the old growth oaks over there and incorporate them into the golf course design. It’s going to be one of my favorites. So, what what is taking place right now? We have the dirt moved and in place. The tees have not been completely shaped yet. We’ve rough shaped out the bunkers. We have these little humps and bumps and movement, you know, for the drainage, getting it to the drains. The drains are all in. Irrigation is uh in place. This will show you a little bit of the construction because it’s got a little bit of gray to it. That’s where the granite is. It’s for the drainage. So, we’re in the process of being able to put the greens mix in, start the irrigation up. Then, we’ll take and put some sod around the greens, sod around the bunkers. We’re ahead of schedule on this one, which is always good. Okay. Uh we’ve never driven across this bridge in a vehicle before, so this is a first. But from here, uh it all starts to move fairly quickly. Typically by the middle of March, it starts to go. The grass is starting really mature by the time we get to July and August. And then we take and do the finishing touches. And we would say this should open up no later than the fall of 2026.
So Kenny, we’ve covered four executive courses and last time we were together, we talked about an upcoming championship course, correct? We have a 27 hole championship called Meadow View coming up. The north course is up parallel to the turnpike and the middle course is kind of running just north of Corbin Trail and then the south course is just north of Central Parkway. We started working on it. It’s in its infancy. So it’s a 27 golf course experience construction wise. We’ll be taking and starting on that sometime the first of the year. and it takes a while. I’ve certainly enjoyed hearing a little bit more and hope you did as well about what’s going on with golf in the villages here with Mr. Kenny Ezell. I know you’ve got a couple more things up your sleeve that you’re working on. Well, I think you know, Harper, we’ve got plenty. We’ve got another 27 hole golf course called the Palms and we also have another next to that another 18 hole executive. So, we’ve got plenty in the works. We got another pitch and putt that’s uh on the drawing board. So, we have a lot of different things and we’re looking forward to revealing that as we continue on. Thank you, sir. Thank you, man. Appreciate you. It’s been fun. And thank you for joining us today. We hope you’re enjoying golf in the villages and until next time, we’ll see you soon.
