Phase 1 at Frenchman’s Creek nearing completion

Below are excerpts from an article that appeared on golfcourseindustry.com

NMP Golf is finishing up work at Frenchman’s Creek Beach and Country Club, a private community in Florida’s Palm Beach area. When the season begins in a few weeks, returning members will notice a few changes.

Th par-3 9th hole on the South Course is now more engaging after golf course architects Fry and Straka’s alterations to the green, tees, and the large lake between them.

“There isn’t a part of the hole that we didn’t touch,” said Darryl Bartlett, senior manager and chief development officer of NMP Golf Construction. “We added bulkhead walls around the green and extended the wall, so it encompasses more of the teeing area, as well. But we also varied the height of the wall as it meanders, which makes it look very cool.”

The signature 9th hole—which plays from 66 yards to 165-plus and features a guarding bunker just beyond the lake—sits just below the newly constructed clubhouse, putting on a show for diners and spectators on the outside mezzanine as groups of golfers come through.

“It came out sweet,” Bartlett said. “It’s a showpiece.”

It’s also a valuable environmental upgrade to the property. Enlarging the lake in both depth and overall footprint creates extra water capacity, which will be used in irrigation. And the approximately 40,000 cubic yards of material extracted from the lake has been used in the club’s other significant off-season addition—the practice area.

In completely rebuilding both the main driving range and an expanded short-game practice area, NMP Golf used what it took out of the lake to build a long berm along the East side of the range, which runs along Tournament Drive, the Club’s main entrance way.

“The berm now shields the view in both directions—screening cars from golfers and reducing the distraction for players who were seeing constant movement or worrying about errant shots heading that way,” Bartlett said. “We landscaped it to make it more attractive and, in effect, even taller.”

The revamped 9th hole and the practice area will open to members later this fall.

Click here to read the full article on golfcourseindustry.com.