Tournament Players Club (TPC)
Opened
in 1983, the Tournament
Players Club at Eagle Trace is a private non-equity club. The course
is an Arthur Hills design. Hills approached this project with a very
traditional and historic perspective. A blend of Scotland and Florida,
the course is very natural and relates well to the land, keeping in
mind the strategy of the game and the elements that provide beauty in
a golf course - textures and colors, shadowing and framing.
Complementing
the course is an impressive Cape Cod-style clubhouse facility. In addition
to the nearby TPC at Heron Bay, Eagle Trace members have access to the
entire TPC Network.
The Tournament Players Club at Eagle Trace in Coral Springs, Fla., possesses
a redolence of the creative genre that is consistent with the work of
Arthur Hills, a former landscape architect who attempts to infuse his
golf courses with equal parts challenge and charm.
He certainly succeeded with the TPC at Eagle Trace, a private, non-equity
club that represents the second stadium golf course in the famed TPC
Network. Opened in 1983, Eagle Trace boasts complementary components
of strategy and beauty on a parcel of land that, three decades earlier,
was the receptacle for the excess topsoil and other raw matter removed
during the development of the eastern part of Broward County.
Home
to the PGA TOUR's Honda Classic for nine years, the TPC at Eagle Trace
is replete with lush, rolling serpentine fairways and narrow greens,
which are often angled away from the player. There are relatively few
bunkers, 27 greenside and 14 elsewhere, and a number of the latter are
large waste areas. Nevertheless, the purpose of the sand appears more
for framing and contrast rather than as a hazard. Perhaps that is because
water hazards in the form of lakes and streams are omnipresent. Players
must contend with water on all but two holes -- the ninth and 18th.
Combine this with the absence of any true doglegs, and there is an unmistakable
premium on straight shots with the proper distance control.
Many
of the greens on the par-72 layout, which measures 5,106 yards for women
and up to 7,040 yards from the TPC tees, are elevated, but Hills provides
some of his patented bailout areas for stray shots or safe plays. That
is especially prevalent on the collection of harrowing par-3 holes.
Oak and Cypress trees kept on the periphery provide shade and framing
as well as differentiation to the Florida landscape. Interestingly,
there are no palm trees, a further measure of originality in a state
with nearly 1,300 golf courses, the most in the U.S. Typical of a TPC
design, there are plenty of spectator mounds and berms, and left of
the long par-4 home hole is an earthen grandstand-type creation.
Hills, whose best work is in Florida despite his Toledo, Ohio, home
base, said he likes the variety of challenges the course presents depending
on wind direction. The TPC at Eagle Trace was Hills' first top 100 golf
course, and Golf Digest has traditionally chosen it among its "Best
in State."
Tony
Santilli, director of marketing, thinks the TPC at Eagle Trace is a
course for players, those golfers who enjoy a shot-making examination
regardless of their skill levels.
"The course makes you think a lot," he said. "Club selection
is real important and you can definitely go through the whole bag. It
can be a tough test, but that's what our members enjoy. We're a golf
club and the challenge of the golf course is our strongest asset."
Not surprisingly, with that in mind, the course recently underwent
an extensive $2 million renovation of its greens and bunkers. The greens
were replanted with Tifeagle Bermuda grass, which better withstands
temperature extremes, and mowing heights can be kept low throughout
the year. A new irrigation control system also was installed on the
course and on the first-rate practice facility that includes a short-game
area. The six-month project was completed last October.
About
325 full members play some 30,000 rounds per year at the TPC at Eagle
Trace, where five member tournaments for men and women are conducted.
The golf course, only a few miles from the daily fee TPC at Heron Bay,
which hosted The Honda Classic through 2002, is the centerpiece of a
master-planned community of 950 homes that begin at $300,000.
Another complement to the course is the clubhouse, which is 16,000
square feet and includes a golf shop, locker rooms, a grill room, an
80-seat dining room and a conference room that can accommodate 28 people
and offers audio-visual tools. The Colonial style clubhouse has a distinct
early-American architectural feel -- and no wonder; it is a replica
of the Carter Hill Plantation in Williamsburg, Va., with a large white
clock tower atop the back roof that faces toward the golf course and
players coming to the closing green.
Not that time is an issue at the TPC at Eagle Trace. Santilli happily
points out that the pace of play is brisk despite the myriad challenges
the layout presents.
"We don't have tennis courts or a swimming pool," he said.
"We're all about golf here and we enjoy our course, not to mention
the opportunity to play the other courses in the TPC Network."
TPC at Eagle Trace
1111 Eagle Trace Blvd
Coral Springs, FL 33071
Office: (954) 753-7222
Golf Shop: (954) 753-7600
Facsimile: (954) 341-456
