If you’re sick and tired of the constant drumbeat of gloom and doom economic news, I hope I can remedy that problem for you.
Finally, here’s some good news about exciting happenings in the golf travel world in 2014:
Slated to debut early 2014 is a luxury 210-room main lodge at Streamsong Resort in Polk County near Lakeland, Florida. Amenities will include three restaurants and two lounge areas, an indoor pool, outdoor infinity pool, fitness center, full-service spa with multiple treatment rooms, retail shopping, hiking, birding tours, sporting clays and lakefront fishing complex with guides, outfitters and boating equipment. Situated 53 miles from Tampa and 69 miles from Orlando, Streamsong is home to two of golf’s more celebrated new courses that opened in 2012. Set on formerly mined land, the courses incorporate hills, dramatic land forms, sweeping sand dunes, ridges and vistas. The two 18-hole courses were designed by Tom Doak and Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw.
Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales, the venue for the 2010 Ryder Cup matches, will debut 10 new luxury lodges in 2014, which is part of a planned development of 60 lodges. The large, multi-bedroom log cabins will be named Hunter Lodges. Offering views of the Usk Valley, the lodges will be situated near Celtic Manor’s Twenty Ten Ryder Cup course.
The $3.5 billion Baha Mar mega-resort in Nassau’s Cable Beach area (Bahamas) will open its 1,000-room casino hotel in December 2014. Opening late this year or early next year is the property’s Jack Nicklaus Signature Course at Baha Mar.
An 18-hole putting course at Pacific Dunes at Bandon Dunes Resort in Oregon is scheduled to open in May 2014. Designed by Tom Doak, the highlights of “The Punchbowl Putting Course” include 15 to 20 feet of elevation change and a 100-foot downhill roller coaster putt.
Expected to open late 2014 is the 444-room Four Seasons Resort at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Set in Disney’s ultra-exclusive, luxury master-planned Golden Oaks community near the Tom Fazio designed Osprey Ridge Golf course, the $360 million hotel will be dripping with luxury amenities.
PGA Village Resort in Port St. Lucie, Florida has committed to a course conditioning and enhancement program that will significantly improve the overall golf experience at the resort’s four golf courses. Veteran superintendent Dick Gray was hired to raise the quality of maintenance and conditioning to unparalleled levels for 2014 and beyond.
The Trump National Doral Miami (formerly named Doral Golf Resort & Spa) is undergoing a massive $250 million renovation and enhancement program. Slated for completion in fall 2014, the transformation will include refurbishment of guest rooms, extensive renovation of the clubhouse and redesign of the “Blue Monster” by architect Gil Hanse. The new “Blue Monster” is scheduled to be ready by early 2014, just prior to the 2014 World Golf Championship/Cadillac Championship in March.
The Indura Resort and Spa on the northern coast of Honduras is scheduled to open early 2014. One of the highlight amenities is an 18-hole golf course designed by Gary Player and managed by Troon Golf.
