'Impressed with the re-birth of this golf course' Newly Renovated 'Dunes' Golf Course Offers True Roll

I love golf. I became instantly addicted to the game four years ago when courting my now wife and playing golf with her dad on the weekends.

My best friend growing up was Tim Beckwith. On Saturday mornings when I was going to the football or baseball fields, he would go to Brooksville Country Club and walk 18 holes by himself. Needless to say, today he's a golf professional in Sarasota, and I am a real-estate appraiser. Thanks Tim, why didn't you tell me earlier about the greatest game on Earth?

So when Sports Editor Tony Castro asked me and Joe DiCristofalo, prize-winning photographer and owner of a 6-handicap if we wanted to get paid to play golf, rate the courses, write and photograph them, we jumped at the opportunity.

Thus began Fairways and Greens, what we hope will turn into a weekly column in which Joe and I play a course, report on it and photograph it from two different perspectives: a 6-handicap who's been playing for 26 years and a 28-handicapper who is basically just starting.

We hope to institute a rather elementary rating system of one to five tees (five being the best) based on condition, price, playability, and some other factors that we come up with along the way.

Dunes: 101

We start out this season at The Dunes Golf Club, who recently gave us a sneak preview of the back-nine.

Over a thousand people came out to tour the revamped course, have some food, get some sun and test their skills with a club for a chance to win a free membership. The grand re-opening is scheduled for June 2nd.

The Dunes was originally opened in 1986 and developed by noted golf course architect Arthur Hills, who has designed nearly 300 courses throughout the United states and over 40 courses in Florida alone, including the TPC at Eagle Trace and the LPGA at Daytona Beach (I've played there, it's awesome).

He has many award winning courses as rated by top golf magazines such as Golf Digest's Top 100 courses outside of the U.S. the Sand Golf Club in Jonkoping, Sweden, and Top 100 public access courses-five courses in Michigan and Ohio rated as recent as 2007.

Hills came back to renovate The Dunes in 2007 and 2008, stretching the course to just under 7,200 yards, adding bunkers and water and generally making the course more appealing to the golfer's eye. New golf cart paths and 419 Bermuda grass give distinction to the holes and more clearly define in-play areas. The style is considered a blend of the Carolinas and Pine Valley design terrain and landscaping.

Jim Cocchi is the Director of Golf, a member of the PGA and has assembled an operations staff of Class A instructors including Harry Andrews, and Walter Newell. Steve LaFalce is a Master Instructor, Mark Guyer is the head golf superintendent who came from Old Memorial in Tampa, and Melissa Stewart is head of food and beverage operations, over from a competing course.

The Dunes will have a daily summer rate fee of $35, but if you wish to pay a preferred player one time fee of $49.95 for the 2008 and 2009 season, the daily rate drops to $25. The Dunes plans on 50 annual prepaid memberships of $1,200 plus tax per year, but will open this up to only about 50 players.

The facilities will be set up as a 19th hole, with a big screen TV, limited food and beverage, and a basic supply of Titleist products.

The Dunes will host league activities nearly every day of the week. Tee times are open from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. with 7 days advance booking.

Practice facilities include a driving range with target greens, a short game area and putting greens.

Joe and I had the privilege of golfing that day with Steve LaFalce and Ray Donato, who together run The Indoor Golf Center just off of County Line Road in Hudson.

They were a pleasure to play with, both good golfers with good attitudes who were quite thrilled with the condition of the course and what Hills had added.

The par-four 12th hole was Ray's favorite hole. Steve liked No. 17 the best. I, not being that good, like shorter holes so the reachable par-three 13th hole was my favorite. With a left to right wind and an elevated tee box, you had to shape your shot not only with the wind, but to bail out right or left will leave you in the sand.

"Obviously, I didn't like No. 12 very much," said DiCristofalo. "But just the way they defined the shape of the golf course, coming off the tee and not just falling away to scrub vegetation, there's actually a very definitive look to the golf hole. That goes throughout the entire course, not just the 12th. The 12th plays a lot like it played in the past except around the greens, not just scrub vegetation but golf course like rough."

"Personally, my favorite hole is 18th," DiCristofalo added. "I think it's a great finishing hole, a long par five with a great visual down the entire left side with a big long waste bunker and fairway actually banking towards it. It again takes away from the scrub vegetation that used to be there; and the ball rolling into the trees that used to be there.

"So you need a good drive off that tee aimed correctly, which is what happens on a lot of these holes," he continued. "You really have to think about your shot. And then the new bunkers, they're in play in the fairway the second shot. You have to find a place that allows you to come into the hole. Arthur Hills has done a nice job of defining what side of the hole is going to be appropriate coming into the green."

The greens have recently been aerated making them hard to judge.

"But there's a lot of undulation and in a couple of weeks, I think they're going to be quick with a lot of slope," DiCristofalo pointed out. "Golfers are going to have to be on their game."

Joe shot a "very large" 47 for the nine.

"Not what I would normally shoot on my home course," he said. "I left some shots out there, but it gave me what I deserved. I shot a 50. Pretty lucky I guess, but it was a 'practice round.'"

I had not played the course previously, but Joe had.

"I was impressed with the re-birth of this golf course," pointed out DiCristofalo. "I thought they did a great job not just giving a cosmetic-type refurbishment and actually made improvements to a lot of the holes making it more visually appealing and a better playing golf course for a wide range of golfers."

Jim & Joe's rating: T T T T