Heritage Links wraps up renovations at Sailfish Point, Woodfield, Grand Cypress

Woodfield CC in Boca Raton, where Heritage Links completed a coursewide renovation with architect Kip Schulties. (Photo: Jorge Huerta Photography)
Contractor Heritage Links, a division of Lexicon, has applied the finishing touches to three separate renovation projects on Florida courses.
At Sailfish Point Golf Club in Stuart, Fla., Heritage Links crews completed a refurbishment and enhancement of the practice range in late 2020. Heritage will undertake a similar practice-area renovation at Ibis Country Club in Palm Beach, Fla., this summer. With new construction flagging, Heritage Links said renovation continues to dominate the Florida development market, but, according to Heritage Links project manager Jorge Huerta, the social power of practice areas is key to understanding exactly what’s driving the expansion of this market segment, statewide.
“It’s one of the things we hear most from course managers and designers these days — that practice facilities are critical to building community,” said Huerta, who has led Heritage Links efforts in Florida since 2014. “Most clubs just didn’t see this coming when they were first developed — so they’re addressing it now. That’s the trend we see.
“These combinations of ranges, putting courses and short-game areas are the outdoor spaces where members can best gather, practice and socialize — and they must be integrated with the club, with the actual golf course, to best serve this purpose. Of course, all this happens outside, which is safer these days. But, forget the pandemic for a moment, because this was a movement before that, and it will likely continue long afterward. And these aren’t particularly small jobs, either.”

The recently renovated and expanded practice facility at The Windsor Club in Vero Beach, Fla. (Photo: Jorge Huerta Photography)
At Sailfish Point, every square inch of a 6-acre parcel including every tee and every putting surface was renovated and outfitted with new infrastructure. Later this year, when Heritage rebuilds the Ibis Country Club practice facility — in collaboration with course superintendent Matt Masemore — it will transform a 15-acre facility. This is the same size as the revamped and refurbished practice facility at The Windsor Club in Vero Beach, Fla., site of a coursewide renovation Heritage completed in late 2019.
This concentration on renovation and practice areas has contributed to noteworthy changes in the Florida market, as well as other markets, according to Jon O’Donnell, president of Houston-based Heritage Links.
“With so much renovation work driving the construction industry, we see an increased emphasis on working within prescribed construction windows,” O’Donnell said. “In Florida, that means getting started in the spring when members traditionally go north — and finishing by July/August, so the grass can grow back in by November/December. Those are hard deadlines. When your facility isn’t ready, that means no members and no cash flow. This is just as true up north. Different window — work must be completed by early Spring, so it grows in by early Summer — same phenomenon. All this renovation work at all these clubs — even relatively modest projects like practice facilities — tends to spread contractors thinner and thinner. In a market like Florida, some cope better than others. Sometimes, on account of weather and unforeseen circumstances, we’ll put 75 to 100 guys on a job — to finish within the window.”
At Woodfield CC in Boca Raton, Fla., Heritage completed another practice area renovation in November 2020, as part of a comprehensive makeover directed by architect Kip Schulties and course superintendent Jason Sprankle. Everything was rebuilt to USGA specs including mass grading and shaping on all 18 holes, storm drainage, new irrigation system, new cart paths, retaining walls and new grasses wall to wall, with all new tees, bunkers and greens.
The club had just refurbished the short game area in 2016. Four years later, Schulties integrated the new practice amenities with the clubhouse and first tee areas.
In January, Heritage concluded an 18-hole renovation at the Nicklaus-designed Grand Cypress Resort in Orlando. Huerta and his crew moved dirt on 18 holes, spreading sandy material from a lake expansion to cap the first, second and third holes, regrassed with Celebration in and installed a new irrigation system.
Heritage also laid 25,000 linear feet of new drainage and cleared the organic materials in an 18-inch radius from every catch basin on the property. It built 30,000 linear feet of new cart paths and replaced wooden bulkheads and a bridge at the third hole. It rebuilt the practice green and each putting surface in the short-game area to USGA specifications. Heritage also oversaw the installation of Capillary Concrete on 65 bunkers.
“Clubs are moving away from fabrics,” Huerta said. “They tend to get snagged and tear, and then you get contamination. Superintendents have dealt with these issues for years and, with so many new technologies emerging, they are happy to move on to something better, more maintenance-friendly and more suited to the regional weather conditions.”