Exclusive Boca Raton Community Looks to Well-Respected
Player and Golf Course Designer for Recommendation
Pro golfing legend Greg Norman, a South Florida resident who spent more than 330 weeks as the number one ranked professional golfer in the world, recently shared his ideas for redesigning Bocaire Country Club’s golf course and helping to ensure the boutique-size community maintains its leadership position as one of the most luxurious country club communities in South Florida.
“The easiest thing to do is build the hardest golf course in the world,” Norman said. “The hardest thing to do is build a balanced course that everyone can enjoy playing.”
Norman’s West Palm Beach-based company, Greg Norman Golf Course Design, is one of a handful of firms under consideration by Bocaire to redesign the course, which last underwent a major renovation in 2001.
“Our goal is to create a course that is very accessible, very playable but that looks stunning,” Norman said.
“We have a great piece of property on which to build a great course,” said Bocaire’s Chief Executive Officer Russell Carlson, adding that hiring a firm to design the course will be the first step in an expected two-year process.
Norman, and the company’s senior vice president for golf course design, Chris Campbell, told a group of interested Bocaire residents that five of the top golf courses in the world are among the more than 100 courses designed by the firm since it began in 1987.
Behind all those courses is a philosophy that incorporates unique landscaping, open sand and natural areas, and creative bunkering to improve playability and create a distinctive feel and appearance.
To highlight a golf course’s appearance, Norman and his designers use native landscaping to provide color and offset it with coquina sand, which is used along the edges of the fairways as well as in the bunkers.
Norman, a Hobe Sound resident, said one advantage of having his firm design the course – in addition to the branding that comes with his well-known name – is that he is nearby and will be very involved in the process.
“This is really my backyard,” he said. “I will be here.”
About Bocaire Country Club:
Bocaire Country Club is located at 4989 Bocaire Boulevard, east of Military Trail between Clint Moore Road and Linton Boulevard in Boca Raton. For more information about Bocaire – where all homes are from 3,000 square feet on a minimum 1/3 acre lot – please call 561-997-6556 or visit www.Bocairecc.com.