MYAKKA CITY FL – Nick Price is full of enthusiasm as we drive across a Florida pasture on a four-wheel off-roader. We skim shallow puddles, and curve around the sand-covered scrub.
The three-time winner of the major championships is always pointing out interesting features on the land. There’s a stand of trees there. This will be the tee-box. You see that hump there? This is a green. You can see the fence. This will be a 4. If you have the time, let me show you where to find it.
Price spent almost an hour showing off the future Soleta Golf Club. Price is thrilled to be leading architect. He answers my questions in a friendly manner, and explains his plans for transforming the farmland surrounding us into a private golf course of high quality.
Price, who is 66 and a former World No. Price, 66, retired from competitive golf in 2008 after eight years of steady play. “You’re gonna love it.” “I know I will love it.”
Price made site visits before the ground was broken. He drove across the peninsula of Florida from his Hobe Sound, Florida home to the future club and community, which will be located about 40 minutes east of Sarasota, and 75 minutes south of Tampa. Price plans to return to the site dozens more times in order to monitor the construction of the course. The course is scheduled to open at the end of 2024.
Price, as either a lead designer or consultant, has been working on the development of the 27 th course in Florida since July. Price is determined to get his hands dirty.
Price said, “I have to stand here while the work is being done to ensure everything looks right.” Price won 48 titles worldwide, including two PGA Championships in 1992 and 1994, one British Open in 1994, and 18 PGA Tour victories. “I can see distances better and get a feel for the land when I am here. It’s because of this that I like doing the dirty work. I’ll come out probably once every two week, for a few days. “I need to see it.”
A private group headed by David Turner, Charles Duff and others is developing Soleta. It will have 93 planned high-end homes and a village centre. These will be located at the north of the property, separate from the golf course. This leaves Price with a more than mile-long walk to the Myakka River. The club will also include a 30 acre practice facility, designed by David Leadbetter.
Price stated that the developers had allowed him to focus on golf from the beginning. Price said, “It is not about the houses or anything else. “The emphasis will be golf and I love it.”
It’s typical Florida inland, with small towns that have only one light and more cattle. This is a far cry away from the traffic on Interstate 75 or in the Tampa-St. Petersburg region. You’ll find that farm workers are more likely to be lining up at gas stations for lunch than golfers if you drive these dozens of mile east of the Gulf of Mexico. Soleta lies well east of Sarasota’s golfing communities.
The land of Soleta, like most of the parcels around it, was farmed by a family for many decades. Price was challenged to design a golf course that would incorporate his favorite elements: fast and firm conditions, as well as the ground game. This land is flat with some wet areas.
Price, a ball-striker of his generation, said, “All of the great courses that I’ve played in the past allow you to run the balls in, at the very least on certain holes.” Price said, “You can use the slope and the bounce to your advantage.”
(Courtesy of Soleta Golf Club) Developer Charles Duff and Nick Price visit the site of Soleta Golf Club, Myakka City in Florida. (Courtesy Soleta Golf Club).
Price plans to create elevation changes where there are none, with wide expanses of sandy native areas and natural-looking landscaping between holes instead of what a golfer typically finds in Florida, which is vast expanses of green turf among pine trees. Price wants to create elevation changes in areas where there are currently none. He plans to use wide expanses sand native areas, and natural-looking landscaping, instead of the typical Florida golf course, which has large expanses green grass among pine trees. The key will be to control the water flow.
Price stated that “to me, an architect’s brilliance is in how they manage to get rid of water, particularly in Florida.” Here, there is so much water, and the sooner it can get out of the soil, the better. We will move the water from the golf course in order to achieve firm conditions.
The layout is designed with two loops that run southwards toward the Myakka River. This far inland, it’s more like a stream. The club’s southernmost point is a beautiful Florida scene with the river flowing through cypresses, oaks, and cypress trees. This area will be left untouched by the club to preserve the natural wetlands. Price has changed the layout of the plan several times to make the most of the land as it approaches river.
He said, “We have the bones of this strategy looking great now.” “The angles are everything.”
Map of the plans of the new Soleta Golf Club at Myakka City in Florida (Courtesy Soleta Golf Club).
Price envisions a course that is high enough to give him the bounces and firmness he desires, while also having a mix of short and long holes. This will force most players to use every club they have in their bag. Price is always referring to the need for fast and firm conditions. His love for old-school links in the United Kingdom is evident.
He described ideal playing conditions as “like on links courses where you only have one small 5-yard bunker, but there is a catchment zone of perhaps 40 yards where all the balls roll in.” You have to consider how you’re going to play it. You cannot ignore that little bunker. “That’s what we are trying to achieve here.”
Price continues to list several architects, including Gil Hanse, Bill Coore, Ben Crenshaw and Tom Doak. In some cases, he even mentions Tom Fazio, who has incorporated large expanses of exposed sand in firm and bounce-y American courses. Price is using a similar approach at Soleta.
He said, “It is not only about the beauty of flowers.” You want to see a contrast in nature. It’s my favorite thing. In nature you never see a straight line, and only very rarely do you find anything flat. “I hate straight lines and dead flat on a course.”
Price has built many courses in Florida. His most notable is the original layout of McArthur Golf Club, located in Hobe Sound. Price and Fazio teamed up to build what is now the ninth ranked private course of Florida as well as a modern course that ranks in the top 100 in the U.S. according to Golfweek’s Best rankings. He also built Quail Valley in Vero Beach alongside Tommy Fazio, Tom Fazio’s nephew. Other design credits include projects from Mexico to Myrtle Beach and from South Africa to Hong Kong.
Price, who already has 26 courses bearing his name in his portfolio and eponymous business, hopes to use Soleta to expand both his eponymous company and solo design business.
He said, “I am very focused on the project (at Soleta).” “I have always protected my integrity when I put my name on something, and I want to see that here.
“I’m really looking forward to being able to build some nice properties in the next 10 to 12 years and to be able to leave some nice things behind me. More McArthurs, more Quail Valleys. “Let’s see how much further we can take this.”
