Accolades

• Golf Digest: “Best New Courses – 2014”

Project Details

At a time when fewer than 20 new golf courses were being built, Chris Wilczynski was selected as the golf course architect for Esplanade Golf & Country Club at Lakewood Ranch, a resort-style community developed by national homebuilder Taylor Morrison.

The Esplanade course officially opened in 2014 as the fifth golf course in the Lakewood Ranch community and the first private golf facility built in the Sarasota area since 2008. With 800 home sites on the property, the resort-style community offers a 12,000-square-foot clubhouse, tennis courts, restaurant, and a 6,000-square-foot wellness center for its members.

The golf course which earned a highly coveted place on Golf Digest’s “Best New Courses – 2014” list, has many distinguishing features including its stately, mature oak trees and distinct wetlands and wooded areas which were key factors in the routing and design of several golf holes.

Course Highlights

• The course plays between 6,716 – 4,636 yards with five tee boxes to accommodate all golfers.
• A natural ridge runs through the property allowing for various elevation changes across the course (up to 20 ft.).
• 8,000+ trees, bushes and grasses were planted to frame and highlight the individual holes.
• Large greens averaging 7,000 sq. ft. with wide open fronts that allow golfers to run the ball onto the putting surface.
• Generous, open fairways with 350 ft. corridors.
• Clean-lined, grass-faced bunkers that are considered challenging but not too deep.
• Three short, strategic par 4’s (#6, #4 and #16) – none longer than 330 yards from the members’ tees.