Sandglass - New Tom Doak Design in Florida
Sandglass Golf Club is a new 18 hole private golf club in Martin County built by golf course architect Tom Doak. The 380 acre property is located on the Okeechobee Waterway, also known as the St. Lucie Canal and SW Kanner Highway approximately 6.5 miles west of Interstate 95. Golf course construction has successfully completed with grassing grow-in well underway for play by end of 2024.
Tom Doak is a well traveled golf course architect and author of The Confidential Guide known for naturalistic/minimalistic designs with interesting, strategic green complex designs. Doak's first design in Florida was the Streamsong Blue course, a golf resort in Polk County, Florida. That site is a former phosphate mining site characterized by rolling sand dunes and expansive vistas. The resort is maintained to a firm, bouncy standard with natural features of the land, emphasizing the rugged beauty of the terrain. Sandglass' Director of Grounds superintendent is Kyle Harris, previously the superintendent at Streamsong.
In April 2024, GOLF.com featured an interview with Tom Doak walking the Sandglass property with Michael Bamberger. Doak further clarified site selection and soils quality on Golf Club Atlas.
In October 2023, Doak posted to Intagram an update on design plans. Notably, Doak has recruited Brian Zager to lead the project. Zager had a key role at Sand Valley's Lido by working with Peter Flory to generate LIDAR data for topography map settings for automating design shaping. Zager was interviewed by BuffaloGolfer in spring 2023. Doak also noted that Brian Schneider, Eric Iverson, Brad Gehl, and Dylan Stevens are participating as well in the design creation. Doak is using holes from St. Andrews, Muirfield, North Berwick, and Pine Valley as inspiration. After the Doak/Flory/Zager collaboration at Lido, anticipation is high to see another landscape with resemblances of well known bunkers like Simpson's Folly from the 9th hole at The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers.
Major Final Site Plan application to Martin County, Florida was requested by Creech Consulting, Inc. on behalf of SS Ranch, LLC for permit approval. The approved project proposal included a one-story clubhouse, pro shop, maintenance building, two cottages, a helicopter pad. The filing outlined a proposal to reconfigure 20 acres of the approximate 240-acre property to retain as a residential lot.