HOBE SOUND, FLORIDA | The Sunshine State is in the midst of a building boom that includes oceanside mansions, multimillion-dollar condominiums and golf courses designed by the best architects in the modern game. The depth and breadth of that explosion is impressive, with one development standing out from all the others. That would be the Apogee Club, which is taking form on some 1,200 acres of rather flat, former farmland in Martin County, about 25 miles northwest of West Palm Beach.
By the time the project is finished, likely by the end of 2025, Apogee will feature three 18-hole golf courses. The first of those to open is a Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner design dubbed West; it came on line last December. Former USGA CEO Mike Davis and his design partner, Tom Fazio II, son of Jim Fazio and nephew of Tom, are currently fashioning the second one, known as South, and it is expected to debut in December 2024. As for Apogee North, which will be crafted by Kyle Phillips of Kingsbarns and Cal Club fame, it is slated to be ready a year after play begins at South.
By that time, Apogee’s other amenities will have become available. Among those are a pair of clubhouses, one of which will be 70,000-square feet in size and the other 50,000 square feet as well as a 55-acre, circular practice facility that boasts 160,000 square feet of target greens, a 7-acre short-game area and a performance-and-teaching center that also offers club-fitting. Other features include swimming pools, tennis and pickleball courts, running and walking trails, a spa and fitness center and fishing.
Oh, and there will be a private helipad.
The club is making professional caddies available to golfers and at some undetermined point intends to construct a par-3 course.
There will be villas, too, for use by members and their guests. But Apogee will not have a real estate component or function in any way as a residential community. It will operate as a club in the strictest sense.
According to promotional materials put together for potential members, Apogee seeks to be a “six-star destination.” And in addition to boasting a robust menu of amenities, it will endeavor to provide service that is “exacting but discreet.” All of which makes sense given that “apogee” is defined in my dictionary as “the highest point in the development of something.”
That commitment to excellence flows from the top – in other words, the club owners, who are 50-50 partners. One is Michael Pascucci, founder of the Sebonack Golf Club in Southampton, New York, as well as a founder and owner of the Bear’s Club in Jupiter, Florida. The other is Stephen Ross, owner of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins and head of the global real estate construction firm Related Companies, that at the moment is developing more than 1 million square feet of property in the West Palm Beach area. With both men in their 80s, Pascucci quite understandably describes Apogee as a legacy project, with the goal being to make sure that the mark they leave with this endeavor is indeed an exceptional one.
Truth be told, it was hard not to be awed by the sheer size and scope of the undertaking and the energy and passion that Pascucci and Ross are devoting to it.
A few weeks ago, I was able to get a feel for what Apogee will be all about, thanks to an invitation from the club owners to join a sixsome of other golf journalists for a site visit. That way, we could tour the property and assess the progress of the work here since construction on the West course commenced in October 2022.
Truth be told, it was hard not to be awed by the sheer size and scope of the undertaking and the energy and passion that Pascucci and Ross are devoting to it.
The low-lying site has no more than 15 or 20 feet of elevation changes. But the terrain is varied, with woodlands, wetlands and stretches of native grasses. It is bordered to the west by the St. Lucie River and bisected by the Kanner Highway, which is also known as Florida State Road 76 and runs from the town of Port Mayaca on Lake Okeechobee eastward to Stuart.
(We also discovered that the land, which had been covered by an ocean millions of years ago, is something of an archaeological site, as we came across fossil conch and clam shells on the ground. To hold one of those ancient objects in your hand is a way to connect with the prehistoric world, if only for a moment, and realize just how short and small our existence on this earth truly is.)
The North and South courses at Apogee are located east of that roughly 30-mile-long thoroughfare, as is the practice facility and the performance and learning center. All the country club facilities will be situated on the same side as the West course, as will the par-3 track.
Davis led our excursion around the site as he recounted how he had watched the demand for golf – and new golf courses – in this area grow, especially post-COVID. Along the way, he became quite keen to design and build a track north of Palm Beach County. And on several occasions, he shared his interest in doing that with Pascucci and Ross.
“We finally said, ‘You know what, Mike? If we can find the right property, we’ll do three golf courses,’” Pascucci told us over dinner in Jupiter one night. “Two is fine, but three is very special. Three good architects, three championship courses.”
He and Davis were also of the belief that the greatest demand was for a golf or country club, and not a golf community.
“Florida is mostly for old people like me,” said the 87-year-old Pascucci. “It’s getting younger, but throughout the United States, there are a lot of people who are 35 to 55 years old, kids in school, too young for Florida. They don’t want a house in Florida, but they would love to have a place to fly into. Stay one night, a week, a month … ship your clubs down; your stuff is here. Travel with your toothbrush.”
As for Pascucci’s rationale for employing three different architects, that was largely to ensure that Apogee had three different courses.
Apparently, the designers are taking that directive to heart, with Davis relating how Phillips took time during one of his site visits to see what Hanse and Wagner were doing with the West so that he did not go down the same creative path. “And we paid attention to what they were doing so we did not do the same things ourselves,” Davis said. “Our tees on the South, for example, will be more traditional in size and look than the long ribbon tees that Gil and Jim built on West.”
At the same time, Pascucci said he wanted the layouts to share certain traits, such as being easy to walk and allowing golfers to find without much difficulty any errantly hit golf balls. Wide fairways, too, as well as greens that always provide entrance for run-up shots and forward tees that measured around 4,000 yards for 18 holes.
“We want people to have fun here,” Pascucci said.
And he insisted that there be no redheaded stepchild among the courses and that they be equally desirable to play, no matter one’s abilities.
“A project like this needs patient money. Ownership is happy to finance what we are doing, so we are able to do it right and at the pace we want.” – Mike Davis
In time, Davis found old farmland on either side of the Kanner Highway that in his view possessed great potential for the project. Problem was, the property was not for sale, and there was no indication that the owner had any interest in parting with it. But suddenly, the acreage came on the market. Pascucci and Ross snapped it up within 48 hours.
Today, the grounds at Apogee are bustling with building activity, with the vast majority of it occurring on the South course that Davis and Fazio have designed and the practice area they are also crafting.
The owners have taken an interesting approach in that effort by purchasing all necessary equipment for the job – from excavators and bulldozers to tractors, dump trucks and utility vehicles – as opposed to renting it. And when their work is done, they intend to sell the equipment.
“A project like this needs patient money,” said Davis, who with Fazio is coordinating all golf course construction on the property. “Ownership is happy to finance what we are doing, so we are able to do it right and at the pace we want.”
Fortunately, the trip included a couple of rounds on the West, where we had a chance to see whether the very high expectations of Apogee’s owners were being met early on.
They certainly seem to be, and I enjoyed the West the second time I played it even more than the first.
Then, there were the low-profile, subtly contoured TifEagle Bermuda greens, which rolled true and fast.
For one thing, I liked how Hanse and Wagner borrowed from the great course architect and camouflage artist, Dr. Alister MacKenzie, by placing bunkers on several holes in ways that made them appear to be much closer to the greens than they actually were. The deception was devilish, and I found myself being fooled by them my second time around the course even though I knew from my first loop their true purpose.
For another, I appreciated how the architects forced players on more than a few occasions on tee shots to take on the bunkers at the crook of doglegs. The carries were never as bad as they looked, so the demands were not unreasonable. But the inclinations to bail out were often great, and when I did that, I found my drive trickling into rough or a waste area. I still had an open shot to the green, but it was longer and tougher than the one I would have had if I had just shown a bit more courage.
Much to my delight, the West featured a pair of short par-3s that allowed me to go pin-seeking with short irons as well as a couple of 4-pars that tempted me to try and drive the greens. And the shallow ravine that snakes across the fairway on No. 11 was a delightful design touch, and a fair one at that. I found my way into that chasm both times but nonetheless managed to hit the green in regulation, securing par the first day and bogey the next.
Then, there were the low-profile, subtly contoured TifEagle Bermuda greens, which rolled true and fast. Less-than-well-hit approaches and chip shots tended to trickle down closely cropped runoff areas that required a good set of hands to recover with any hope of par.
Bottom line: West is a first-rate course that I look forward to playing again, and again.
And I cannot wait to see how the rest of Apogee comes together.