SEBASTIAN — Apparently the unintentional best kept golf secret in Indian River County, the Sebastian Municipal Golf Course is one of only two public golf clubs in the county.
Located within the City’s Sebastian Municipal Airport complex, the 121-acre facility is an 18-hole, par 72 championship course with all the usual amenities.
The club offers golf instruction by PGA pros, men’s and women’s leagues, a full size driving range, and junior golf programs.
While predominantly a public, daily fee course, annual memberships are available. The clubhouse features a pro shop, full service restaurant (the Eagles Nest) and a “19th hole” full-service, top-shelf bar.
Director of Golf Greg Gardner says the club has a unique history and has grown and improved since opening in 1981.
In the ’70s and early ’80s, referendums were held to determine whether Sebastian residents wanted a city golf club, but “failed miserably,” says Gardner.
Apparently fearing a tax increase, voters said an emphatic “NO!” even though the golf club would have been, as Gardner puts it, “the polar opposite.”
It would have been (and is) user- funded, operated via a city enterprise fund, running on the income it generates, not tax dollars.
But, says Gardner, lots of people still have the mistaken belief it is tax supported.
As an enterprise fund, the golf club pays an annual “rent” to the airport, which can be adjusted based on variables, such as annual income.
“There is a formula,” Gardner says. Currently the annual rent stands at $100,000.
Although the referendums squashed the initial golf club proposal, in the early 1980s a group of golf-loving Sebastian businessmen, determined that there be a Sebastian golf course, approached city fathers with an unusual idea: If the City agreed to allow a golf course on its ample airport property, the businessmen would put their own money into creating the club itself.
And so it was that the Sebastian Municipal Golf Club at last came to be.
It was, says Gardner, “a minor miracle,” and, in the beginning, operated on a shoestring – but it operated.
The golf club enjoyed a robust business during the economic boom of the 1990s and early 2000s but, as most other businesses, took a hit as the economy went into decline.
For the golf industry, Gardner had observed, the slide seemed to be tied to Tiger’s [Woods] crash, “and the economy didn’t help.”
This year, he says, has been better than the last three, and fiscal year 15-16 “should be even better. In Florida, [economic health] is tied in to construction, for example, our neighbor, Collier Club, is booming, which complements the golf club.”
The snowbird golfers who flock in during the winter high season also significantly bump up business.
The layout of the course itself is typical, traditional Florida style, with rolling slopes, broad fairways, well bunkered green complexes and, of course, plenty of water hazards.
It was designed by golf course architect Charles Ankrom, who also designed the Vero Beach County Club course, the Osprey and Crane courses in Martin Downs, the championship and executive courses at Boca Raton Municipal and many other Florida courses.
In Sebastian, golfers will also discover a variety of wildlife: sand hill cranes, gopher tortoises, osprey nose-diving for fish on the back 9, eagles, foxes, bobcats and the ever-popular Florida icon – the alligator.
Because the golf course is on airport property, golfers also enjoy more unique entertainment – the aerial antics of airport tenant Skydive Sebastian, a favorite destination for many of the world’s top skydivers.
For four months during the summer of 2001, SMGC was closed while undergoing a major, $1 million renovation: the greens and tees were completely dug up and rebuilt, sand bunkers renovated, two new par-3 holes constructed on the back nine, netting installed around the driving range, and fairways overhauled.
“We literally regrew the grass,” says Gardner, explaining that a special “USGA Green’s Mix is used. It is sterilized and free of all mold, fungi and spores. It is living, breathing stuff,” he stresses.
After the long summer hiatus, the newly overhauled course celebrated with a grand opening on Oct. 1, 2001.
“It was a huge day,” Gardner remembers. “We had the skydivers, a bagpiper – it was big.”
And now, 15 years later, he’s looking at another, slightly less dramatic, overhaul.
“A green ages about as fast as a dog does. Our greens are now senior citizens. At 90-plus, anyone will have issues.” Gardner likes to compare the golf course to a human infant, which grows, and grows, sometimes gets sick, and requires constant, knowledgeable TLC.
Projects coming up for the course include an updated irrigation plan.
“The current one is the original,” Gardner says, and elaborates: “The drainage is perfect. The irrigation layout will be adjusted for maximum efficiency, mostly repositioning the sprinkler heads around the greens and tees. We have an artesian well/lake, which is governed by the St. John’s River Water Management District, which allows us to pump a certain amount. We hope to get this project kicked off in (fiscal year) ’15-’16.”
The second course care project is a re-grassing of the greens and tees.
“In 2001, we went down 2 feet, this time we’ll just go down 4 inches.”
The plan is to keep 9 holes open while working on the other 9, and to work toward completion between one summer and the next. Irrigation, however, “is the No. 1 project.”
In an effort to be as fair as possible to all golfers, whether residents, non-residents or snowbirds, the Sebastian city council on Feb. 25 voted for a complete re-do that would simplify the fee structure and, other than annual memberships, would make rates and charges uniform, without increases.
The move also eliminates the requirement that all rate changes must go through the City Council, a process that has proven cumbersome and slow.
Now, Gardner, with approval from the city manager, can adjust rates in a timely fashion to be more competitive with neighboring, competing courses.
“Mr. Griffin and I will sit down this summer to simplify the rate schedule, make it way more user– and cashier–friendly.”
Gardner played competitive golf for years, in college at West Virginia’s Marshall University (home of the Thundering Herd), and then as a semi-pro, working his way up through the PGA ranks.
He says he held assistant pro positions and competed in “lower level PGA tours. I’d like to get back into playing, maybe in Senior Club Pro tournaments,” he says with a slightly wistful tone. “I’m inching toward 50.”
Meanwhile, no one knows the club and its course like Gardner does, or is more proud of what it offers to area golfers, on and off the links.
He figures the 18th par-4 hole a.k.a. “The Last Temptation,” is probably the most challenging.
In the clubhouse, The Eagles Nest often pleasantly surprises first-time visitors.
“People are amazed. With a 186-person capacity, it can easily accommodate a full field of golfers – 144 – for charity and tournament events. In the clubhouse “you can get a coke and candy bar or lobster and prime rib.”
With the inviting course, popular restaurant and proximity to Skydive Sebastian, “Where else can you get golf, dinner and a show? Only at Sebastian Municipal Golf Club!” Gardner says.