Driving Range: Grass Double Ended
Asking Price: SEALED BID OFFERING
Club Type: Private
Season: Year Round
Cart Access: Yes paved
Cart Rental: Yes
Pro On Site: Yes
Pro Shop Sells: Full Service
Training Facilities: Yes Full Service
Food: Full Service
Bar: Full Service
Golf Community: Yes
Holes: (2) 18 Hole
Water Hazards: Yes
Built: 1982, Charles Ankrom

Directions

Located in the heart of the Treasure Coast of South Florida, Martin Downs Country Club is conveniently located minutes from historic downtown Stuart as well as Interstate 95 and Florida's Turnpike. The Palm Beach Airport is within an hour's drive and the Orlando attractions are just two hours away by car. Southbound to Martin Downs Country Club VIA I-95 Take Interstate 95 South. Get off I-95 at Exit 110 and proceed east on Route 714 for several miles. After crossing over Florida's Turnpike, turn left at next traffic light on Martin Downs Blvd. Go about six-tenths of a mile to the next traffic light, getting in the left lane as you do so, and prepare to enter Martin Downs Country Club gate. After making the left turn, stop at the Security Gatehouse and tell the guard the purpose of your visit. Northbound to Martin Downs Country Club VIA INTERSTATE 95 Take Interstate-95 Northbound. Take Exit for Palm City, Exit 102. At the end of the exit ramp, you must turn right onto the two-lane road that parallels I-95. Stay on this road. Go through ONE (1) traffic light. Approach a second traffic light (Martin Downs Blvd). Get in the left-hand turn lane, then turn left onto Martin Downs Blvd. Go 3/10 miles to next traffic light and turn right into entrance for Martin Downs Country Club. Stop at Gatehouse and tell guard purpose of your visit. Northbound to Martin Downs Country Club VIA THE FLORIDA TURNPIKE Take Florida Turnpike North. Get off at Exit 133 (marked Stuart & Palm City.) As you leave the turnpike tollbooth, continue straight to a traffic light. Go straight through the traffic light and continue. This puts you on Martin Downs Boulevard. Go about six-tenths of a mile to the next traffic light, getting in the left lane as you do so, and prepare to enter Martin Downs Country Club. After making the left turn, stop at the Security Gatehouse and tell the guard the purpose of your visit.

Club Facts

A private, member-owned club, it offers two exceptional, championship golf courses, twelve tennis courts, a Family Activity Center, two pools, a spa and a Fitness Center with Cybex equipment. Whether your passion is golf, tennis, swimming or enjoying the quiet quality of a sun-drenched Florida morning by the side of the pool, you're certain to find exactly what you're looking for right here at Martin Downs. Historical Analysis Both the Crane Creek and Osprey Creek golf courses were designed by Charles Ankrom, a noted and successful golf course architect and consultant who is currently engaged in both national and international projects. Mr. Ankrom has over 40 years experience in golf course design, construction, and operation, as well as in professional consulting to the golf course and land development industries. In 1960, Mr. Ankrom began a 13-year period as Executive Director of Golf Operations and Corporate Golf Course Architect for the General Development Corporation and later for the Boise Cascade Recreation Communities Group. In 1973 Mr. Ankrom entered private practice and since 1974 has been located in Palm City. During the past 29 years, Mr. Ankrom has designed and built numerous courses including both the Crane Creek and Osprey Creek courses. He has also been involved in a multitude of course redesigns and renovations. He is well known and well regarded as a first rate golf course architect and designer throughout the United States, the Caribbean, South America and Asia. Crane Creek Golf Course Bill Watson and a Mr. Massey formed a Land Development Company known as M&W Land Development Corp. They purchased many large tracts of property in Martin County, including a 2,400 or so acre parcel in Palm City, which operated at the time as a ranch and dairy farm. Portions of the property were wooded, and portions cleared for pasture. They began marketing the Palm City holdings to other developers, but felt that the property needed an amenity to attract more interest. Bill Watson approached Mr. Art Young, the then owner of three public golf courses, about the feasibility of building a championship golf course in the NW corner of the Palm City tract. In this era, the site was rather remote, and there were no golf courses in Palm City. To make the deal more appealing, a Golf Course Master Plan was to be developed by a noted golf course architect in conjunction with their civil engineers, who would create the plan for all streets and single family lots. Once the Master Plan was completed to the satisfaction of both parties, the boundaries of the golf course envelope, including a clubhouse site, would be surveyed and the golf course property would be deeded to Mr. Young at no cost. He would obviously pay for all improvement cost to the golf course necessary to open for play. In 1975, Mr. Young retained the services of Charles F. Ankrom Inc. to first draft the Golf Course Master Plan and then to collaborate with both Mr. Young and Bill Watson, and their engineers for required spacing for road and lot development. At this time, without going through an expensive and time consuming P.U.D. (Planned Unit Development), the county zoning for the property was one-acre minimum size lots with well and septic tanks. Complying with the County zoning requirements would speed the time needed for development permits. Designing the Master Plan with space between holes for both the road R/W and one-acre home site on both sides of the road proved to be more difficult than planning to accommodate normal single-family size lots. The space between holes had to be substantial. In addition, the design of golf holes had to buffer the Turnpike and the North side of the design envelope. Initially, Mr. Ankrom proposed a clubhouse site in the area of #1 green to circulate 1 and 10 tees, 9 and 18 greens, and a practice range. Mr. Young decided that while this was a fine plan, but the fixed fee buy out clause in his contract meant that he could not afford to cross Bessy Creek with a highway type bridge and an extensive road to the clubhouse. For this reason, the Master Plan included the clubhouse site at the North end of the existing ranch road, (where the ranch equipment shop was and where Maxwell's sits today), which started from State Road 714. The least expensive design, and one to accommodate the land use plan and all parties, was to begin the first hole at the creek, to finish the 18th hole at the creek, and for number 9 to be an out-finishing hole. The Master Plan was successfully completed, including the golf course routing and typical features, and the schematic road and lot design around the golf course. The Master Plan and site grading plans were submitted to the County in 1975, and the permitting to start construction was issued in late March of 1976. Mr. Young had a decision to make. Either wait until October to start construction early and over the dryer winter months, or begin the first week of April (1976) and crash the construction program. It was toward the weekend, and Mr. Young advised Mr. Ankrom that he wanted to think about it for a few days. On Tuesday, he called Mr. Ankrom, and said, "lets go." Construction had to be "fast tracked" right through the summer rainy season, a period normally reserved for remodeling a course, not building a new course. Mr. Young served as his own contractor, and rented or leased equipment from numerous sources. Fortunately, at that time the construction industry was slow, and equipment prices with operators were at bargain rates. Due to the fixed fee buy-out clause, Mr. Young wanted to build the golf course at the most reasonable price possible. For this reason, all drainage had to be by swales (no storm drains or catch basins), and there were some limitations on the volume of dirt that could be moved. Mr. Young spent at least 12 hours a day on the site coordinating the clearing, lake and fill excavation, fairway grading, and pushing the irrigation installer (hard). Mr. Ankrom coordinated the shaping of the key features of greens, tees, bunkers, earthwork contours, and the planting of turf-grass. It was a success, and the golf course opened for play in mid-December 1976. This was the fastest pace from start to opening of a new course with substantial clearing that Mr. Ankrom had experienced, even to this day. The main complication of the site was that there was only about 10"to 12" of topsoil mix over a poorly drained hardpan layer. This fact still affects the maintenance and play of the course. Mr. Young took the tops off the lakes by scraper pans, but had to finish lake excavation by dragline to remove this claylike hardpan soil. The hole-by-hole data sheets found in this Master Plan reflect many zones requiring special treatment due to this hardpan layer, since when this soil gets saturated with water, it stays saturated for a very long time. There was a grand opening celebration and play of the course by many golf writers and guests. They loved the course. For many years, Crane Creek was rated in the top 50 courses in the State of Florida. Osprey Creek Golf Course First Southern Holdings, headed by Mr. Peter Cummings entered the picture in 1978. First, Southern Holdings proceeded to buy out M&W Land Company, including all holdings in Martin County. Their first task was to develop a master plan for the 2,400-acre Palm City ranch. Due to its extensive size, and the large number of housing units and commercial sites proposed, this development had to be submitted as a D.R.I. (Division of Regional Impact), as opposed to a P.U.D. (Planned Unit Development). A D.R.I. is much more extensive to permit, and required several years of planning and permit submittals to all government agencies in South Florida. To start the process, Mr. Cummings and his executive staff assembled the development team, including land use planners, civil and hydraulic engineers, permitting specialists, skilled land development attorneys, surveyors, environmental specialists, etc. They then retained the services of Mr. Charles Ankrom as the golf course architect for the westerly first phase golf course. Conceptual planning began at the end of 1978, and Mr. Cummings and his executive staff of specialists conceived several draft master plans. There was also extensive feedback from government agencies. The name of the development was selected in a rather unusual way. Mr. Cummings and a few staff or friends were reportedly flying over the project examining the site from the air. During this flight, one person mentioned that the property reminded her of Churchill Downs. This appealed to Mr. Cummings, and he decided to name the project "Martin Downs." Permits for development were finally received in 1981, and all team designers were then authorized to begin construction plans for both final construction permits of each phase, and for actual construction of the first phases of development. As part of the development order, First Southern Holdings had to build a new 4-lane boulevard from the Turnpike entry/exit to Mapp road, tying into the connecting road to cross the Saint Lucie River Bridge. This was named Martin Downs Blvd. The construction of the golf course was started in late 1981 and extended throughout an extremely wet period in 1982, (the superintendent recorded over 100 inches of rain during the construction phase). The course opened for play in January or February 1983. The name selected for the new course was the "Tower Golf Course", and came from staff who observed that the large tower in the middle of the pasture was a negative impact, and thought that calling the golf course the Tower course would turn a negative into a positive. Mr. Ankrom hated this name from the outset and was thrilled when Martin Downs Country Club members subsequently voted to rename the course Osprey Creek. Ty Haubert, a Martin Downs Country Club member, was then the construction supervisor for Ranger Construction, the company that performed all of the lake excavation, earthwork, rough grade and shaping on the golf course and topsoil plating of features. Mr. Ankrom's firm, Charles F. Ankrom, Inc., was awarded the contract to artwork shape all features, and for final finish grading prior to grassing. During construction and lake excavation, the crew ran into a clay like hardpan soil about 18" to 24" below the surface. This soil was worse than the hardpan excavated for Crane Creek. When compacted by heavy equipment, there was no air space between soil particles. When trees were planted or transplanted in mounds of fill areas, they developed extremely poor root systems, and many would fall over during high winds. Indeed, the Oak trees planted around the course did not develop new growth until the fifth year after planting. This is the reason why so many of the Oak trees on the course are not as mature and large as trees planted almost twenty years ago should be.

Amenities

Featuring a 25-meter adult pool, a separate 15-meter family pool and a fully equipped adult fitness center, we understand that your level of enjoyment is determined by how well we meet your expectations. Adults can enjoy supervised aquatic exercise programs and uncluttered lap lanes. Following your workout, you can relax in the adjacent whirlpool spa. For a relaxing family time, an open pool and spa can accommodate youngsters of all ages. Popular summer camp programs provide safe, fun and healthy water-drenched diversions. Our facility provides the opportunity for individual and group training in aerobics and rehabilitation in the Cybex-equipped fitness center. Martin Downs Tennis Club is a first class tennis facility. Members can enjoy play on twelve tennis courts; eleven Har-tru clay courts and one hard court. Five illuminated courts keep the play going long after the sun goes down. Resident USPTA certified tennis professionals offer private and group instruction for adults and children in addition to a full schedule of round robins, tournaments, inter-club/USTA team matches, singles/doubles leagues and social events designed for all ages and levels of play. Our Tennis Club features a fully stocked Pro Shop offering the latest equipment, fashions and accessories. The ball is in your court!

Sales Description

Seal Bid Offering Must Contact Hilda W. Allen Real Estate