Old Shores Reveals Plans For 4 More Golf Courses At Florida Resort

Old Shores – the latest destination golf project from the visionaries who brought us Bandon Dunes and Sand Valley – has officially broken ground on the construction of its first course. They’ve also teased what’s to come at the public property on the Florida panhandle, and it’s quite a lot for golfers to be excited about – with four additional courses in the pipeline.

Like Rodeo Dunes (Colorado) and Wild Spring Dunes (Texas), Old Shores is a destination golf club and resort being developed by the Keiser family, specifically Michael Keiser, the son of Bandon Dunes founder Mike Keiser. And following the template of those properties, the natural assumption was that there would be multiple courses, as it was the elder Keiser who coined the destination golf maxim that “one course is a curiosity, and two courses makes a destination.”

The initial focus at Old Shores was on one course due to zoning and permitting processes, including environmental approvals and construction permits at the site. Golf architect Angela Moser, who teamed with Tom Doak in creating Pinehurst No. 10, is overseeing buildout of the initial Doak design at Old Shores and has relocated to the area to spearhead the new project.

But the broader vision is much more, with plans now firmly in place for five very different courses in total on the 4,000+ acre property the younger Keiser says is like nothing he’s ever seen, with dramatic and varied topography that includes rolling dunes, spring-fed rivers and streams, longleaf pines and moss-draped live oaks, sugar-white sand, deep sinkholes, and surprising elevation changes. The name of the resort comes from old-world maps that document the Gulf’s one-time reach to the sand-based property now about 30 miles inland.

Already underway are two 18-hole courses — the first from Doak and Moser, and the second designed by Brian Schneider, with topography and a routing inspired by Augusta National of the 1930s that Keiser says will be “as dramatic as anything we’ve ever built.” Also in the planning stages are a 12-hole layout in the mold of The Commons at Sand Valley (with a mix of mostly par 3s and shorter, potentially driveable par 4s), a par-3 course along the lines of The Sandbox at Sand Valley, and a standalone 9-hole regulation-length course that would very much be a novelty in the world of resort golf.

Houses and Lodging

Part of the first phase of development is a small, walkable hamlet that includes a lodge and two-story homes that look out over the expansive wilderness.

“It’s this cool combo of, you’re on your back porch and you just see for miles and miles, and you walk out your front door, and there’s the hustle and bustle of a golf village,” said Keiser. “It’s all within a very tight radius. It’s like this little village is the hub and the spokes are the golf courses that go out in all directions. So, when you arrive, we’ll get you out of your car and we’ll take your luggage to wherever you’re staying – a hotel room or rented home – and then you’re going to be walking everywhere.”

Initially, there will be 130 homesites at Old Shores, which is located approximately about a half-hour north of the Panama City airport.

Homes will be designed around gardens, green space and shared gathering spaces, a tranquil escape inspired by English and Scottish hamlets. There are 21 Estate homesites currently available, with pricing starting at $1.3 million and owners able to design a custom retreat of up to eight bedrooms – from locations near the final holes of the Doak course to a high ridge overlooking Long Lake, a pond spanning nearly 50 acres. Many homes will be in a rental pool for resort guests.

The First Course

Moser is currently working on five greens on the first course, with grassing of those holes to start as soon as May. In terms of what’s in store for the first offering at Old Shores, consider that just over a year ago, Keiser asked Moser to visit Australia for several weeks to tour some of the great Melbourne Sandbelt courses.

“It’s just sort of a perfect scale for golf,” said Keiser. “It’s just gentle twisting and turning, ups and downs. It just reminded me of Melbourne and Tom agreed. We also talked about bunker styles and wanted her to see those (Australian Sand Belt) bunkers.

“And the green sites, they seem to really want to sit right on the ground,” he added. “So, we talked about places like Walton Heath (in England), where you have tilt that might suddenly go away from you, and we talked about (Donald) Ross courses where greens sit on the ground, but they’re crowned. Then it will take on a life of its own – whatever Angela is feeling when she’s out there shaping.”

With Old Shores having begun real estate sales on property and actively seeking Founding members (as done at Rodeo Dunes, Wild Spring Dunes and Sand Valley) to finance development of the overall project, preview play could potentially begin on at least the first five holes as soon as the end of this year. A grand opening of the course is scheduled for fall of 2027. Founding memberships offer access to preferred tee times and Founder-only events, early homesite selection, and an opportunity to be a part of the panhandle project’s legacy.

Doak has said the site is one of the most dynamic he’s ever seen. There are giant, broad rolling hills punctuated by ancient sinkholes – or Karst depressions – that help create intrigue for the routing, with holes running along or over these abrupt banks that are 30 to 50 feet deep.

Augusta Inspiration

While Keiser describes Doak’s site as a “wonderful walk,” with gentle ups and downs, the terrain for the second 18-hole course is much more severe, with elevation change of up to 90 feet – certainly not pancake-flat like many parts of Florida.

“Brian’s site is like Augusta,” Keiser said of the land given to Schneider, a long-time Renaissance Golf Design (Doak) associate who co-designed the first course at Old Barnwell in South Carolina. “There are huge heaving fairways, and we want to build a golf course inspired by the Augusta of, let’s say, the 1930s, which had a lot in common to the Augusta we see today, but it was a lot wider and had far fewer bunkers. It’ll be very different than the first course, and as dramatic as anything we’ve ever built.”

Architects have yet to be chosen for the other three shorter courses.

Keiser said the 12-hole “precision course” will be similar to Sand Valley’s newest addition, The Commons, which has one par 5, seven par 4s and four par 3s. The par 3 course, meanwhile, will be “something like” the 17-hole Sandbox, will be located at the center of the village and could feature low-profile lights for play at night.

9-Hole Resort Course

Most unique, however, is the proposed 9-hole regulation-length course. While some resorts have three (or sometimes more) 9-hole layouts that are combined to play 18-hole rounds, a standalone “championship” nine at a destination golf property is exceedingly rare.

Leave it to the Keisers to try something outside-the-box, as it was Bandon Dunes that really ushered in the destination golf movement – proof of concept that golfers would travel great lengths to remote locations for special golf experiences. And the first Par 3 course at Bandon Dunes, Bandon Preserve, helped give rise to the resort short course trend that’s only grown in popularity in recent years.

Keiser is certainly no stranger to great nine-hole golf, having played many rounds dating back to his time as a youngster at The Dunes Club, the private course along the shores of Lake Michigan that his father developed with Dick Nugent in the 1990s. Although private, The Dunes Club is widely regarded as one of the finest 9-hole courses in the country. The 9-hole option at Old Shores aims to bring something like that to a public golf destination.

“We’re trying innovate a little bit,” Keiser said. “In this country, there are a lot of nine-hole courses but very seldom does somebody get a phenomenal piece of land and say, ‘I want to build a nine-hole course on it.’ Before Bandon Preserve, a lot of people didn’t do that with par 3’s, right? I love playing nine holes. That’s how my wife and I play golf together, which is a lot of my golf.”

With potentially as many as 75 holes of golf on the horizon, Old Shores is jumping aggressively into the destination golf realm – and doing it in a state with more golf courses than any other. But the model has been extremely successful for the Keisers, with long lead times (sometimes up to two years) for those planning golf getaways to Bandon Dunes and Sand Valley. Rodeo Dunes is fully opening the first of its courses this year in Colorado, as is Wild Spring Dunes in Texas.

With easy access from the popular resort communities along the Florida panhandle, the expectation is that the success will translate to the East Coast, especially with the remarkable land that’s been acquired as a canvas for the project.

“It’s hard to imagine that a site this dramatic exists in Florida,” said Keiser. “It’s gonna blow people’s minds.”