Luxury golf resort developer The Cabot Collection has unveiled plans for a new 21-hole course designed to make golf faster and more fun.
The new concept course is named 21 and will open at Cabot Citrus Farms, Florida, in December 2023. Cabot Citrus Farms comprises two loops, Ten and Aces, measures 4,160 yards and will be laid out across 100 acres of rolling Floridian countryside.
Designer Mike Nuzzo has routed 21 so it can be played as two separate short courses, or as a 21-hole experience, with a variety of styles, strategies and holes ranging from 85 to 560 yards in length.
It’s part of a 57-hole redevelopment of the former World Woods Golf Club by Cabot Collection, the team behind the award-winning Cabot Cape Breton in Nova Scotia, Cabot Saint Lucia in the Caribbean, Cabot Revelstoke in British Columbia.
“We always want to keep the game fresh and exciting,” said Ben Cowan-Dewar, CEO and co-founder of The Cabot Collection.
“While Mike Keiser and I were looking at the terrain and courses we have in play, the idea was born to shape our 10-hole course and the 11-hole-course into a new 21-hole concept. The 21’s layout beckons golf aficionados who just can’t get enough of the rolling terrain in the Floridian countryside.”
Ten measures 2,995 yards and is a mixture of par-three, non-traditional ‘half-par’ holes between 285 and 310 yards, and a long par-five.
Aces, the 11-hole loop, is just 1,195 yards long and a par-33. Cabot says the nine par-three holes can be enjoyed with just a wedge, putter and a golf ball and will be flood-lit, enabling it to be played after dark.
This innovative project has been unveiled just as statistics from the National Golf Foundation highlighted that golf participation in the United States topped 40 million for the first time ever, with much of the surge in popularity credited to golf entertainment experiences and shorter courses.
Leading American golf resorts have embraced the new trend in short course golf, with Pinehurst opening ‘The Cradle’ in 2017 and Pebble Beach redeveloping “The Hay” short course, designed by Tiger Woods and TGR Design, opening it for play on April 16, 2021.
Citrus Farms is Cabot Collection’s debut U.S. resort and is situated about 50 minutes from Tampa and 80 minutes from Orlando.