Redstick: Vero Beach’s Secret Golf Club

RedStick Golf Club maintains a quiet profile in Vero Beach and its 275 members like it that way. At its inconspicuous entrance on 58th Avenue there is not even a sign, nor anything else to suggest what lies beyond, which is 320 acres of elevated land accommodating a 7,200-yard course and a 15,000-square-foot clubhouse.

Yet after 10 years in existence, RedStick’s reputation has spread. Golfers at many of the nation’s most prestigious golf and country clubs know about it, as do aspiring young professionals who are eager to work there. In addition, nonprofit organizations in the nearby Wabasso community, who have directly benefited from the club and its members, are also aware of it. Yet, for many in Vero Beach – golfers and non-golfers alike – RedStick remains a mystery.

“We have resisted publicity for 10 years,” explains Warren Schwerin, past club president and one of its founders. “We have never invited in any of the golf magazines or trade journals. It’s not that we wanted to be exclusive, we just didn’t think it was necessary. And the members have never been interested in publicity for themselves.”

However, 10 years in the Vero Beach shadows is long enough. “It’s now clear that we’re an established part of the community and our members are very proud of what we’ve done,” says Schwerin. What they have done is establish a highly successful, strictly nonprofit enterprise where members can play the game in its purest form and share the camaraderie that goes with it.

Read the entire article in the February 2011 issue