Hawk’s Nest Revisted

It’s not often we hear of a story within a story, yet that’s just what happened after our feature on the Hawk’s Nest Golf Club appeared in our April issue. The impetus for the article was that Golf Digest magazine had recently ranked the par 72-championship course among the Top 10 best remodeled golf courses in the nation. The recognition was well deserved, as it had taken two years and $4.7 million to redo the 18 holes originally designed by Jim Fazio, who oversaw the renovations.

Readers wrote, called and e-mailed, thanking us for the story about the member-owned club that got its start in the mid-1980s when original developers Sam Bell and Bob Briggs discovered a pristine 200 acres in northwest Indian River County. So when Carole Lowell called to ask why her late husband Vernon’s name wasn’t mentioned in the article, I met with her and this is where the story within the story comes in.

To set the scene, it’s important to know that the Hawk’s Nest course, which stretches along a sand ridge, is “green.” Unlike most courses in Florida, there is not a house, villa or condominium anywhere in sight; instead, it is surrounded by long-needled pines, palm trees and live oaks. The course takes up 150 of the 200 acres; the remainder would have been ideal for residential development, yet that was not what Bell and Briggs envisioned. Keeping developers at bay took commitment, perseverance and financial backing.

Read the entire article in the September 2009 issue