Longboat golfers' only public option is to hit a long drive

Welcome, neighbor, to Longboat Key. You’ve just moved here and you can enjoy the Gulf beaches, nature walks and of course, Bayfront Park, with its tennis and pickleball facilities, all open to the public.

Oh, and golf, you can take part in one of Longboat Key’s public — well, wait, no you can’t.

If you’ve packed up and moved from the frigid air of the Midwest or Northeast and you brought your “sticks” with you, you’ll be driving to find public golf facilities.

Either that, or you can pay, and pay big, for Longboat’s private country club.

Stretching through the vast array of condominiums that line the thin strip of Longboat Key is the Longboat Key Club owned Islandside and Harbourside.

Longboat Key Club assistant pro, Jim Richard, said he doesn’t think there’s much demand by residents for a public course on Longboat Key. Plus, there’s the issue of where.

“I don’t know where they’d put a public course out here. I can’t imagine they’d find room for it even if anyone wanted to,” Richard said. “We get a lot of people who might be here who come for a month who want to play and can’t, so we send them to public courses.”

If you moved here for the “season” and you want to play at a public course, Bobby Jones Country Club, 30 minutes away in Sarasota, is your best option.

“We get Longboat golfers here, oh yeah,” says John Sparrow, general manager at Bobby Jones Golf Club. “There are people who have moved there and won't join a private club. Many are here for the season, or they're visiting a hotel or Airbnb.”

Now, as far as public courses go, Bobby Jones is nowhere near a bad option.

When the city of Sarasota contracted with Indigo Sports to operate its newly restored Bobby Jones Golf Club, the company was tasked with three challenging directives: make it high quality, make it accessible especially to city residents and, ideally, make money.

All three don’t often find synergy — particularly among public golf clubs and especially municipal courses — but in the 18 months since reopening as the original Donald Ross layout it is receiving largely favorable reviews for course quality and value and offers a 40% discount off greens fees to city residents.

More than a city asset, Bobby Jones has been a regional draw. Even with the steep discount to city residents — and no matter what players pay they also receive lunch and a sleeve of balls and/or other value-added enhancements — some 88% of the club’s 50,000 rounds so far this fiscal year on the Ross course come from outside the city limits.

Sparrow said golfers regularly travel from Longboat and even St. Petersburg to the north and Venice to the south to experience a Donald Ross original, slightly lengthened and enhanced for drainage by golf course architect Richard Mandell of Pinehurst, North Carolina.

“What better golf course that you can have than an original 1927 Donald Ross paired with the name of Bobby Jones?” Sparrow said. 

The course was named in honor of legendary golfer Jones, who played an exhibition round there on Feb. 13, 1927.

Like many industries, Bobby Jones employs a dynamic pricing system for its greens fees, the rate based on the volume of website and app traffic at the time of booking. Walk-ups will pay the target rate, which fluctuates by season.

Photo by Andrew Warfield

A scan of tee times and fees for a mid-summer Thursday, one day in advance, revealed rates of $64.99 starting at 7:15 a.m. dropping to $55.90 at 2:03 p.m. where it remained throughout the afternoon. Saturday tee times and fees started at 7:15 a.m. for $74.99, increasing to $84 at 2:03 p.m. where they remained throughout the afternoon. Sparrow said greens fees during season last year were typically around $99 for a round on the Ross course.

Brad Knight, the reigning Sarasota City Championship winner, had been a member at a few local private clubs before Bobby Jones reopened. Once he experienced the course and practice facility, he gave up his most recent membership.

“It's amazing what they’ve done. The practice facility, the driving range, the entire course, it's amazing,” Knight said. “I don't think anybody expected it to be this good. The practice facility; I've been a member at three different clubs, and I would put up Bobby Jones' practice facility against theirs.”

However, for many Longboat residents, staying on the island and playing on the private courses is exactly what they want.

When “The Squad” goes out to play golf, there’s no way they’re leaving Longboat Key.

“This is what we do,” Donna Pettinato said after she parked the grey-blue golf cart following a round of golf at Longboat Key Club. “We go to the gym here. We play golf here. We eat on the island in here, so we love it.”

Longboat Key residents Linda Weber, Sandy Finnegan, Isabella Paspa and Pettinato are members of the Longboat Key Club, where they regularly tee up for a round. And they never cross the bridge to play on the mainland. The 45-hole course allows the group of ladies to play different layouts without leaving the island.

Photo by Dana Kampa

“There’s 27 holes here, and 18 across the street, so why would we want to go off the island?” Finnegan asked. “Today we played white to blue. Next week we may play red to white. We may play blue to red, so it’s different all the time.”

Richard says like many businesses on the Gulf Coast, traffic at the club is seasonal, with the busiest time of the year from February to April. The course is not open to the public unless they are staying at the on-property resort or are paid members of the Longboat Key Club.

Richard said including social members, the club has a “few thousand” members, with about 1,000 having a golf membership. It’s not cheap to join — single full membership costs which include tennis, golf, gym, beach and lounge access, are upward of $14,000 per year, not including the $185,000 initiation fee.

“It’s not cheap to be here, but if they’re buying a condo or house here, it’s not usually a big issue,” Richard said. “A majority [of members] live on the Key, or some may live in Lido or downtown, but a majority live on the Key or downtown.”

Photo by Dana Kampa

Even though the club has a “reciprocals” partnership with other private courses around the Sarasota area, members often opt not to play at other courses because they say they see no need, and the ocean breeze is a plus.

“It’s the only game in town, and there’s always a nice breeze,” Finnegan said.

But it’s not just location. Richard says the Ron Garl designed course is not only scenic and fun to play, but the saltwater-tolerant Paspalum grass is in excellent condition.

“It’s in the best shape,” Richard said. “It’s better than anywhere in Sarasota. It’s in great shape. The superintendent does an excellent job.”

Some off-the-fairway shots have led to some tongue-in-cheek criticism from “The Squad”, though.

“Except for the rough,” Paspa said before “The Squad” shared a laugh. “Can you put down they should cut the rough?”