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Park Ridge Golf
Course, Lantana, Florida
By George Schissler
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 There
are a couple of cardinal rules when dealing with real estate. The first, and
probably the most important is “location, location, location”. The other is
also very vital and says that every location has but one best use. Like any
other transaction including property these rules also apply when considering
the construction of a golf course and choosing the County landfill as an
appropriate site for a recreational facility would appear to be a poor and
improbable decision. But such a parcel of land is now known as Park Ridge
Golf Course in Lantana, Florida.
This transformation of seemingly useless property began
back on March 1, 1987 when the Lantana landfill officially closed to the
public and the engineering challenge began. The landfill was closed but it
wasn’t until September 2007 that golf course construction was begun in
earnest.
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Along with the Solid Waste Authority (SWA), owner of the
land, and Palm Beach County, the decision to jointly develop the property as
a golf course was reached on December 1999. Almost five years later in
September 2004 construction was underway. But serious engineering problems
lay ahead. Environmental standards required
a landfill gas collection and flare system to be installed. Then final
elevations were attained (the course now sits on what is most likely the
highest point in the County) and 95 acres of landfill was capped with a
20-mil PVC liner. A storm water system was constructed with 140
acres of lakes and swales and an irrigation system provided for closed
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Throughout the process the SWA worked
towards the ultimate end use for the landfill as a multi-acre regional park
dedicated to passive recreation and continues to maintain and monitor the
site as environmental regulations require. The organization funded the perimeter
landscaping and construction of underground facilities and supplied
alternative fill material and also provided funding for half the total
project cost. In short SWA provided the land and funding and without this
commitment it is not likely Park Ridge Golf Course would exist.
But in September 2004 Mother Nature caused a setback
when two hurricanes necessitated the conversion of the site for use as a
temporary debris site. This not only caused delay in construction but it
accelerated the settlement of some landfill areas and altered topography,
adding to initial costs. Originally 485,000 cubic yards of fill were called
for but with the condition changes an additional 160,000 cubic yards were
necessary.
The construction project included the utilization of
over 145,000 cubic yards of recycled and demolition waste material as
alternate fill for storm water and erosion control. Another 7,000 cubic
yards produced at the SWA composting facility was utilized in the
construction of fairways.
Once everything settled it was time to find a talented
golf course architect capable of making this dream a reality and this was
most likely the easiest decision the planners had to make because they were
already familiar with the work of Roy Case who had previously designed
Okeeheelee, another County golf course.
Case, a British golf course designer practicing in the United States already
had more than 400 holes in play in 2006.and along with his partner, Jeff
Grossman, also specialized in building courses on closed landfills. He had
also served as director of Palm Beach Golf Association in 1983-1988 and a
talented golfer himself winning the Palm Beach 55 and over age championship
in 1988 and adheres to the theory that “Golf is a game and games are to be
enjoyed”. Thankfully for Park Ridge golfers he incorporated that thinking
and designed the course in such a way that all golfers, regardless of talent
or age, are able to walk off the course at the end of play with some sense
of satisfaction.
Each hole has five sets of tees—black, gold, blue, white
and red with black the longest playing 6,919 yards dropping all the way down
to 4,814 if playing the red. So take your choice and have fun.
Keeping the average golfer in mind Case created a
beautiful 6,919 yard, 72 hole course and still presented challenges to all
with hilly terrain, 26 sand traps and native grasses as roughs unique to
most south Florida courses. Park Ridge also provides a large practice
putting green, a chipping practice area, a full pro shop and snack facility
and also has been designated as a “Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary.
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