February 27, 2018 By: Rick Young –

Streamsong’s Mounting Assets

Three years ago, during a visit to secluded central Florida golf refuge Streamsong Resort, I hooked (and successfully caught) a beautiful largemouth bass. On that same day I also hooked multiple drives. Let one not be confused with the other.Now, I’m not a fisherman so landing that six pound, six-ounce fish with Bill Read, my guide that day, proved far more exciting (at least in the moment) than the couple of the right-to-left lame ducks I hit later on the Red Course at Streamsong, although not necessarily any more fun. It was the combined experience of spending a couple of morning hours bass fishing before playing Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw’s captivating 18 holes in the afternoon that made for such a memorable day.I reflect on it often. I did so again recently with someone who relates well to the experience.

At last month’s PGA Merchandise Show my first scheduled appointment was with Rich Mack, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Mosaic Company, owner and developer at Streamsong.

The golf brand within the Mosaic portfolio officially opened the Gil Hanse designed Black Course on its 16,000-acre property last fall. It’s an incredible stretch of golf over a windswept, slightly rolling landscape that offers the nuances of links playability — lots of ground game, knock down shots and cool Hanse inspired green complexes — amid a 360-degree panorama of the 18 holes. I played Black two days after my conversation with Mack and was completely blown away by Streamsong’s newest asset. Early returns have aligned with mine.

“I’m overwhelmed, thrilled by the reception and the positive feedback we’ve had with Black,” Mack explained as we sat down for a few minutes at the Show. “On a time effort from planning what we wanted it to be, how we wanted it distinguishable and not replicate something we already had the vibe we’ve gotten is so positive.”

To complement this third Streamsong course (also home to Tom Doak’s Blue Course) Mack commissioned Hanse to incorporate a couple of unique features into the Black property — Roundabout, a free-flowing six-hole practice facility, and The Gauntlet, a two-acre, 18-hole putting course. I spent time on both during my visit and can attest that they are quality additions to Streamsong’s destination profile. What I loved most about Roundabout is how it leaves guests to their course design imagination. You can go anywhere to create your own holes (when it allows) or you can play from Hanse’s tee boxes. About 30 to 40 minutes is all it takes. I walked off thinking, golf needs more of this.

“Roundabout turned into a unique animal for us. Our ninth hole does not go back to the clubhouse so we designed an alternative ninth hole that does if you only want nine holes. From that connection we created this six-hole short course, which is intended to be a mix of short par 3s and a free flowing practice area. You can go out there and if you’re by yourself you do what you want to do. We have a setup but there are no restrictions on what you can create. We find our guests are going around twice. The feedback there has been great. Same with the Gauntlet. People are raving about it. We had a corporate event on it a few weeks ago hosted by Jim Furyk. It was a double-shotgun,” Mack said proudly.

For the time being the team at Streamsong is fine to let the accomplishment of Black, and its added short game practice virtues, sink in and be celebrated. But only to a point. As specialty, high-end golf resort facilities like Oregon’s Bandon Dunes, Nova Scotia’s Cabot Links and Wisconsin’s Sand Valley continue to grow their destination assets, Mack is always mindful of the product and for additional ideas to entice golfers to the Streamsong brand.

“I’m overwhelmed, thrilled by the reception and the positive feedback we’ve had with Black,” Mack explained as we sat down for a few minutes at the Show. “On a time effort from planning what we wanted it to be, how we wanted it distinguishable and not replicate something we already had the vibe we’ve gotten is so positive.”

To complement this third Streamsong course (also home to Tom Doak’s Blue Course) Mack commissioned Hanse to incorporate a couple of unique features into the Black property — Roundabout, a free-flowing six-hole practice facility, and The Gauntlet, a two-acre, 18-hole putting course. I spent time on both during my visit and can attest that they are quality additions to Streamsong’s destination profile. What I loved most about Roundabout is how it leaves guests to their course design imagination. You can go anywhere to create your own holes (when it allows) or you can play from Hanse’s tee boxes. About 30 to 40 minutes is all it takes. I walked off thinking, golf needs more of this.

“Roundabout turned into a unique animal for us. Our ninth hole does not go back to the clubhouse so we designed an alternative ninth hole that does if you only want nine holes. From that connection we created this six-hole short course, which is intended to be a mix of short par 3s and a free flowing practice area. You can go out there and if you’re by yourself you do what you want to do. We have a setup but there are no restrictions on what you can create. We find our guests are going around twice. The feedback there has been great. Same with the Gauntlet. People are raving about it. We had a corporate event on it a few weeks ago hosted by Jim Furyk. It was a double-shotgun,” Mack said proudly.

For the time being the team at Streamsong is fine to let the accomplishment of Black, and its added short game practice virtues, sink in and be celebrated. But only to a point. As specialty, high-end golf resort facilities like Oregon’s Bandon Dunes, Nova Scotia’s Cabot Links and Wisconsin’s Sand Valley continue to grow their destination assets, Mack is always mindful of the product and for additional ideas to entice golfers to the Streamsong brand.

Streansong Resort Black Course

“Our objective is to be a top-five golf resort in the United States,” he said. “Golf is why people come to Streamsong and that’s what our vision is. We started that from scratch back in late 2007, early 2008 and its a path we’re proud to be on right now. So you consider that mission and say to yourself, ‘OK, what else can we do that is golf centric, that you could do in the midst of a weather delay or on days when people are just arriving or departing?’ I’ll give you Topgolf as an example. They have their range product, Toptracer. That’s something to look at. We’ll continue to expand. We want to maximize the utilization of the recreational activities and build out from there while sticking to our core golf agenda. As you might guess the velocity of people coming through is way more significant with three courses instead of two.”

But Mack appreciates that not all Streamsong guests are 36-hole-a-day, bag-carrying, golfer types. While the resort’s DNA remains firmly entrenched in golf and golf related activities he’s pleased with how Streamsong is being received and responded to by non-golfing visitors.

Those numbers have been escalating appreciably over the past three to four years.

“We now have people who come here, not to golf, but to bass fish, and that’s it,” he said. “Bob Izumi has been down here several times to shoot his television show up in Canada. He says Streamsong has the best bass fishing in the country. You had that experience. Our spa bookings are up, we have hiking, great F&B (food and beverage), ATV experiences and the whole shooting range with sporting clays is a windfall for us. We’ve been told our facility here for shooting is second to none in the region. For us its like, okay, what are we going to do next?”

Probably more golf. With thousands of undeveloped acres owned by phosphate mining Mosaic its reasonable to think a fourth full course, perhaps even a 12- to 13-hole short course, could be infused into the next phase of development.

According to a source connected with Streamsong, there is on-site land parcel with topography elements similar to New Jersey’s famous Pine Valley. Ultimately, that would offer another distinct playing option from the other three other courses, something Mack, as previously mentioned, is extremely cognizant of. Highly speculative, of course, but of note are the occasional visits to Streamsong by course designer, David McLay-Kidd.

“It’s a strategic error to get too close to your siblings in this case,” Mack said. “Blue is defined by wide fairways and Tom’s unique green complexes. Red is more strategic off the tee, still with challenging green complexes but ones that are less dramatic than Blue. Black is a wide ball park with really bold features. If we add more golf the focus will be, okay, how do we distinguish? You want a different experience each time you go out. Its not easy to do especially when you have the terrain we do here. How do you articulate the differences, how do you communicate it. We have some options. We’ll take some time, as I said, then take a look at where we are.”

Mack admits that despite the upside the Roundabout provides he is not adverse to another short course option.

“In a way we already have a short course. We know that,” he said. “The next issue is do we want to have a more defined short course? I want to have my cake and eat it too. Maybe I want to have a short course to go with our H.O.R.S.E. course.”

How about a golf facility that hosts high-profile professional or amateur events? Streamsong was site of last year’s U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball, for all intents and purposes, a very successful activation for Mack and his team. Having that tournament experience create such a positive environment he is open to having conversations on almost anything.

“We built the Black course purposeful to host big events like that,” he said. “I don’t care about technology. If we put the tees and the flags where we want to the golf course will hold its own just fine, so if it hits the sweet spot for us were willing. I was thinking more about professional events first relating to your question but a U.S. Amateur, a U.S. Mid Amateur or an NCAA Championship would all be really interesting opportunities, especially that NCAA event. You could have both the men and the women at Streamsong and all three courses in play. The U.S. Women’s Four-Ball was a nice test drive for us.”

With a couple more mentions of Streamsong’s fishing attributes it seemed appropriate to reach for my iPad to show Mack my prized bass catch from a couple of years previous. Impressed he was. That was just before reaching for his phone to show me a picture of his 10-year-old daughter.

“She caught this one a couple of weeks ago,” he smiled. “It was just under 10 pounds.”

But can his daughter hook a drive at Streamsong as well as she can a largemouth bass?

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