The Red, Blue and Black courses at the Streamsong Resort lie on a sizeable tract of reclaimed land within an enormous 16,000-acre property that was once heavily mined by the Mosaic corporation, a leading company in the supply of phosphate and potash to the agricultural industry.
As part of a laudable commitment to environmental sustainability, Mosaic decided the most appropriate action for the decades-old Polk County site was its transformation from industrial wasteland to upmarket golf resort in the mould of Bandon Dunes.
And if this new facility was to gain a similar reputation to that of its counterpart in Oregon, then so much the better, because discerning golfers would more than likely flock to Streamsong in substantial numbers, keen to sample the golf on offer.
Some will think the smartest move Mosaic made was at the outset of the project with the appointment of Tom Doak, Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw – all three were involved at Bandon – as designers for the resort’s first two 18-hole layouts which opened for play in 2014.
Such an architectural dream team was virtually guaranteed to deliver a world-class 36-hole golf complex and so Tom Doak’s Renaissance Golf Design Company was tasked with creating the Blue course whilst Coore and Crenshaw’s firm was detailed to lay out the Red course.
Both courses feature generous fairways and few forced carries so the playability quotient for the average golfer is very favourable. The Blue occupies a central portion of the property and, as a consequence, is the more open of the two layouts.
The signature hole on the Blue may well be the par three 7th, with its wonderfully contoured green nestled between a lake to the front and huge sand dunes to the rear. "My younger associates and I discussed, more than once, the idea of putting in a zip line to get across the pond on the 7th hole at Streamsong." Commented Tom Doak in his Little Red Book of Golf Course Architecture. "There were only two problems with our dream: 1) Mosaic is a very risk-averse company, and 2) There are alligators in that pond, which might be a problem if anyone fell off the zip line."
On the back nine, the risk/reward 305-yard par four 13th is another stand out hole, where a ridge splits the fairway between an upper right portion and a lower left segment.
In 2017, the Black course became the third 18-hole layout to open at Streamsong, set close to, but slightly away from, the Red and Blue courses. Designed by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, the Black occupies a vast, open tract that stylishly complements the other two courses at a wonderful 54-hole facility.
