Bonifay Golf Course
 

Went for a ride along the 466A cart path today to check out progress on the Bonifay Golf Course. The sand traps along 466A now have white sand in them and turf has been placed around the traps. Tee boxes have turf around them and it appears that the tee boxes themselves have been seeded. The fairways look to have been smoothed out and possibly also new seed applied. There had been some washout damage from the recent heavy rains but that has all been fixed. And not to be forgotten what apparently is a TV tradition on the golf courses is that we even spotted a gator in the pond at the southwest corner of Morse and 466A.

I didn't get down their today but saw a hugh column of smoke coming from that area. Did you happened to see what was burning? It was around 11:30 AM when I spotted it. I hope it was a controlled burn.

We were in the area around 9am and did not see anything burning at that time. We did see some smoke around 2pm but that appeared to be coming from east of Colony Plaza.

What I saw could have been west of Colony as I was watching it from Buena Vista Blvd. south of 466A. It was hugh but not black smoke. Several hours later it was still there, but diminished quite a bit.

What village(s) will be closest to Bonifay?

The closest will be Sanibel

Bosoxfan,

Thanks for the information.

Thanks for the update. Not being a frog, I love these reports on the progress!

A little after noon Sunday I could not help but hear Engine 51 from The Villages FD heading east on 466A and when they went past Colony Plaza I figured that they may be going on a mutual aid call. Turns out there was a 30 to 40 acre field fire in Fruitland Park around noon and numerous Lake County fire units responded along with help from The Villages FD. It is possible that might be what you were seeing.

Bonifay?
 

When is it scheduled to open? Do they also have a restaurant? If so, will it be open when the course opens?

It should be open this fall, about September/October. I don't know about the clubhouse and restaurant. I believe Havana opened using the cart barn as a temporary pro shop, but that was after the tornado damage at Mallory and they opened Havana early.

I'm sure that was it.

I see what looks like the resturant and pro shop well into construction at the location that I had seen on a map for the site of both. This structure is south of Roosevelt and you can see the two roofs for the proshop and the resturant with the flat roof between the two like all of the country clubs south of 466.

Havana resturant did not open for some time after the course opened as they had trouble finding someone to lease it. Palmer resturant opened a short time before the course opened. Palmer has always been owned and operated by The Villages. Palmer resturant was the first thing open south of 466.

Now the question I have is will The Villages own and operate then new Bonify resturant? My thoughts are that they will because the want that new area to start out strong and they did not want to operate Havana and it took them a while to find someone to lease it. They will not want the problems that Havana resturant has had the first year or so (or perhaps now) in that new area south of 466A. As the owner operator they have control over the quality and service of this new resturant. The Villages does not want to be in the resturant business but may feel they have to and get this area off to a good start.

I also had heard a rumor that The Villages were trying to lease Cane Garden resturant and not operate it themselves any more perhaps to free themselves up to run Bonifay.

These are just my thoughts.

Should be opening this Fall around October

I shot a 97 on Bonifay today. Lots of sand! Hope this improves. The pin locations were difficult to locate. :-)

One tidbit of information that we were told from a golf ambasador was that the new CC will not have a pool. Seems odd that they would break with this practice, but that's what he said. According to him, the other CCs south of 466A will have pools, although one of them will only be 18 holes.

You must really rock those bunker shots!:BigApplause:

No pool, I cannot check it out anymore
 

They fixed the golf cart paths so trespassers like me can not get in there in the evening with our golf carts. I will miss that, watching the country club be built, model homes, etc.

If you have not been down there lately, you cannot cross Morse where you used to as you travel west on the golf cart path along 466A past the driving range. They route you through the new tunnel under Morse and back to the cart path on 466A on the west side of Morse. There are barracades preventing you from going South on the cart paths past the tunnel and now there is no way to get onto Morse itself with a regular cart like mine.

I would take that information with a grain of salt. From what I have heard there will be 3 championship courses; Evan Prairie, Bonifay, and Belle Glade - 27 holes each, and 6 executive courses split into clusters of 3 courses: Big Cypress and The Colony. I believe if you do the math this adds up to the 621 holes I've heard we will have at buildout. This information can be taken with a grain of seasoned salt, I like seasoned better.

Can't you build a ramp and turn that cart into TV Evil Knievel special?

Not burning
 

What I saw was not burning but being stirred up by wind. It was a huge column of what looked like sand. As I got closer to Buena Vista it was washed out of the air by light rain. By the time I got to Buttonwood, there was nothing thank goodness.