Over the past two decades, the 24-mile stretch of sandy white beaches known as 30A along Florida’s panhandle has steadily emerged as a highly sought destination. No longer the sleepy getaway of years past, this series of inimitable beachfront communities connecting Destin and Panama City by its namesake scenic highway has become an idyllic haven for well-heeled visitors.
However, despite the quantum increase of tourists and full-time residents, the availability of quality golf had not kept pace. It had been more than 20 years since a new championship-caliber golf course had been built to support the increasing demand driven by the influx of visitors.
That problem — and the inherent opportunity it presented — was recognized by the St. Joe Company, a local development group that controls large swaths of valuable raw land in the region. St. Joe is also the parent organization of Watersound, a uniquely designed community that stresses laid-back luxury in its abundant offerings for visitors, including a pair of notable golf courses through its Watersound Club, which is located along 30A near Seacrest, Florida. There is a Tom Fazio creation in Camp Creek Golf Course that opened in 2001 and Shark’s Tooth Golf Course designed by Greg Norman that made its debut a year later.
In order to address this growing demand, a new offering was recently added to Watersound’s golf portfolio with the opening of The Third Golf Course. The naming of the latest addition has dual connotations, derived from the fact this was the club’s third golf course as well as a tribute to the project’s designer, Davis Love III, and his Love Golf Design team that includes his brother, Mark, and Scot Sherman.
Love, a World Golf Hall of Fame inductee, won 21 times on the PGA Tour, including the 1997 PGA Championship, and captained the U.S. Ryder Cup Team in 2012 and 2016. Just as impressive, though, are the 27 completed projects in a portfolio that include both new designs and renovations.
“The opening of The Third represents a monumental milestone in the ongoing Watersound Club evolution and an intentional response to growing demand for more golf options,” says Patrick Murphy, St. joe’s senior vice president of hospitality. “We’re thrilled to elevate the experience for our members, while also offering an exclusive opportunity for Camp Creek Inn guests to enjoy premier golf.”
The Third opened in April and is the latest of several Watersound Club amenity expansion projects launched in response to membership growth, which has grown from 800 to the current 3,200 members that hail from 40 states.
In addition to the trio of courses, Watersound Club amenities include the Watersound Beach Club with its two resort-style pools, two dining venues and more than one mile of beachfront along the Gulf of Mexico. The newly opened amenities at Camp Creek Inn feature a state-of-the-art wellness center, tennis and pickleball courts, a sprawling pool complex, and three dining venues.
The Third is located adjacent to the Shark’s Tooth course, but the layout boasts its own distinct personality different from its brethren in the Watersound lineup. The course ventures through a natural habitat while embracing a sense of timeless character. The routing flows across white sandy dunes and wetlands resplendent with diverse native plant materials, beautiful pockets of old growth cypress and pine trees, and a creative complement of bunkering that perfectly frames the golf holes.
The choice of hiring an architect to tackle the project was a natural fit, with Murphy and Watersound director of golf Patrick Richardson having previously worked at Sea Island, where Love’s team oversaw the renovation of the historic Plantation Course in 2019.
“There was a comfort level there, and we showed them what we thought we could do knowing the property and the vegetation,” says Sherman, lead architect at Love Golf Design. “They bought in, and said ‘Here’s the land. Let us know how you can use it.’ There won’t be any homes around the golf course, so it gave us a chance to spread our wings and have lots of room to be creative.”
The Third carries a sense of openness and serenity, an undisturbed trek through a natural collection of holes that give the impression of having been in place for years. The course is playable for all skill levels, offering six sets of tees as a par 71 ranging from 4,900 yards to more than 7,600 yards. Access is limited to members of Watersound Club as well as guests of the Camp Creek Inn, a unique 75-room boutique lodge located minutes away.
“If you think about older golf courses — the Old Course at St. Andrews or Pinehurst No. 2 — there are places where it’s just all fairways tied together,” Sherman says. “We didn’t want a lot of rough because we wanted the natives to bleed out into the woods, so it felt like it was always there. Plus, we wanted to bring the short cut from the green all the way back to the tee as much as we can to make it feel seamless.”
The Third does not attempt to overwhelm golfers with billowing swales or blind shots. The layout plays firm and fast with a links-style feel required to combat the ever-present coastal winds. It comes across in an understated yet refined manner, with single markers on each tee opening up attack angles on every hole and simple wooden signage throughout the course.
The green complexes are ample with subtle contouring, and the strategic placement of bunkers and waste areas throughout the course require an element of proper club selection and precision. Shared fairways on four holes provide a feeling of openness from the tee, while other holes narrow into tree-lined corridors create a different aura.
Some of the unique features of The Third are the challenging double-plateau green on the seventh hole as well as the intimidating par-4 17th that is framed by wetlands. However, No. 8 emerged as the favorite of Sherman due to the unique challenges it presented.
“To the right of No. 8 is a very old eagle’s nest, and it was something that we had to work around during construction,” says Sherman, who began his design career in 1990 under the legendary Pete Dye. “There was only a certain period when we could clear the golf holes, so we spent a lot of time thinking about that area. I enjoy how it turned out because there’s some aspects of that green that we intentionally infused into it that came from TPC Sawgrass.”
While already spectacular in the manner native vegetation was infused into the project, Sherman is excited to see how the golf course will flaunt its grandeur upon maturing.
“The golf course is really not finished because we incorporated so much transplanting of natives, and we physically seeded so much native grasses that it will look completely different a year from now,” he says.
Given the growing demand for additional golf among Watersound’s membership, Richardson is proud of the handiwork of Love’s team and their ability to add a different offering into the mix.
“I think the visual openness makes The Third distinct,” says Richardson, now in his fourth year at Watersound. “You can stand on eight or 13 fairways and can see five or six holes at once. This place has a links style feel to it with a lot of character to the greens that are kind of old school with a modern twist.
“There’s a lot of really cool golf courses being built these days, and sometimes they’re not the easiest ones to get to. You feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere at The Third, but you’re only 10 minutes from the beach.”