- November 18, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
The Pine Lakes Golf Course has new owners: Firinn Golf Group managing partners Chris McLaren and Doreen Holl, who bought the course — Firinn group’s second — Sept. 1, McLaren said.
“We’re here for the long haul,” he said. “(Holl) and I both moved down here.” Firinn also owns the Regent Park Golf Club, near Charlotte, North Carolina, he said.
McLaren isn’t yet sure what changes Firinn group will be making to the Pine Lakes course, formerly owned by the Golf Group of Palm Coast. “My partner and I are impressed with the bones of this facility here,” he said. “It’s an Arnold Palmer course; the layout is very nice; he condition of the course has fallen into disrepair over the past one or two years.”
But, he said, “Every golf market has got its own niche, its on idiosyncrasies. We’re taking our time to get a good feel, a good understanding for the situation down here.”
Firinn’s primary focus for now, he said, will be “getting the turf back to where it should be, and restoring the curb value … of the course.” After that, he said, “any major capital improvements that we’re going to make in the facility is going to be determined to some extent by the market,” which he said is different from the market Firinn had in Charlotte because the golfing demographic is older.
“The market down here is very, very different from other markets. Instead of having a demographic mix between, say, 20 and 70, our demographic is between 50 and 70. We’re just getting a feel for how that demographic is going to work.”
McLaren called the course “a really fabulous piece of property,” and said he has high hopes for it, although the golfing community isn’t very large.
“I like the fact that it’s not as crowded as Jacksonville, it’s not as built up as South Florida, but the downside of that is that there’s fewer golfers,” he said. “We like the area very much, we like the facility very much, and we’re very optimistic about what this place can become.”
