BallenIsles Country Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. unveiled its newly renovated East Course at a grand opening ceremony held on Monday, January 30, 2023. Led by Nicklaus Design, the 9-month, multi-million-dollar renovation project has modernized the club’s famed East Course as well as its Practice Grounds.
Renovation work began on the East Course in April 2022 and focused on updating the course’s design, including bunkering, greens complexes and strategy, a complete re-grassing of the course and improvements to playing options for members and tournament players alike. The newly reimaged Practice Grounds incorporates an all-new 65-bay two-sided 12-acre Long Game area, complete with Toptracer technology and Flagd Golf digital yardage boards, an abundance of aiming targets for all types of long shots, a practice putting green, rough, uneven lie and fairway bunker practice areas, along with a wedge range with targets from 30 to 105 yards. The four-acre Short Game area features the 25,000 sq. ft. Snead Green putting course, five pitching and chipping greens, warm-up green and the world’s flattest putting green. The area is complimented by the newly built ’71 Learning Center, scheduled to be completed by April 2023.
The Nicklaus Design team, led by Senior Designers Chris Cochran and Chad Goetz, also added length to the par 72 layout, increasing from 7,189-yards to 7,474-yards. The January 30th Grand Opening Ceremony included speeches from Nicklaus Design President Paul Stringer and BallenIsles Club President David Frank, plus photo opportunities and refreshments.
“We first spoke about a possible East Course renovation in 2020,” said Stringer. “To see it completed already with a very nice, expanded practice facility is just terrific! On behalf of all of us at Nicklaus Design, we are so pleased to be part of this Grand Opening and renovation. Chris, Chad and our team at Nicklaus Design are very proud of what has been accomplished at BallenIsles.”
“We continue making BallenIsles Country Club better and better,” added Frank. “The work Nicklaus Design did on the East Course and Practice Grounds is simply spectacular.”
The renovation of the East Course follows the construction of a $1.3 million pickleball complex in 2021; the 2020 redesign of BallenIsles’ South Course by famed golf course architect Rees Jones; and a 2018 $35 million dollar clubhouse renovation. The Club also recently announced a $19 million dollar renovation and expansion project of the club’s existing Sports Complex. Construction is expected to begin on the phased project in late 2023, with project completion slated by the end of 2024.
For more information on BallenIsles Country Club, visit www.BallenIsles.org.
ABOUT BALLENISLES COUNTRY CLUB:
In 1964 legendary Florida developer John D. MacArthur and the PGA of America teamed up with golf course architects Dick Wilson and Joe Lee to design a championship-caliber golf facility. Over the next ten years, BallenIsles, then called PGA National Golf Club, hosted numerous major tournaments like the PGA Championship and PGA Seniors Championship and was home for the Professional Golfers’ Association of America. The Club was also the host site for the original PGA TOUR Qualifying School and held the inaugural PGA Merchandise Show. When the MacArthur/PGA of America agreement expired in 1973, the Club was renamed the JDM Country Club for John D. MacArthur. For the next 15 years, the prestigious local country club hosted many celebrities and professional golfers and staged many events on the three golf courses on the property. In 1988, the three golf courses and surrounding property were sold by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and renamed BallenIsles Country Club. A multi-year and multimillion dollar plan to develop a private country club community was unveiled. Since the early 2000’s, BallenIsles Country Club has been consistently ranked as one of the Top 100 Clubs in America. For more information visit www.BallenIsles.org.
