PGA National, home of the Bear Trap and the PGA Tour’s Honda Classic on its extremely challenging Champion Course, has gone a completely different direction in its newest offering.
The nine-hole Staple Course, a par-3 layout with holes ranging from 48 to 130 yards, opens this week on land formerly used by what was the resort’s Squire Course. Architect Andy Staples has converted the opening and closing holes of the Squire into the Staple. The land remaining from the other 16 holes of the Squire soon will be the site of the new Match Course, a roughly 5,700-yard, 18-hole course with a focus on fun.
The resort in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, is still home to four full-size 18-hole layouts: the Champion, the Palmer, the Fazio and the Estate courses. The Champion ranks No. 10 in Florida on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list for public-access layouts.
The new short Staple course is one of the latest in a trend of fun, modern par-3 courses at larger destinations. Meant to be played with just a putter and a few wedges or short irons, the Staple features dramatic and highly undulating greens, including a few with hole locations that serve as funnels to possibly help players score a hole-in-one. Each hole also will feature difficult hole locations, typically atop shelves that would feed balls to lower holes. The layout was built as a figure-eight, providing a spot for crossing players to interact around firepits and a bar area.
“Our goal for the Staple Course was to combine classic course architecture attributes with a contemporary, reimagined approach by highlighting playability, a quicker pace of play and simply creating an enjoyable golf experience for all,” Staples said in a media release announcing the opening. “We think guests are going to love the Staple Course so much they’ll want to play it multiple times in the same day.”
The Match Course, the short 18-holer scheduled to open later this summer, promises to introduce what the resort calls groundbreaking architecture concepts while encouraging match play instead of stroke play. It’s all part of an ongoing $100 million revitalization of the resort.
“Andy Staples’ incredible vision for both our new Staple Course and upcoming Match Course are beyond exciting additions to our world-class golf amenities,” Jane Broderick, PGA National’s director of golf, said in the media release.
Check out the photos below.