Business View Magazine Feb 2023

171 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 10, ISSUE 2 In the summer of 2019, the Bay Island course was the first to be renewed, an intense process that meant basically building a brand new golf course, as Hal Akins, Director of Golf Course Operations describes, “These are complete renovations. Basically, we took them back down to the dirt, put in irrigation, and completely reshaped them, everything from tee to green. None of these were lipstick, these were all from the ground-up renovations.” The plan was in its second phase, the Marsh Course when COVID hit. Akins shares, “They started closing restaurants and schools and things of that nature, and that was when reality hit, but it was too late because that morning we had sprayed out and killed the golf course. We were locked in, which at the time felt a little uneasy, but quite frankly, we’re very happy that we decided to do that. By the time we got to the end of summer, COVID was still going, but people were used to it, and we had a brand new golf course to celebrate.” In November of 2022 the Cypress course, which is part of the Naples campus was opened, after an extensive 14-month project that included addressing drainage issues that the club had been enduring for years. “We used Fazio for that design, and they were great partners for us,” he notes. He adds that the first two renovations were designed by international golf course architects Hills & Forrest. Along with the golf course renovations, EJ McDonnell, Director of Golf reports that a two-and-a-half acre short game practice area was also updated, a project that was awarded Best Renovation by the Golf Range Association of America. The Bonita Bay Club’s Naples Campus is an area that Fung suggests is “pure golf.” He elaborates, “Everything revolves around that. There’s no pickleball, there’s no Fitness Center. This is a destination in and of itself. It is a separate campus, 1000 acres with no residential, which is very unusual in the state of Florida.” BONI TA BAY CLUB The NEW E-Z-GO RXV goes beyond providing the ultimate reliability under the seat and now elevates the experience with an all-new, industry-leading design. The updated modern dash and automotive- style hanging pedals streamline the player experience, while courses can enjoy low operating costs and high performance with either the ELiTE Lithium powertrain activated by Samsung SDI technology or EX1 gas engine with closed-loop EFI. ©2023 Textron Specialized Vehicles Inc. The New E-Z-GO ® RXV ® EZGO.com/Fleet