Makeover turns Fairmont Turnberry Isle into elite destination

Florida boasts more than 1,000 golf courses -- more than any other state in the U.S. -- and the southeast coast between Miami and Fort Lauderdale is one of the Sunshine State's most popular destinations. Two new Raymond Floyd designs at Fairmont Turnberry Isle Resort & Club now provide golf enthusiasts even more reason to visit.

Combined with a $100 million facelift to the resort's guestrooms and common areas (completed December 2006), and the addition of two new restaurants -- Cascata Grille and Bourbon Steak (a Michael Mina restaurant akin to the acclaimed chef's venue of the same name in Detroit) -- and Fairmont Turnberry Isle has evolved into one of the elite luxury golf resorts in the country.

View of No. 18 at Turnberry Isle - Soffer Course.

Floyd has always been known to go for the gusto. His long and distinguished PGA Tour career netted him 22 victories, including four major championships: a coveted green jacket as the 1976 Masters champion, the 1986 U.S. Open, and two PGA Championships.

He brought the same verve to his second career as a golf course architect. Most of his designs are concentrated near his home in southern Florida, although he has also delivered courses as far away as Michigan and Nevada. Influenced by masters such as Donald Ross, Alister MacKenzie and A. W. Tillinghast, Floyd prides himself on being a hands-on designer.

So when he was asked to put his hands on two aging courses at Fairmont Turnberry Isle in Aventura, Fla., he did so with a sense of purpose. His mission was to bring the courses up to the high quality standards that have long propelled this resort above its competitors.

Calling them "new" is only a bit of a stretch, because even though they were built on the site of two existing designs at Fairmont Turnberry Isle, "You wouldn't recognize them if you knew the courses from before," Floyd says.

Originally opened in 1972, the two golf courses -- then called North and South -- played host to a number of professional tournaments over the years, including the PGA Senior Championship (1979-1981) and the LPGA Elizabeth Arden Classic (1979-1986).

A longtime Florida resident, Floyd was asked to bring the luster back to Turnberry's golf offerings, to bring them on par (so to speak) with the resort's 392 luxurious rooms and suites, exquisite dining options and elegant spa.

"Our goal was to provide a challenging and fair test to golfers of all skills and handicaps," Floyd says. "There are enough tees for the higher-handicap player to get around. But if the golf professional gets on those back tees, he will have all the challenge he wants."

Hole 1 on the Soffer Course -- formerly the South Course, now named in honor of the resort's visionary founder, Don Soffer -- clues you in right away to the changes Floyd made: the formerly flat fairway now sports pronounced undulation; a canal crosses 100 yards out from the shiny (and speedy) new paspalum-grassed putting surface; a small waterfall beautifies the rear of the green; the cart path and waste area on the left is crushed white coquina shell.

Water has always been one of the primary characteristics of golf at Turnberry Isle, and Floyd was careful to retain that trait. In fact, he increased the presence of water on the new layouts.

"What we've done is create more water, but taken it out of play," he says. "We've widened landing areas, re-routed holes, created waterfalls ... it is a very pleasant, tropical environment."

More than $100,000 was spent in landscaping on each hole, adding colorful flora and trees -- including several thousand new palm trees. The resort's renowned Audubon-sanctioned bird refuge was preserved and enhanced, with special nesting areas positioned throughout the courses. A new "Flamingo Island" was built within Lake Julius, ensuring that the flamboyant resident flamingoes are able to nest and nurture their young in a natural environment.

Of the two designs, the par-71 Soffer Course is longer, at 7,047 yards, and presents more challenge to the seasoned golfer.

"Here in South Florida the courses are pretty flat," says Harry Bower, Floyd's lead architect on the project, "so we created a lot of movement, with contouring from tee to green."

One signature feature that Floyd and Bower retained from the previous design is the picturesque island green on Soffer No. 18 that is overlooked by the entire Magnolia wing of the hotel.

"It's a classic risk/reward par 5," Floyd says, while explaining some of the design changes that he feels have made it stronger. "You can now see the green from the tee, so you know what you are facing. And we added a huge waterfall on the left of green."

The waterfall Floyd references is "the tallest waterfall in Florida" resort personnel will tell you. It is, admittedly, a bit out of place, more like something you'd see in Las Vegas, but you're also told that developers wanted it, "taller than the one Steve Wynn built."

In April 2008, the Soffer Course will test the players of the LPGA Tour, when the Stanford International Pro-Am is contested here.

Fairmont Turnberry suite

The Miller Course -- formerly the North Course -- is a par-70 layout that measures around 6,700 yards. Designed as more of a friendly, resort-style course, several of the holes wrap around Lake Julius, named after the late PGA Tour professional, Julius Boros, who lived nearby and was know to have been fond of fishing in these lakes in the resort's early years.

Après golf, it's tempting to simply relax in your room, they are so nicely themed with blond wood flooring, light cream and milky brown carpets highlighted with soft gold, and a very pleasing modern Mediterranean feel. Flat screen televisions are in each room, and bathroom and the linens are fine and comfy.

But guests would be remiss to not enjoy a meal at Cascata Grille, where chef Hubert Des Marais -- formerly of The Restaurant at Four Seasons Palm Beach -- oversees a menu of "sustainable cuisine," a philosophy the Fairmont chain is introducing at several of its properties. Basically, the idea is to "support local farmers and not devastate local resources," Des Marais says.

His seasonally influenced cuisine includes many fruits and vegetables raised in the area (love those Key limes!), seafood from Florida waters, and flavors typical of the multicultural Florida population: Cuban, Venezuelan, Bahamian, and Peruvian.

The work done at Fairmont Turnberry Isle Resort & Club has propelled an already-respected golf resort to the very top of the traveling golfer's list.