Florida's Innisbrook Resort has reopened its North Course on Nov. 3 after a six-month renovation. The North Course is one of four at Innisbrook, a Salamander Golf & Spa Resort in Palm Harbor, all of which were designed by Larry Packard, who lived on property right up until his death in 2014 at the age of 101. At the time, he was the oldest living course architect in the world.
The putting surfaces on all of the North Course's 18 greens were resodded with TifEagle Bermuda Grass, and the bunkers were all fully removed and rebuilt from scratch, according to Packard's specifications. Trimming and pruning reduced shading and restored access to expanded greens that had shrunk over the years, allowing for additional pin placements.
The back nine of the North Course was originally part of Innisbrook's more celebrated Copperhead course, which hosts the PGA Tour's Valspar Golf Championship each March, when it was a 27-hole facility. Since tee times are scarce and very expensive to play Copperhead, playing the adjacent North Course is a way to experience Packard's vision for what would become his most famous course.
"The significance of the North Course is it adds a different flavor, it plays a little shorter, going back to its roots and history," said Bobby Barnes, Innisbrook's director of golf. "Nine holes of the North were within Larry Packard's vision of what the Copperhead was going to look like. It is also one of the most challenging 6,400 yards with a par-70 you'll ever play."
The North Course is the third at Innisbrook to undergo a recent renovation. The Island Course was restored in 2009 when Sheila Johnston's Salamander Hotels & Resorts bought the property and "is perfect right now," said Barnes; Copperhead was restored in 2015. "We hope to do the South Course soon," he said. "That would give us TifEagle Bermuda putting surface on all four golf courses, what the PGA Tour has raved about the last two years."
In addition to championship golf, Innisbrook also features 500 spacious guest suites and rooms, four restaurants and three bars, the Innisbrook Golf Institute, 11 tennis courts, the luxury Salamander Spa with 12 treatment rooms and state-of-the-art Fitness Center, six heated swimming pool complexes, a nature preserve and three conference halls with 100,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meetings space, all of it situated on 900 acres.
In a nod to his legacy, Innisbrook's fine dining restaurant is named Packard's Steakhouse. It serves premium beef and Florida fresh seafood and overlooks the Copperhead Course.