Streamsong announces plans for fifth course designed by David McLay Kidd

In 2012, golf course architect David McLay Kidd attended the grand opening of two 18-hole courses, neither of which he designed. Conceived by Tom Doak, Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw respectively, Streamsong Blue and Red are the main attractions at Streamsong Resort, a resort in remote Florida New destination, roughly equidistant from Tampa and Orlando.

McClay Kidd is no stranger to distance golf. As the architect of the Bandon Dunes in southern Oregon, he was a towering figure in his genre. However, at the ribbon-cutting ceremony of Xige, he was filled with admiration and jealousy. Not only did he enjoy the sessions. He also coveted the landscape around them, a vast canvas made up of dramatic rises and depressions left by mining operations.

“I just thought, one day, I’ve got to have an opportunity to build a ballpark here,” McLuckid said. “So I spent quite a bit of time seeing if I could plug into Streamsong and be a part of it.”

Time passed. In 2017, Streamsong opened its third 18-hole course, the Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner-designed Black Course, which, like the Blue and Red courses, appeared for the first time on GOLF’s ranking of the Top 100 Courses in the United States. , another Coore/Crenshaw-designed course.

McClay Kidd has never been short of work. During this time, his numerous projects included Gamble Sands in eastern Washington and Mammoth Dunes in central Wisconsin, both ranked among the Top 100 projects. Still, Streamsong is high on his wish list. But he could check it out now.

The announcement was made official on Wednesday. Streamsong is building a fifth course and has hired McLay Kidd to design it. When completed, the resort will be the only hotel in the world to feature courses designed by Coore/Crenshaw, Doak, Hanse/Wagner and Kidd.

“Throughout my 30-year career, I’ve always thought of my peers as Bill, Ben, Tom and Jill,” McClay Kidd said. “So, in order for me to be part of this group, the group has to all be in the same place.”

As he spoke, McClay Kidd was giving a tour of the course he was building on an unusually cold afternoon in Florida earlier this week. It doesn’t have a name yet (grey? yellow? white? green?), but it does have a route that McClay Kidd and his team marked with tall stakes in the ground.

The layout will be located between the red and black team pitches and share a clubhouse with the black team. Designing a configuration that begins and ends at the clubhouse was complex, in part due to the influence of protected wetlands. But McClay Kidd found a solution that involved demolishing a little-used putting practice facility called the Roundabout, whose footprint would be replaced by two holes on the course.

At more than 7,300 yards from the back tees, the new course will be the longest course at the resort, and on a site with frequent wind changes, the course is full of twists and turns that can pass through all points on the compass. McClay Kidd said that while its bones are already in place, its defining features will be developed on the course as he and his team fine-tune the bends and folds of the fairways and the contours of the greens while taking advantage of the ball-striking marked terrain. McClay Kidd said some parts of the course will need to be built and others excavated to better showcase the ground-game options that are the core of his design.

“I’m not shy about moving dirt when the need arises,” McClay Kidd said. “It’s a great place to play golf, but it was shaped by the mining industry, so I wouldn’t impose myself on nature.”

In 2023, the mining company that owned Streamsong sold it to Lone Windmill LLC, a shareholder in KemperSports, which manages the resort. A representative for KemperSports said the new course marks the new owner’s first major investment in the property, but more is coming, including additional accommodations that will expand the resort’s overnight offerings to its 228 rooms outside the main hotel.

Construction on the new stadium is already underway and will continue throughout the winter and spring, and although a completion date has not yet been announced, McClay Kidd said he hopes the stadium will be in use in the fall of 2026. The goal was to create a compelling playground that would complement Streamsong’s existing curriculum, share DNA with its siblings but yet stand out, he said. If his expectations are high, so are the pressures, the equivalent of first tee jitters.

“I’m happy to work here,” he said. “But I’m also nervous because the bar is set so high.”

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