SAWGRASS: FLORIDA'S COOL NEW DESTINATION IS HOT
Story and photography
by Eric Anderson

The history of Florida has always been one of developers turning land -- even as primitive as primal swamp -- into prime real estate - and the story of Jacksonville, Florida's fastest growing city and the largest metropolitan area in the United States (the county is the city and cover 845 square miles) is no exception.

Before the recent surge in building there wasn't any infrastructure there to support a reasonable quality of life. It was difficult to get into Jacksonville on the J. T. Butler Boulevard, a two-lane toll road - and once you got there, there was nothing to do.

He looks past the lush vegetation surrounding his resort and waves his hand in the direction of one of the most photographed holes in golf, the celebrated 17th island hole of the Tournament Players Club Stadium Course and adds, "And we have the golf. Without it, we'd just be a bedroom community for
Jacksonville. With it, we are like Pinehurst in North Carolina and the Monterey peninsula in California, one of the premier golf destinations in the continental United States."