Commission approves grant funding for Bobby Jones wetlands work

As work continues toward a fall reopening of the Bobby Jones Golf Club, Sarasota commissioners approve use of state wetlands grants.

Golfers are now only months away from playing Sarasota’s renovated Bobby Jones Golf Club. And thanks to the original drawings, it will play the way legendary course designer Donald Ross intended.

Meanwhile, as course renovation progresses toward a planned fall 2022 opening, work to improve wetlands and control stormwater at the site continues as the Sarasota City Commission during Monday's regular meeting approved two measures to deploy state grants for work associated with the project to rebuild the 36-hole course to its original 18-hole configuration.

Commissioners could have unceremoniously approved expenditures of nearly $5 million along with multiple other items on the consent agenda. Instead, Commissioner Jennifer Ahern-Koch requested the commission remove the items from the consent agenda — not to debate the merits, but rather to highlight progress being made on the project Commissioner Hagen Brody added will be transformational for the city’s District 3.

In addition to the golf course restoration, the $18.8 million project — funded by city bonds — will also include a nine-hole adjustable par 3 course and preserve 153 of the 261 acres for a public park with a variety of green space uses and wetlands conservation, all along one of the city’s primary east-west corridors.