If you’re wondering where PGA Tour player Paul Azinger went now that he’s no longer in the broadcast booth for NBC Sports, one place you might find the 12-time Tour winner is tooling around on a golf course construction site close to Sarasota, Fla.
Not long after NBC chose not to renew the popular broadcaster’s contract last November, Azinger quickly exchanged television headsets for architectural drawings as one of the design consultants for a new private course being built in Myakka City. For Azinger, his newest golf venture is not only visibly exciting, but Miakka Golf Club is personal, considering the 1993 PGA Championship winner is a lifelong resident of nearby Bradenton.
Indeed, during his star-studded playing career and four-year stint as an outspoken lead golf analyst, the former Florida State University standout arguably put the Bradenton-Sarasota area on the golf map. Now, in tandem with acclaimed architects Dana Fry and Jason Straka, whose firm is leading the design efforts at Miakka, Azinger and the Fry/Straka design duo are poised to put this tiny “Florida Cracker” town on the global map.
To be sure, Miakka Golf Club, which adopted the namesake town’s spelling used by Native Americans who once lived and fished along the club’s scenic Myakka River, is already associated with some rarified recreational real estate. For instance, the club shares ownership with, and is adjacent to, world-renowned TerraNova Equestrian Center and Southwest Florida’s premier new equestrian community, The Estates at TerraNova.
The owner and visionary behind all three developments is another Bradenton resident and community icon, Florida entrepreneur Steve Herrig. Ironically, Herrig, who didn’t grow up consumed by golf like his good friend Azinger, is developing 1,100 acres that will feature nothing but golf in the most exclusive and highly curated manner possible.
Miakka is marketing a limited number of invitation-only local and national memberships that will likely be some of the priciest in the industry. Among the club’s golf highlights are an 18-hole championship course as well as a 12-hole par-3 layout, 7-acre short-game facility, lighted putting course, golf performance and fitness center and 360-degree driving range.
At the recent groundbreaking/architect’s panel celebration in late April, one month after Bruce Springsteen’s daughter, equestrian show jumping star Jessica Springsteen, competed next door during the TerraNova Winter Series schedule, Straka said Miakka is going to become a “pinnacle project.”
“This is one of the best natural sites for golf and one of the best teams we’ve ever been affiliated with,” Straka added. “The property has an incredible two miles of frontage along the Myakka River with hundreds of mature oak hammocks. Just the golf club and its facilities are being built on more than 1,100 acres. Miakka is going to be pure golf with no encroachments or distractions of any kind. The course will resemble the celebrated courses of the Australian Sandbelt, with wide turf corridors, no rough, and distinctive bunkers and natural-area hazards jutting into the line of play.”
Situated just a couple miles from 37,000-acre Myakka River State Park, one of Florida’s oldest and largest parks, the private club will become a golf destination like none other in Florida when it opens for play in late 2025. Case in point is Fry noted the entire 7,700-yard course will be sand capped with a proprietary blend of sand and Profile soil conditioner, and everything but the greens will be sodded.
Additionally, the entire course will feature substantial underdrains to ensure fast and firm playing conditions year-round, according to Fry, and be one of the first courses in Florida to use Stadium Zoysia grass on tees and fairways, and Lazer on the greens and green surrounds. Miakka will be a walking-friendly course and the club intends to develop a premier caddie program.
Recently, Miakka’s owner purchased 1,600 acres of adjacent land to serve as a private sod farm, giving the course superintendent the ability to source all the cutting-edge Zoysia grass needed year round.
“We have a fantastic team, and the site is simply incredible,” Herrig said. “The course design Fry/Straka and Azinger have developed fits it perfectly. There’s a surprising amount of natural elevation change, and we have two miles of frontage along a beautiful stretch of the Myakka River. The setting is just incredible. When you couple this with the type of thoughtful amenities and services we envision, and a close-knit, invitation-only membership, I just can’t imagine a better golf experience anywhere in the country.”
Azinger, who was never shy to speak his mind, can’t wait to start showing off his new hometown club.
“I’m 100 percent positive every Tour player is going to know about this place,” Azinger said at the groundbreaking event. “They’re going to want to see it. And I’d imagine some of them are going to settle in here and practice … This will be a championship course for sure and champions will show up here, I know that for a fact. I was thinking about bringing Scheffler out here as soon as it opens. Obviously he’s a hot guy and I know him so well. So maybe he’ll be one of the first tour players to come out.”