Before the end of the year, Erik Larsen expects to break ground on his first major project since leaving Arnold Palmer’s design firm in 2011. The new owners of Selva Marina Country Club in Atlantic Beach, Florida have appointed him to raze the property’s existing layout and replace it with a 6,815-yard track.
Rick Wood, the leader of the new ownership group, told the Florida Times-Union that the community, to be renamed Atlantic Beach Country Club, will be “the perfect place for families or empty nesters seeking an active, beach lifestyle in a quiet, close-knit community.”
Larsen, a former president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects, expects to unveil the new course roughly a year from now.
Selva Marina’s E. E. Smith-designed course, which opened in 1959, was built on property that was once home to Atlantic Beach Golf Course, a venue that closed during World War I. Smith’s track formerly hosted the Greater Jacksonville Open, the event that became The Players Championship.