LAKELAND, Fla (Sept 14, 2004) - With Community Development District (CDD) funding approved, developers of a new golf course community here called Bridgewater will begin construction of a Steve Smyers designed golf course in late-September.

The CDD, a private agency that sells and manages community bonds to pay for the common areas of developments, including golf courses, gave the go-ahead after meeting with Bridgewater's developers. Riverview-based site developer Kearney Development Co. and Phillips Development of Raleigh, N.C, lead the group.

The 600-acre Bridgewater property contains 228 acres of lakes and will devote 200 acres to the daily-fee golf course. Niebur Golf of Colorado Springs will construct the golf course.

The property is located at Interstate 4 and State Road 33, northeast of downtown Lakeland and about 15 miles from Disney World.

Smyers called the planned golf course "a model of how golf can interact with, and actually enhance, the environment." Some 24 acres of overgrown, "distressed" wetlands will be dug out and improved by clearing out "trash" growth and planting native materials.

In effect, the project will create a 165-acre wildlife corridor consisting of 64 acres of upland native plantings in trees and grasses, such as slash pines, Sabal palms, cord grass and paspallum, and the remainder lowlands and wetlands.

Only 67 acres of turf grass will be maintained, Smyers said, adding that the wetlands will mark the low areas, while the trees, grasses and shrubs will delineate the high areas.

Playing to a par-71 over 5,000 to 7,100 yards, Bridgewater will be a core golf course, with no adjacent housing.

Smyers designed three courses that are listed in the Top 100 modern layouts in America. His Blue Heron Pines East Course, which only opened in May 2000, is rated one of the two daily-fee tracks among the Top 20 in New Jersey. Smyers has been designing golf courses for 20 years.