The long-range vision for Old Shores, the ambitious destination golf resort being developed on Florida’s Panhandle by Michael Keiser Jr., is coming into clearer focus—and it extends well beyond the single championship course that’s begun construction. Keiser has detailed plans that call for four additional layouts to complement the first 18, eventually creating a five-course public destination spread across more than 4,000 acres of remarkably varied terrain.
The courses will span a wide spectrum of architecture, terrain, and purpose. There’s a second full-length 18 inspired by Augusta National, a regulation 9-hole course modeled (in some respects) after the celebrated Dunes Club in Michigan, a 12-hole “precision course” in the mold of The Commons at Sand Valley, and a par-3 course designed for short-form play and social golf. It is a diverse lineup that encapsulates the Keiser family’s belief in variety, innovation, walkability, and multiple ways for golfers—all golfers—to experience a special piece of land.
Perhaps most attention-grabbing among the future projects at Old Shores is the second 18-hole course, which will be created by Brian Schneider, whose work includes co-design of the first course at Old Barnwell. His routing will occupy the boldest section of the property, with elevation changes approaching 90 feet. Keiser says the layout is inspired by Augusta National as it existed in the 1930s when Perry Maxwell extensively renovated seven greens with bold internal contouring.
“Brian’s site is like Augusta,” Keiser Jr. says. “There are huge, heaving fairways, and we want to build something inspired by the Augusta of that era—very wide, with far fewer bunkers than today, and with dramatic movement in the ground. It will be very different from the first course, and as dramatic as anything we’ve ever built.”
Equally distinctive, but in a different way, is the planned standalone 9-hole regulation course—a true rarity in the destination golf category.
While many resorts have multiple nines combined into 18-hole rotations, Old Shores will feature a true championship-quality nine. It’s inspired in part by the demand at the Keisers’ other properties, especially Bandon Dunes, where late afternoon play on the front nine of the resort’s namesake course is exceptionally high. It’s also influenced by The Dunes Club, the acclaimed Dick Nugent design along Lake Michigan that Michael’s father developed in the 1990s and is widely regarded as one of the finest 9-hole courses in the country. Keiser Jr. has played extensively at The Dunes Club and sees this outside-the-box approach as an opportunity to bring architectural excellence and high-level experience to the public golf space in a 9-hole package.
“Very seldom does someone find a phenomenal piece of land and say, ‘I want to build a 9-hole course on it,’” Keiser Jr. says. “Before Bandon Preserve, people didn’t really do that with par-3 courses either. We’re trying to innovate a little bit. I love 9-hole golf. It’s a perfect amount, and it’s how my wife and I play a lot of our golf together.”
Rounding out the portfolio are two shorter-format courses. A 12-hole layout, similar in spirit to The Commons at Sand Valley, will blend par threes with short, potentially drivable par fours (and possibly a solitary par five), providing what Keiser Jr. terms a “precision course.” A separate par-3 course, in the lineage of The Sandbox at Sand Valley and Shorty’s at Bandon Dunes, will provide a playful, social complement to the regulation courses and might have a lighted component to extend the day for resort guests.
All five courses will radiate from a compact, walkable core that will include a lodge, restaurants, and small village of cottages and estate homes that reinforce the Keiser model of escapism—minimal car use and maximum immersion in remote surrounds. The 4,000-acre property itself, located about 30 miles inland (north of Panama City) and easily accessible from the Panhandle resorts, features rolling sand ridges, native long-leaf pines, cypress, moss-draped live oaks, spring-fed lakes and rivers, deep natural sinkholes, and elevation changes and long views rarely seen in the region.
“It’s hard to imagine that a site this dramatic exists in Florida,” Keiser Jr. says. “It’s going to blow people’s minds.”
Work is underway on the first 18-hole course, designed by Tom Doak and being built under the day-to-day supervision of Angela Moser, who teamed with Doak on the most recent addition to Pinehurst Resort—the acclaimed Pinehurst No. 10. Founding membership and homesites are now on sale, with the hope that at least the first five holes (with greens that will be grassed in May) will be ready for preview play by the end of this year. A full opening is expected in fall of 2027.
The first course at Old Shores will be the opening chapter of a much broader architectural vision. With an Augusta-inspired second 18, a Dunes Club–style nine, and a pair of innovative short courses joining the lineup, Old Shores has positioned itself as an up-and-comer in the growing world of destination golf—a multi-course, golf-centric resort in the tradition of Bandon Dunes and Sand Valley—and one that might challenge Streamsong and Cabot Citrus Farms for the most diverse high-end golf offerings in the golf-rich state of Florida.
