The Squeeze at Cabot Citrus Farms Review & Interview with Mike Nuzzo of Nuzzo Course Design, by Gregg Thompson.

February 18, 2024 (course played January 22, 2024)

The WiscoGolfAddict crew of Paul Seifert (Founder), Troy Giljohann, Brian Murphy & Gregg Thompson enjoyed every minute of our 38-hole media preview day at Cabot Citrus Farms.

After the opening 18 on the fantastic Karoo Course, Troy, Brian & I headed to The Squeeze while Paul sent up the drone for more footage.  Any thoughts of a letdown were quickly dismissed by the time we reached the drivable (for some) first green!

I spoke with architect Mike Nuzzo via the phone on Friday, and we talked about the short course projects at Cabot Citrus Farms with particular attention on The Squeeze.

Given about 105 acres to reimagine 21 holes (9 at The Squeeze/11 at The Wedge) around the formerly 360-degree driving range, Ben Cowan-Dewar initially challenged Nuzzo to pack as much great golf as he could into the acreage.

As it turned out, only two green sites were reusable and Nuzzo was allowed to get creative without rules to design something special.  This involved closing off two sides of the range, removing neatly planted rows of pine trees and regrading to hide the road and water treatment plant bordering the property.  

Working with expert shaper Jacob Cope, they were able to make cuts and fills to create berms, rumpled fairways, bunkers and greens resulting in a balanced site (with no material imported or exported).  The routing loops around the perimeter with a triangle loop inside over sandy soil, perfect for golf turf.  The result is a visually engaging and fun collection of holes, some of them half-pars with interesting and undulating greens.

Some of the highlights to me included the second, third and sixth greens on a hilltop at the southwest end of the site, the par five Irish tribute fourth hole with its fairway reminiscent of of the slopes at Merion and Augusta (Nuzzo loves strong canted fairways like at those two courses), and what Mike Keiser called the “Architect’s Hole” that’s been many early visitors’ favorite at number five. 

On five, the team worked hard to create an optical illusion where the bunkers appear adjacent to one another even though there is a fairway-wide separation. It’s a beautiful design.

Mike Nuzzo shared how the 100/115 yard seventh hole evolved from a conversation with Ben Cowan-Dewar about the long walk from six green to the original seventh tee. When Ben said, “Can you fit another hole here,” Mike replied, “You had me at ‘can you?’”. Number nine is a beautiful double dogleg par four and the short 9th wraps up a memorable walk with a fun waterfall front green.

There are lots of options on The Squeeze to play the ball in the air or on the ground.  This would be a great place to play hickory or modern club golf.

More questions Mike was kind to answer for me via email:

What was your initial reaction when you saw the property for the first time, and then when you were awarded the design work?  

After my first project visit to World Woods (I’d been there 20 years ago), I was focused on Rolling Oaks / now The Roost and what was deficient with the routing. The individual features were average or lackluster, the greens, bunkering, cart paths, tees…. but there seemed to be a deeper detraction. The up and down nature seemed like a negative when it could have been a positive.

I sketched a simple stick figure on the airplane napkin of the routing, and it jumped out at me.

The old routing tacked to the back of the property via an adventurous path, then straight back to the clubhouse. Then the back nine beelined out back to the same spot and continued that nice tacking manner until the end of the round.  It reminded me of being a little kid playing with friends, getting called home for dinner and having to run straight home, then as soon as one gobbled down their food they ran back out to join their friends and keep playing.

Did you design the Squeeze or Wedge first or did you look at the 100 acres overall and begin selecting green sites & routing holes?

Roughly The Squeeze is 60 acres, The Wedge is 20 acres and the range is 20 acres.  The range came first. It was the biggest single piece. Meaning, if there wasn’t a better place for the range it would make sense to work with as much as was there for economic and drainage reasons. I considered all the simple configurations possible for a combination of The Squeeze, The Wedge and range. I evaluated the current footprint of The Squeeze as the best and figured there would be enough left over for The Wedge as the design matured. Attached is the first plan I presented to Cabot. Very few existing features of golf holes were utilized, it would not have been practical.

Did the Squeeze require a lot of shaping & earth moving?

Cabot’s intent was to create as much of an oasis as possible, including minimizing the outside world, so Nuzzo and his team went to great lengths to hide Ponce De Leon Blvd from view on the course. That equated to a 500-yard berm about 25’ tall. The berm that makes up the form of the fourth hole was 100% manufactured; prior it was a mostly flat planted pine forest – scrawny pines all in a row. To build the berm about 100,000 cubic yards of materials were excavated from the 105-acre footprint creating a number of large features to be utilized on both courses. The most prominent existing natural features were the hilltops for the site of the third/sixth greens and the 9th green and porch.

I love your inspiration from the Irish (fourth hole) & Scottish links.  Which courses and holes from them are you paying homage to?

No Ireland for me yet! And yes an Irish landscape was my goal given the large berm. One way I describe natural shaping is using an earthquake and aftershock analogy. The big berm is the earthquake and the smaller ridge that obfuscates the green view from the right side of the fairway is the aftershock. In nature elements transition from one medium to the next with intertwining of elements – an aftershock. There was a little sprinkle of Shinnecock feels mixed in, as well.

We played The Squeeze from the Black tees but next time I will go Tangerine (I love half-pars!).  Which is your favorite tee box (length)?

I work hard on the entire golf hole being cool; greens, fairways and tees! The number one tee box flows gently into the golf course, like how Wolf Point flowed across the property. The back tee on four does look like an Irish back tee. Number eight is an intimidating tee shot, and a long and skinny tee. My favorite tee box is number five. It is a long, sinuous tee that is surrounded by waste area. When standing on the Tangerine tee the fairway bunker complex visually blends into the greenside bunker complex. When Mike Keiser and I first reviewed the property, he called this hole “the architect’s” hole as there weren’t any features to build upon so the hole would be entirely created. Me, Jacob and Slade (the shapers) worked hard to create this optical illusion.

Nuzzo’s first career as an aerospace engineer gave him skills in CAD, GPS systems and planning that clearly transferred well into golf course design, and The Squeeze is a great example of that.