Love's unique Origins course to showcase Sorenstam event

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PGA TOUR star Davis Love III created Origins Golf Club so that entire families could have fun on a short course.

Annika Sorenstam has always been interested in teaching children the importance of a healthy and active lifestyle through fitness, nutrition and the game of golf.

So what better place for the World Golf Hall of Fame member to stage part of the ANNIKA Experience at Watersound than at the Origins Golf Club, a unique and challenging short course facility designed by Davis Love III?

The ANNIKA Experience will be held Feb. 19-20 and features a golf match between Sorenstam and soccer great Mia Hamm at the Origins, which is located on Florida's Emerald Coast about 90 minutes from Panama City. The two will also trade comfort zones and participate in a Soccer Skills Challenge.

The Origins can be played as a regulation six-hole course, a nine-hole executive course or a 10-hole par-3 course -- depending on what tees are used and whether any auxilary greens come into play. The total distance of the course is approximately 1,800 yards.

The regulation course consists of a trio of par 3s, two par 4s and one par 5. The par 3s are 150, 160 and 130 yards while the two par 4s play to 425 and 350. The par 5 is the sixth and final hole of the loop and is 510 yards long.

"We wanted it more as a park setting where people could feel like they could go out and play and walk and take the kids," Love said. "It wasn't high-pressure golf. It wasn't, 'I have to go play 18 holes on a big, hard golf course.' (It was) more just a fun place for the community to get out and just hit it around or learn to play or take the kids and just play a few holes -- and walk."

Love is proud of the variety offered by the Origins, which was developed by The St. Joe Company. He steered the firm away from a straight executive course, which is usually the first thought when faced with such a finite piece of property, and the result is an extremely playable, kid-friendly layout that can still challenge all talent levels.

"We need to speed the game up so people can go out in the afternoon and say, 'Hey, this is fun, I went around twice and played six holes and got my exercise and got to hit some balls,' " Love said. "I think we've got to get walking more into it -- and kids -- and make it easy, not hard."

Love said his design company worked on a similar project at Sea Island Resort for its Lodge at Cabin Bluff. The three-hole loop proved so popular that another three holes had to be added. Love's design company has also created similar projects for learning centers so that there are more options than just hitting practice balls on the range..

"Obviously, in a good economy, a hotel that didn't have room for nine full holes or somebody's corporate retreat or hunting places, things like that, it would be a neat thing to do just to have a way to go out and play for a little while and not take four hours to play golf," Love said.

The match between Sorenstam and Hamm will showcase the facility. The two-day ANNIKA Experience benefits local charities, health organizations and the ANNIKA Foundation. Also on tap are golf children's fitness clinics, a charity golf tournament, luncheon and food-and-wine reception.

The two local soccer clubs participating in the Soccer Skills Challenge will also raise money for the Mia Hamm Foundation by auctioning off 14 spots to play with the two legends. The Foundation raises awareness about bone marrow transplant and honors Hamm's brother Garrett, who died from complications of the disease.