Bonita Bay Club: Marsh Course

The Marsh Course at Bonita Bay Club, designed by Arthur Hills, is one of three 18-hole layouts at the club's West campus in Bonita Springs. Hills routed the course through native wetlands, oaks and palmettos, using natural vegetation as both backdrop and hazard.

Bonita Bay Club was launched in the mid-1980s by the Bonita Bay Group as a master-planned residential community on Florida's southwest Gulf Coast. Arthur Hills was engaged as the consulting golf course architect for the community and ultimately designed three courses on the original Bonita Bay property along Estero Bay: Bay Island, Marsh, and Creekside. The Marsh Course opened in the mid-1980s as the second Hills design at Bonita Bay. Routed through a stretch of cypress and pine wetlands on the club's West campus, the course weaves between native wetlands and preserves, with broad fairways framed by mature oaks, palmettos, and native flora. Hills sought to preserve and enhance the natural features of the land rather than impose bold earth movement on the flat South Florida site, and the resulting layout relies heavily on wetlands and tree cover as both visual framing and strategic hazard. The Marsh plays to a par of 72 from a back-tee yardage in the mid-6,500 range and is part of the original trio of Hills courses that, along with Bay Island and Creekside, anchor the Bonita Bay West campus (the Bonita Bay East campus in Naples, with courses by Tom Fazio, was added in the 2000s). As part of a multi-year golf master plan, the three West courses were renovated by the present-day Hills Forrest Smith firm — the successor to Arthur Hills' practice — which reworked bunkering, greens, and agronomy while preserving the original routing. One of the notable elements of the modern renovation was the integration of forward-progression par-3 tees into all 18 holes, bringing the Marsh Course in line with contemporary family and multi-generational play standards while keeping its original character intact.