After relying on external facilities for outdoor golf instruction, the FGCU PGA Golf Management (PGM) program now has its own training center. The program celebrated the grand opening of the Buckingham Golf Learning Center with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Feb. 28.
The Buckingham Golf Learning Center, located 20 miles north of the main campus, features a 20,000 square-foot golf driving range and a combination of putting, short game and full swing training areas. A preexisting 2,000 square-foot building was renovated to include a small classroom, a student lounge and golf equipment storage spaces.
“The facility will help our students improve their playing ability, and it will also improve our golf instruction ability throughout the PGA teaching and coaching courses that they take with us,” said Mark Komives, PGA Programs Manager and Director of the Buckingham Golf Learning Center.
Crystal Hill is the interim assistant director of advising for the Lutgert College of Business. She also teaches an elective course, called Golf for Business and Life, that helps non-PGM students develop an appreciation for and knowledge of the skills and abilities required to play golf.
The center gives PGM students and those in Hill’s class the flexibility to train at their convenience.
“It’s a really nice time to have our own space,” Hill said. “Students can come out to practice and they don’t have to feel intimidated. They don’t have to say ‘oh, there’s other houses around, there’s people around, there’s other members’ and all of these things.”
The Buckingham Golf Learning Center is the culmination of four years of planning. Construction of the practice areas and renovation of the preexisting building lasted just one year.
An on-campus location was considered for the golf center, but it interfered with the campus master plan of future buildings, such as Academic Building 10.
Most of the buildings at the Buckingham property were constructed in the 1950s and ‘60s. The property was a state-operated residential facility for people with disabilities before FGCU acquired it in 2010, and the university has done little with it since.
“The property hadn’t been used for anything for a number of years,” Komives said. “When you see it in the beginning, there’s overgrown grass, trees, desolate buildings. It makes you wonder, ‘okay, we got some work to do.’
Much of the renovation work involved updating the plumbing system and removing lead paint and asbestos because of the building’s age.
FGCU senior project manager Miguel Rodriguez has been involved since the project’s early stages. Despite working with a modest $3 million budget, he’s proud of the work done to give the PGM program its own dedicated space.
“I think being part of the initial design to what it is now, I’m very proud of that facility and what it’s going to do for the PGM program,” Rodriguez said.
The Buckingham Golf Learning Center is in its “soft open” phase, hosting golf instruction classes in the spring. The center will host public golf clinics in addition to regular golf instruction when it becomes fully operational in the fall.
“It was really cool to see the faces of our students at the ribbon-cutting ceremony and see what this facility is going to mean for them and their success moving forward,” Komives said.
FGCU is one of 16 universities in the country with a PGA-accredited program and the only one in Florida. About half of those universities do not operate their own golf facilities and instead rely on external partners for golf instruction.
The PGM program anticipates having approximately 240 students next fall. The Buckingham Golf Learning Center is expected to help it stand out from other programs nationwide.
“Having your own place to practice and train and call your own is an intangible asset,” Komives said. “We hope that the center will be an asset for recruitment for our program, but most importantly that it will positively impact the student experience.”
