Brooksville, Hernando County, Florida, United States. The October 2026 edition of Golf Course Architecture, released on 8 October, provides a detailed look at The Hill Club, a proposed 18-hole layout by Tom Doak and Blake Conant on the Gold Dust Farms property. Construction is expected to start in early 2027, with play tentatively scheduled for October 2028. Both dates remain projections rather than confirmed milestones.
A landscape that defies Florida stereotypes. The designers are working with more significant elevation changes than many golfers associate with the state. Doak describes a high point of roughly 208 feet above sea level in the southwest and land at approximately 100 feet around the fourth green in the northeast. The difference is about 108 feet (33 metres). Instead of erasing those contours, the routing incorporates sharply rising and falling holes. Some fairways are expected to slope sideways by five to six percent, creating intriguing decisions about landing position, stance and the next shot. Two particularly steep uphill holes and two steep downhill holes are anticipated.
Six holes, twelve holes or eighteen. An unusual feature of the routing is its division into loops of six and twelve holes, allowing members to choose the length of their outing rather than always committing to nine or eighteen. The course is being conceived primarily around match play: the score on an individual hole determines who wins that hole, shifting attention towards head-to-head decisions rather than solely the overall stroke total. The developer's official website calls for walking-only golf, no carts and no conventional tee-time regime.
A first hole with movement and an ambitious thirteenth. The long par-four opener is planned as a downhill hole feeding towards a fallaway green, where controlling the approach will matter as much as finding the short grass. The thirteenth is envisioned as a long par four or short par five descending the northern hillside. Near the planned clubhouse, an existing water tower is intended to be restored and repurposed as a visual aiming point on the closing hole. Colleague Don Placek has worked on the course drawings.
Where the clubhouse and water management fit. A grove of mature oaks at the higher part of the site is earmarked for the clubhouse, preserving a memorable gathering place while embracing the site's elevation change. The architects expect relatively modest earthmoving to fashion the green complexes, although separate groundworks will be needed to manage stormwater under Florida regulations. The distinction matters: retaining natural character does not remove the engineering obligations of a new golf facility.
Who can play, and when? As of October 2026, The Hill is a development project, not an operating golf course. The official Hill Golf Society website identifies Gold Dust Farms near Brooksville and describes a private, allocation-only membership arrangement. No general-public booking programme, confirmed entrance address or visitor price list is available from the checked sources. Early 2027 construction and October 2028 opening remain estimates and may change.
Sources: Tom Doak's account in Golf Course Architecture, issue 86: https://www.golfcoursearchitecture.net/digital/magazine/issue86/16/; official club site: https://www.thehillclub.com/. Illustrative photograph: Hilaman Golf Course, Tallahassee, Florida — a different course, NOT The Hill and NOT a project rendering. The Bushranger, 20 October 2025, CC BY-SA 4.0; unmodified. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hilaman_Golf_Course.jpg ; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/.
