Old Shores

Old Shores is an ambitious public golf-resort community taking shape across more than 4,400 acres of sand-based terrain outside Vernon in Florida's Panhandle, near the hamlet of New Hope in Washington County and about 30 miles north of Panama City. It is the newest destination from Dream Golf, the company behind Bandon Dunes, Sand Valley and Rodeo Dunes, led here by brothers Michael and Chris Keiser. The land is unlike anything else in Florida: longleaf pine savanna, spring-fed rivers, roughly 40 feet of elevation change, and a series of natural sinks, wide inverted dunes that Tom Doak has called unlike anything he has seen on a golf course. Doak's 18-hole layout is the opening course, shaped on the ground by his associate Angela Moser, and it anchors a lineup planned to grow to five: a second 18 from Brian Schneider, a 12-hole precision course, a nine-hole regulation layout and a par-three course. The courses radiate out from a walkable village of hotels, restaurants and shops, with cottage and estate homesites released alongside a Founding Membership program. The developers describe the wider vision as a Scottish-village model for the American Southeast, blending outdoor recreation, food, art and large-scale land restoration.