This new Florida municipal golf course is breathtaking but pricey

West Palm Beach, Florida’s former municipal golf course was reborn Monday into The Park, a redesigned, 192-acre facility that features state-of-the-art technology, a hilly 18-hole course, a nine-hole short course, putting greens, a driving range, a clubhouse, a restaurant and training facilities.

The Park is the culmination of a yearslong effort that saw hopes for the facility rise, fall and rise once again.

The new course is on the site of the former Dick Wilson-designed West Palm Beach Golf Course, which opened in 1947 and had been considered one of the best and most affordable municipal courses in the country. Following a redesign that went awry, the course deteriorated and interest waned. It closed in 2018.

Fast-forward five years and city officials view The Park as a crown jewel that will draw golf-mad tourists from across the country and quench an ever-expanding thirst for the game in this area.

The demand in golf peaked during the Tiger Woods era of the late 1990s and early 2000s (Woods himself visited The Park in late March to introduce the course and hit the ceremonial first tee shot). Then, after a bit of a drop, demand surged again, thanks in part to the coronavirus pandemic, which shut down many businesses and industries, but not the space-distanced, outdoor arena of golf. According to the National Golf Foundation, golf rounds were up a staggering 45 percent from March 2020 to March 2021, peak COVID times.

The result? Another boom and the capitalism-fueled increase in prices to play the mentally demanding game.

Rates for The Park will range anywhere from $80 to $200 based on city resident discounts to peak season out-of-staters.

Those rates are on par with some of Palm Beach County’s top-rated public courses, including Abacoa (low of $65 in the summer to a $165 peak winter rate) and North Palm Beach Country Club ($55 summer to $160 winter).

Abacoa’s golf shop reports that during season golfers need to book at least two weeks ahead of time to get one of those $165 coveted morning tee times.

Those $100-plus rates can be demanded for top public courses in Palm Beach County because it is one of the few places in the U.S. where people can play in the months of November through March. Florida has approximately 1,250 golf courses, and Palm Beach County has the most of any county in the U.S. at 160, according to the Palm Beach…