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Pete Dye’s work in OAK Marsh, in Omni Amelia Island Resort & Spa in Florida, was recently restored.
Courtesy
Blake Rowling took golf at such an early age that he could not remember when he first shakes a club. But he knows who started it.
“My father,” he says.
The game made more than strengthening their father-son bond. It became a vital stitch in their social structure, building the community, promoting friendships. Today, it is also essential for their work life.
Rowlings – Bob and Blake – are the moving forces behind one of the most prominent brand names in the game, built on a 28 -courses portfolio extended to 12 destinations in the US, including the US PGA headquarters and the house of America Ncaa Division of Golf Championship – Everyone operates under the hotel umbrella and Omni Resorts.
Given the high profile of the company in the game, it is easy to forget that both words – Golf and Omni – did not always go side by side. How they became synonymous is a family story that begins in 1996, when Bob Rowling, a Texas -born entrepreneur with a background in gas and diesel, bought OMNI hotels, an international collection of modern hotels. Golf was not part of that package. But Bob loved the game, as did his son, and in 2010, the company won Omni Amelia Island, Florida, followed three years later by six other golf properties: Omni Barton Creek Resort & Spa in Austin; OMNI LA COSTA Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif., Omni Rancho Las Palmas Resort & Spa in Rancho Mirage, Calif.; Omni grove park inn in Asheville, NC; OMNI HOMESTOTE RESORT IN HOT SPRINGS, VA.; and Omni Amelia Island Resort & Spa at Fernandina Beach, Fla.
“These purchases were the beginning of a change in our thinking,” says Blake Rowling. “By realizing the uniqueness of our golf assets, we decided that golf would be a differentiation for Omni.”
This required strong investments. Since 2016, Omni has poured more than $ 170 in its existing golf operations, funding everything from course renovations to improvements in maintenance and infrastructure. Spencer Cody, former Golf professional in Omni Barton Creek, without first -hand benefits on a property where all four courses have now gone through major reductions.
“You can say things were really cooking,” says Cody, who now serves as Omni director for club and golf operations.
While some of the Omni movements were quiet improvements, others count as the main news, no more great than Omni PGA Frisco, in Frisco, Texas, a modern accessible resort that doubles as the new home of America’s PGA. Omni cost more than half a billion dollars towards the wide project, which contains two 18 -hole championship courses, a short sparkling course with 10 holes called Swing, a two -acre course, and a more art training center.
Although that fraud was taking shape, other ambitious projects were at work. At the end of 2023, extensive improvements were completed in the former Sam Snead Household Club, Omni Homesttead, a 250-year-old property whose large hall and iconic hot Springs complement a pair of highly valued championship courses. Next spring, architects Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner ended the renovations of the Northern Course in Omni La Costa, who hosted the NCA Division I and men that year and will continue to do so by 2028.
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Lynn swann
Omni golf -related news have not ceased. The latest big announcement comes from Omni Amelia Island, a sun -kissed destination that has long called on players with its march, a 1972 color design that was closed last year and reopened last month after a $ 7.4 million arrangement by Beau Welling Design. Welling’s work remained true for the purpose of the Dye while improved the aesthetics and playback of the layout by hiding the carriages paths, reviving local vegetation and defining the corridors that mix smoothly in their natural surroundings. In its refreshed form, Oak Marsh gives the island of Omni Amelia a trifle of high -level, new, rounded Little Sandy appearances, a short, well -designed, short course, which opened last year, and the exclusive club in Long Point, a recently renovated design.
Even while her presence in Golf has increased, Omni has focused on return. As an official hotel partner in PGA Tour, the company helps maintain Birries for Better Program, which provides four meals per family for each bird or better charged at a tournament. In addition, since the establishment of Thoughtnight for hunger, in 2016, Omni donated more than $ 20 million in support of food banks throughout the US
For all the impact Omni has made through the game, there is more to come.
“Golf,” says Blake Rowling, “will continue to be our concentration moving forward.”
These events include a one -year tour called Generation Cup, held in 12 OMNI properties across the country. The 2025 iteration peaked at the end of last month in Omni PGA Frisco. True for her name, Generation Cup is a family issue, consisting of teams of grandparents and grandchildren, uncles, aunts, mothers, fathers, boys and girls. It is at the same time an expression of the interests of rowlings and a celebration of what has to do with the game.
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