A NEW LOOK AT RETIREMENT
The Villages own TV cameraman

The Villages

By Jim Warters
Photography by Roy Love

It made me wonder.  Is traditional Florida retirement living becoming obsolete?

I had to ask that question after my wife and I visited  The Villages recently and observed an all-encompassing lifestyle for seniors that even The Godfather couldn't refuse.  I decided to visit  the sprawling network of neighborhood villages and park-like home town  after talking with good friend and golf course architect Lloyd Clifton.  He and his partners, son George and Ken Ezell, have been involved in golf course design and construction at The Villages the past several years.

"It's a huge project," explained Lloyd, a long-time Volusia  County resident who has been in the golf course design business more than four decades .  "I don't know if the USGA or National Golf Foundation has any figures on the largest golf projects in the country, but we're pretty sure this is among them."

Spreading over three Central Florida counties, some  25 miles south of Ocala, The Villages offers its residents  free golf memberships at five full-service country clubs and 13 executive courses.   Did I say FREE?   That's right.   There are some 32,000 residents at The Villages and they all can play golf on the executive courses without charge - for LIFE!  Home owners also may play any or all  five championship courses for a modest  surcharge which defrays such costs as a golf car trail fee.

Technically, The Villages is  not  a golf resort in the truest sense of  the word.   In fact,  the tour guide who hosted our hour-long community orientation session says:  "Bowling is far more popular than golf."   Backing up her claim are a pair of 32-lane bowling centers in the town square vicinity which smacks strongly of a Walt Disney World theme park. 

Residents also can play softball on one of four fields built specially for the purpose.  There are 40 tennis courts, including a half dozen under lights.  Bocci anyone?  Yep, that's another popular game among active seniors at The Villages.  Also pickle ball for which I am unprepared to describe at this time.  Dwellers at the 30 villages also are into gardening, fishing, swimming, sail boating, dancing, clogging and billiards at one of the huge activity centers spaced appropriately throughout the neighborhood.   All told, there are more than 400 activities on the agenda, including the village library - and  college-credit educational courses.  "I'm learning Spanish and Italian," explained our guide.   "It keeps the mind alert." 

We drove into The Villages complex through one of the main entrances on U.S. 441-27, about 85 miles from our Ormond Beach home.  The entire town had a Southwest architectural theme. 

I thought I was on the outskirts of  Tucson or San Antonio or Phoenix.  Or maybe on the motion picture set of High Noon or Gunfight at OK Corral.   It was a pleasant change of pace from the panorama of horse farms we passed while motoring along Routes 19 and 42 in Marion and Sumter Counties. .   We almost expected to see hitching posts along the thoroughfares in Spanish Springs Town Square.  Instead, there was a brigade of golf cars pulling in and out of specially-designed golf car parking places.   "Everyone travels by golf car," explained the tour guide.  "I have a golf car and I don't even play golf."

The Villages was founded by Harold Schwartz who made his fortune in the hospitality business in Traverse City, Mich., before taking his village-style concept to Central Florida about three decades ago.  Designing the massive project was the same architectural firm that created Universal Studios at Walt Disney World, explaining the community's Southwestern theme. Founder Schwartz, who lives at the Villages, is more than 90 years old and has turned over the total family operation to his children: Barry, Richard, Tracey, Mark, Jennifer and son-in-law, Don.  I didn't learn how many acres

The Villages encompasses, but it spreads over Marion, Lake and Sumter Counties.   It has multiple shopping centers complete with restaurants, shops, stores, banks, groceries, etc.   And anyone who visits the place will be impressed by its regional hospital, medical facilities and wellness center. Of course, The Villages is not for everyone…not for all retirees. (at least one family member must be 55 or older to reside at The Villages).   People who strongly value their privacy, who prefer a passive lifestyle to managed social agendas,  and who want their home to reflect the owner's personality and prior successes will prefer the ultra private golf community where they can pay $10,000 or more initiation fee and a few thousand bucks a year in club dues.

Still, one wonders if The Villages' all-encompassing concept might not be adapted to other types of  golf communities in Florida.   Let's take a closer look at the so-called FREE golf plan.  
Actually, there's a $105-per-month fee -similar to association dues - which pays for playing the 13 executives courses, common grounds, use of the community pool facilities, monitoring of homes when residents are out of town, a neighborhood watch plan, compensation for recreational center staff members and  coordination of community activities.
If there are 32,000 residents now at The Villages, let's estimate the number of homes at approximately 15,000.   Multiply that by $105 and you arrive at  $1.5 million per month or $18 million per year.   That's a pretty good budget for maintaining an affordably enviable lifestyle in the Sunshine State.  Other amenities, such as the five championship golf course country clubs, are operated on a separate outlay from surcharges.  

I did not have the time during my inaugural visit to The Villages to adequately assess the golf operation.  We did lunch at the community's premier club - Nancy Lopez Legacy Country Club which the Hall of Famer designed herself.   The 27-hole facility has a straight forward design which is not encumbered by excessive forced carries or ball-gobbling  "liquid" fairways.  In 1998, The Villages was host to the Samsung World Championship which was won by Hall of Famer Juli Inkster at 13-under-par.  According to one of the brochures, there are 207 holes of golf - executive and championship - on site.