The Wakulla Sands Golf Club held a tournament Friday to celebrate the opening. Neighbors got to use the course for the first time. Watch the video to see how it’s impacting the county on an environmental level.

BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:

Ive been playing ever since I picked a club up.

Billy Jones has played golf since the 90s and helped with the development of the course.

He says golfers in the county had to travel to other areas to play, but now theyll have a course in their backyard.

A lot of the golfers in this community are a pretty tight knit group within themselves.

The project took three years to complete.

In addition to entertainment and economic benefits, the course has an irrigation system giving thousands of gallons of filtered water to the underground aquifer here.

Commissioner Ralph Thomas says behind the scenes it has environmental benefits.

This is a tremendous area that were going to use to take our clean, treated waste water and recharge our aquifer.

After seeing the all stages throughout the project, hes excited for what this will bring to neighbors.

Im just glad to see this come back together and just be a true asset for our county.

The project cost $9M with a $4.9M grant from DEP.

Jones says theyre hoping to provide opportunities for junior golfers in the county.

Theres a lot of discussion and planning on opening that up to the community with the school students in developing the younger golfers.

Friday several neighbors golfed on the course for the first time. Jones says this new addition is a fun way to bring everyone together.

Supporting a county project and facility now I think will unite us in ways that even golf wouldnt by itself.

The official opening day for the course is next Wednesday.