Megalodons are good for marketing.
Filmmakers know this (see: “The Meg” and “The Meg 2”). Golf course operators seem to understand it, too. The newest course at Streamsong Resort in Florida is proof.
Nearly two years since David McLay Kidd first revolutionized the world on the 18-hole par four course at Streamsong, golf wonks have been playing a kind parlor game of guessing what the new structure might be called.
Color seemed like a safe bet. Given that the current 18 holes of this course have gone Blue, Red and Black, surely the next one will be Streamsong Yellow, White or Green, right?
It’s wrong.
None of the above made the cut. Neither Puce, Fuchsia nor Magenta had it. The hunter helped provide inspiration instead.
On Tuesday, KemperSports, which owns and operates Streamsong, made it official. McLay Kidd’s design was called Bone Valley, and it opened for previews on Nov. 30.
To understand the choice in the name, it is useful to strengthen your geologic history.
Millions of years ago, the Central Florida range where Streamsong lives was an underwater, churning ocean teeming with all kinds of marine life. At the top of the marine food chain was the megalodon, a shark so large it made the Great White look like a minnow. The number of fossils gave rise to the region’s name: Bone Valley.
It took a little while for McLay Kidd to understand why. When the architect began working on the site, he received a crash course in paleontology. Remains here. The remains there. He kept coming over them. Especially megalodon teeth. When he first found one he was blown away. On the fourth or fifth, he told GOLF.com, he wasn’t that impressed. “I was like, oh, that one is broken,” she said. A few months later, uncovering the remains of an ancient sharp-edged fish proved to be no less remarkable than stumbling upon a cactus in the desert.
The name did not come without discussion. KemperSports went through the expected debates — yes, colors were among the candidates — before geology settled the decision.
“The name was a natural fit for the land and the course that took millions of years to build,” said KemperSports CEO Steve Skinner.
There is also a marketing concept in the name. Golf course marketing lives and breathes with merchandise, and Bone Valley gives the design team a lot more to work with than, say, Streamsong Yellow. The megalodon is already getting big billing in another way – the lobby of Streamsong’s main lodge features one of its fossilized jaws on prominent display. The resort’s logo for the new course also leans back to prehistoric times. It features a skeletal creature, a crocodile rendered in sharp, graphic lines that should look great on hats and shirts.
Streamsong Resort
No. It’s not a megalodon. But it doesn’t matter. The ancient beaches of Central Florida were not a one-carnivore show. Next to the megalodons swam giant sea turtles, sirenians (ancestors of the manatee) and any number of winged and slippery creatures that left their bones in the phosphate-rich soil.
