By Vinnie Manginelli, PGA
Located in Clermont, Florida, Clermont National Golf Club provides a premier golfing experience that combines challenging play with top-tier amenities and stunning views. The Clermont National driving range is owned and operated by Rick Stewart, a PGA of America Golf Professional with an impressive international resume, along with his father, Jimmy, and their business partner, John Fitzgibbon. Clermont National is an 18-hole Terry LaGree design that tips out at over 7,000 yards and features Bimini Bermuda grass fairways and Sunday Bermuda grass greens. With a course rating of 74.2 and a slope rating of 139, many exciting challenges await golfers of all skill levels and abilities.
The threesome originally purchased a dilapidated golf facility in August of 2021. Rick says that despite the poor conditions, the course layout was special, utilizing the natural rolling hills to create an aesthetically pleasing track for golfers to enjoy, regardless of skill level or experience in the game.
With the property sitting atop a hill in an otherwise flat region of Florida, Stewart says he and his team envisioned a beautiful driving range that would be a destination for golfers and activity-seekers from throughout Lake County and its neighboring towns.
They moved a lot of dirt as part of an extensive renovation that created 30 hitting bays with state-of-the-art ball tracking technology and high-end Fiberbuilt hitting mats. There is a grass hitting area and short game space that are used for lessons, and a practice putting green that is open to public golfers.
“We wanted to create something different,” Rick says. “My dad has four golf properties in California’s Bay Area and used technology to transform the business of the driving range as one of the first licensees of ProTracer in 2014. So, we had a framework to do something similar here in Clermont, making it more interactive and socially appealing.”
With the cost of the overall project being daunting during the pandemic, the Stewarts and Fitzgibbon divided the property into three parcels. They would focus on the range and golf academy, while other partners/investors would take on the restaurant and golf course.
“We brought in partners and sold those two other parcels,” Rick explains. “We brought in some friends who were successful restaurateurs to take on the F&B, and welcomed another partner to redesign and modernize the golf course. We did this to not only lessen the burden, but to enable each ownership partner to excel in their own areas of expertise.”
After graduating from New Mexico State University (where he played his collegiate golf) with a Business Marketing and Professional Golf Management degree in 2007, Rick Stewart became head golf professional at The Healdsburg Golf Club in Healdsburg, California. Afterward, he became the Program Coordinator and Head Teaching Professional for The First Tee of Singapore and competed briefly on the Asian PGA Tour. His travels then took him to Sydney, Australia, where he pursued his postgraduate education and worked at The Australian Golf Club in the golf operations department.
When he returned to the U.S. in 2014, he became the lead instructor at Queenstown Golf Club in Maryland and then went to Topgolf, where he helped develop the Topgolf Coach Instructional programs. After stints in Texas and Florida with Topgolf, Rick transitioned to MetroWest Golf Club in Orlando and became the Director of Instruction. With such an eclectic resume, Rick loves helping a wide range of golfers from the beginner to the elite player and enjoys seeing his students and driving range customers reach their golfing goals. As an owner now, he sees the benefits of helping golfers play better, as they’ll surely play and practice more.
The Clermont National driving range is a 2024 Golf Range Association of America (GRAA) Top 50 Public Facility for the amenities it offers and its growth of the game initiatives. It’s open every day from 7:00 am to 10:30 pm.
Though Rick teaches roughly 15 hours per week, the facility’s golf academy is run by PGA of America Master Professional Tom Burnett, who utilizes decades of teaching and coaching experience to carefully evaluate players and create long-term player development programs that facilitate timely and measurable game improvement. Burnett has students who have won at virtually every level of the game. His junior programming and custom club fitting services help drive revenue and ensure a positive future for the facility.
The Stewart family is uniquely golf! Of Jimmy’s four West Coast facilities, one of them, McInnis Park Golf Course in San Rafael, California, is a GRAA Top 50 Stand Alone Facility, and his son (Rick’s brother, Daniel) is a PGA of America Teaching Professional there. With this information noted, we’ll have to reach out to the elder Stewart to chat about his award-winning facilities for a future Golf Range Magazine feature!
Back in Florida, Rick teaches a little, as mentioned, but spends most of his time managing the Clermont National range and academy and enjoying time with his wife and 2 1/2 year-old daughter.
For more information about Clermont National, log on to its website today!
