Ponte Vedra Beach

PONTE VEDRA BEACH

Ponte Vedra Beach is nicely situated between Jacksonville, FL and Historic St. Augustine. It is an upmarket tourist resort best known for its association with golf. It is the home of the ATP Tour, the PGA Tour, and The Players Championship is played at The Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass. Sawgrass is also the new home of The MPS Group Championships, a women's tennis tournament.

The area is known for its resorts including the Ponte Vedra Inn and Club (a AAA five diamond resort), the Lodge and Club (four diamonds), and the Marriott at Sawgrass (three diamonds). It also lies in the fourth wealthiest county in Florida, ranking just behind the Palm Beach and Naples areas. Most of the beaches have limited public access, with the exception of Mickler's Landing and Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve. Golf, tennis and boating are other popular activities.

Discovery

Ponte Vedra Beach may have been first sighted by Juan Ponce de Leon on his search for the Fountain of Youth in 1513. Since Leon's precise landfall is unknown, this claim may be made by many communities on the east coast of Florida. Recent evidence suggests that Eric the Red may have discovered Ponte Vedra (years before Juan Ponce de Leon).

Name

The community was originally known as Mineral City, and titanium (ilmenite) extraction was significant, as well as that of zircon and rutile. These minerals were recovered from beach sands by a private commercial firm called National Lead Company, directed by Henry Holland Buckman and George A. Pritchard. During the First World War titanium was a component of poison gas, and therefore a strategic mineral. After the war mineral demand dropped so the National Lead Company changed its focus to building a resort community, however the name Mineral City wasn't appeasing so they decided to change it. The present name of the place appears to be in honor of the city of Pontevedra, Spain. The reason for this name is unknown but there is a rumor that one of the developers read a newspaper article that falsely claimed Christopher Columbus was born there and so decided to name it after it.

TPC at Sawgrass

In 1972 developers broke ground on the 1,100 acre Sawgrass development. Around the same time, Deane Berman, the Commissioner of the Professional Golfers Association Tour at the time, was looking for a permanent home for the Tournament Players Championship. Many areas around North Florida were considered. In an attempt to bring positive attention to the area the Sawgrass developers offered a 400 acre tract of land to Deane for only $1. He obviously couldn't refuse this One Dollar Deal and so Sawgrass became the home of the Tournament Players Championship and the headquarters for the Pro Golfers Assn. Tour.

Demographics

Median household income in this "village" (city) is $79,608.The population (including surrounding areas) in 2005 was given as 35,400.

Ponte Vedra Beach was 50th on the list of 100 finalists for CNN and Money Magazine's 2005 List of the Best Places to Live. It was the first place in Florida to be named in that year and one of only four areas in the state to make the cut.

Notable Ponte Vedrans

Famous past and present residents of Ponte Vedra:

Betty Williams, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize

Hamilton Jordan, White House Chief of Staff for President Carter
Calvin Peete, pioneer black golfer
Gene Hackman, actor
Kim Alexis, actress and model
Admiral Thomas Moorer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Shelby Cannon, former professional tour tennis player
Ron Duguay, former hockey player and coach
Ben Nowland, professional football player
Fred Funk, professional golfer
Len Mattiace, professional golfer
David Duval, professional golfer
Vijay Singh, professional golfer
Jim Furyk, professional golfer
Matt Kuchar, professional golfer
Bowie Kuhn, lawyer and former MLB Commissioner
Frank Lickliter, professional golfer
Todd Martin, professional tennis player
Mark Brunell, football player
Caitlin Brunell, Miss America's Outstanding Teen 2008 (daughter of Mark Brunell)
Connie Fletcher, actress
Nancy Soderberg, foreign policy strategist
Donna Orender, professional athlete and sports executive
Tony Boselli, former professional football player
Christian Laettner, former professional basketball player
Rick Rhoden, professional athlete
Billy Kratzert, former professional golfer and commentator
Mark McCumber, professional golfer
Tim Finchem, commissioner, PGA Tour
Victoria Crawford, model and professional wrestler
Jeff Klauk, professional golfer
Michael Huyghue, commissioner of the United Football League
Rick Wilkins, former professional baseball player
Fred Rogers, television personality, Mr. Roger's Neighborhood
G. Kennedy "Ken" Thompson, former CEO of Wachovia
Bill Terry, Baseball Hall of Famer
Bobby Thomson, Baseball star of "The Shot Heard 'Round the World"
MaliVai Washington, tennis star

Dan Jenkins, author and sports writer
E. L. Konigsburg, author
Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., general and winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor

Additional information about Ponte Vedra Beach and St. Augustine can be viewed here: http://www.getaway4florida.com/

Information taken from Wikipedia

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PONTE VEDRA REALTY
125 OAK VIEW CIRCLE • PONTE VEDRA BEACH , FL 32082
Phone: (904) 803-1218 • JACOB BESTIC BROKER