Saddlebrook Started Quietly But Making Noise Now

Posted Jun 8, 2009 by Tom McEwen

Updated Jun 8, 2009 at 12:26 AM

There is a place in our area where you can dress neatly but casually for golf, walking, breakfast, lunch or dinner, and be within walking distance of everything, like the swimming pool and the golf course. You can mix with plenty who know each other, but also with wanaa-know-betters like Jerri and Steve Spurrier, Cindy and Jon Gruden, the Bruce Allens, the Ron Zooks, Charley McCullers, and the complete John McVay (Jim’s dad) clan: Tom Dempsey’s Saddlebook Resort in Pasco County.

The Outback Bowl this January past wasn’t quite a sellout, but the Outback Bash was oversold and a lot better. No one won the big money on a 130-yard longshot hole-in-one, with plenty lost balls in the water holes for Dempsey’s divers to retrieve. The alligator in a moat into which no one fell was fed plenty, and McVay, Cracker Jack Jock and big Rich Nafe emceed well.

The Spurriers went to visit Steve’s coach Ray Graves at St. Joe’s Hospital where he is recovering nicely from a fall, and my word was the consumption of mixed drinks and beer about par for a weekend at Saddlebrook. Moreover, the Outback guys said they’d sponsor this Raymond James Stadium event for at least four more years. This days, that’s a deal. Jim McVay wooed them well.

Saddlebrook owner Dempsey rode his No. 1 golf cart and visited the eating places and the players. This is one fine man, Tom Dempsey. Met him in mid-1979 whe was CEO of Penton Publishing in Cleveland and was in Tampa Bay looking around on their behalf.

He met the late Harvey Jones, architect, and professionals Mike Souchak and Tom Cosmos at the new Innisbrook of Jones, Souchak and Cosmos. Jones and the Wadworth Brothers, golf course builders, were friends. The facility in mind was to be an equestrian site and we didn’t see the need to change it, when we chose golf and tennis and not equestrian.

Dean Refram was then the owner-pro at Quail Hollow, west of I-75. Saddlebrook is east, off I-75 at the artery to Zephyrhills, Pasco County, the county home of Saddlebrook. Pro Refram was out of Florida Southern. The putting yips got him. It was a positive, it is suggested now, because he was a real estate genius. He putted so poorly, he even resorted to trying to putt between his legs, as my late brother Red tried to putt with one hand. He became the president of Palma Ceia Country Club, but still couldn’t putt with one hand or two.

“Harvey Jones was with me then every step of the way through the building of Saddlebrook,” Dempsey said. They bought the grand landscape and more that this wonderful place has become. It is thickly wooded, with rolling hills and other wonder. The Porter family owned it, but the late Refram bought it and sold it to Dempsey.

“Refram’s pro shop was where the present one is at Saddlebrook,” said Dempsey. There was a tennis court behind it and a couple more nearby. The condominium clusters began to encircle the shop, then a big swimming pool that would be built south of the pro shop, as well as a variety of meeting halls, and “tents” in that area.

“What we built was a horizontal hotel,” said Dempsey. “We spread out clusters of condos, three stories, some so that anyone coming to our place could drive up to the Saddlebrook covered entry, have people take out your bags, then take your car and park it. They use the golf carts to move you around. You can call anytime a get a young person to come get you, or, you can walk, back and forth, as most do.

“The condos are of all sizes. They are spacious, decorated in Bahamian style. One Outback guest told me he’d never been treated so well as at an Outback event.”

Dinner, when not supplied by the Outback hosts, was available at several fine eateries, the fanciest being Dempsey’s Steak House, an outstanding restaurant. He buys his own beef, personally.

In time, he started the Arnold Palmer Golf Academy. Arnold is a personal friend of Dempsey’s and lends his name and support to the Academy. The Tennis Academy is internationally known, very successful and growing. In past years Jim Courier, Jennifer Capiriati and Pete Sampras have worked out of Saddlebrook, as well as many other world-ranking players.

Pro Jim Colbert lived on the course at Saddlebrook and played out of there. The NFL owners have met there regularly. Dempsey has been a Tampa-Pasco booster for years. He is a genuinely fine man, with most of his kids working at his place. Those of us who have needed him for support and use of facilities — like at the Super Bowl — have never been turned away.

As we rode the course Saturday, not one person (I saw) shot us a bird. Clearly, they recognized him.