When the Burnt Store Golf Course (now Twin Isles) opened in 1970 with nine holes, its pro shop was a houseboat anchored on Alligator Creek. The shop had been towed by three motor boats through the isles to the banks of the waterway near the then Allapathchee Lodge
The course and ultimately club house was built on the site of the Lodge, which was erected in 1927 by Lou Calder, a paper manufacturing magnate, as a getaway hunting and fishing lodge. In mid-January, 1969, Punta Gorda Isles, lnc. purchased 509 acres of land from a Trust that had bought it from the University of Miami. The land was inherited by the university and included the former Allapatchee Lodge, on Alligator Creek. The by-then dilapidated lodge was burnt down during the construction of the course. The burning building was featured on early scorecards (not the Burnt Store which has a history of its own).
The course built with "input" from noted Florida architect Ron Garl was completed to 18-holes in 1973.
- Theresa Murtha
