Golf courses are changing their names at a dizzying pace. Can golfers keep up?

Have you ever played Nebraska Dunes Golf Course? How about CAVU Golf Club?

If you have, chances are you don't even know it, because for 15 and 26 years, respectively, they were known as Awarii Dunes Golf Club and Naples Grande Golf Club. They are just two of the latest golf facilities to adopt new names in hopes of changing the way the world views them.

Why abandon names that have accrued potentially decades of familiarity - what ad wonks call "brand equity" - among golfers?

In the case of Nebraska Dunes, the motive is clear: reputation rehabilitation. The minimalist Jim Engh layout sits just south of the town of Kearney along the I-80 corridor that follows the Platte River as it meanders across the state. For someone driving west from Omaha or Lincoln, it is right on the way to other public standouts like Wild Horse Golf Course in Gothenburg (an hour west) and Bayside Golf Club (2 1/2 hours west) near Ogallala. But its reputation has suffered of late, its GolfPass Rating Index falling to a dismal 2.6, leaving little reason for visitors to add it to their itineraries.

"Played here several years ago and loved it! Unfortunately, this was not the case on this visit," wrote golfer 'mattyj1230' in a June 2025 review. "Not really sure where to start with the conditions (or lack thereof). There wasn’t a single aspect of this course that appeared like it has been maintained. Difficult to tell where fairways ended and rough/fescue started, greens were pretty much impossible to putt on, etc. Seems like they are just letting it go, which is sad! Will be surprised if they’re open much longer."

But 2026 looks to be the start of a new era in the small town of Axtell. A NewsChannelNebraska.com article on the course's future prospects notes that the name change to Nebraska Dunes is part of an ambitious revitalization plan from a new ownership group that includes Creighton University head golf coach Wesley Bernt. Bernt and his native-Nebraskan partners are already making significant maintenance and subtle design changes aimed at luring locals and intrepid travelers once again.

Awarii Dunes is dead. Long live Nebraska Dunes.

Some 1,500 miles south and east, the case of CAVU Golf Club is more about positioning within the fiercely competitive market of Naples, Florida, than a public image makeover. London-based investment group Henderson Park acquired the Naples Grande Beach Resort and its inland golf course in 2022. Until recently, resort guests could book tee times at the Rees Jones layout that opened in 2000. But golf's post-COVID froth and its location in one of America's hottest private club markets prompted a strategy shift. Henderson Park has kept the resort's name the same, but the golf facility's name change to CAVU - an acronym for the aerospace phrase "clear ahead visibility unlimited" - signals its transition to a fully private club that will no longer be accessible to hotel guests.

“We have seen sustained and growing demand for membership, particularly following the completion of the renovation, which confirmed the market’s appetite for a truly premium, private offering," said Rob Duckett, who oversees golf for Henderson Park, which also owns PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. "Transitioning to a fully private model allows us to protect the integrity of the golf experience by prioritizing access, course conditioning and service, while ensuring the club continues to operate at the highest standard for years to come.”

Golfers tend to be tradition-minded and resistant to change. I have seen several examples where longtime players will flatly refuse to call a course by its new name, sticking instead to what they have known and liked for years, especially when the new name smacks of unearned elitism or an over-the-top attempt to be creative, rather than descriptive.

One smart name change from the resort golf world happened about a decade ago when Four Seasons Resort Lanai ditched its golf course's overwrought original name, "The Challenge at Manele," in favor of the blessedly simple Manele Golf Course. In my experience, the vast majority of golf course name changes tend to bring complexity, rather than simplicity. Lanai's other golf course of note, "The Experience at Koele," closed in 2017. The name couldn't have helped.

Golf course rebrands can reveal a great deal about how new ownership views itself. A third chapter is about to begin in my hometown of Avon, Connecticut, surrounding a public golf course that dates back to the early 1970s. In 1996, what was originally known as Bel Compo Golf Course was renamed Blue Fox Run Golf Course under then-new ownership. In 2025, Blue Fox Run was purchased by a local food distributor, who is rebranding it Lionheart Country Club and turning it into a private club. The transition from a sly cartoon fox logo to a serious-looking lion in a shield topped by a golden crown is a study in contrast between how previous and current ownership viewed the course and themselves as stewards.

The unofficial record for the largest number of names of any golf course I've played is four, at a course in the Philadelphia suburb of Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania. It began its life nearly a century ago as Roxborough Country Club. In 1983, the course was redesigned and renamed Eagle Lodge & Golf Club when it was bought by insurance giant Cigna as an amenity for employees. When it changed hands again in the early 2000s, it was renamed The ACE Club by new owner ACE Insurance. In 2021, the Union League of Philadelphia bought the course and renamed it Union League Liberty Hill.

There was a huge missed opportunity along the way, though. After ACE Insurance was purchased by Chubb in 2015, its new overlords kept the ACE name even though the on-site hotel and conference center took on the Chubb name.

That's right. For half a dozen years, Philadelphia golfers missed out on the opportunity to tee it up at "The Chubb Club."

Think of the merch possibilities they gave up!