FAMU grad Stanley Campbell, a retired Navy pilot, recently has become Florida’s first Black golf and country club owner when he purchased the Martins-Down Golf Club in Martin Co, Fl.
The 66 year-old Campbell said he learned that the Martin Downs Golf Club would be up for auction 12 hours before the sale.
Campbell took a leap of faith and purchased the golf course for $1.35 million on April 15, 2021.
“The history of Martin Downs kept resonating in my mind,” Campbell said. “Martin Downs was the stoic bedrock that Florida represents. If real estate developers get this, it’s done. The history will be gone.”
Though he rarely played golf, Campbell said he thought the venture would be worth taking on as he neared retirement.
“I always wanted to play golf, but I never had the time like most of my flying buddies,” Campbell said. “I wanted to get to this passion I never had a chance to scratch.”
His wife Cheryl, the U.S. Assistant Secretary Health and Human Services, thought he was crazy for purchasing a golf course. “We are normally in sync,” she said. “I wasn’t immediately on board with him taking the money they’d allocated to build a home in Jensen Beach to buy an old golf course.”
“She was shaking her head. She married a Navy pilot, so she has been on adventures, some right side up, some right side down,” Campbell laughed. “This was not the adventure she had chosen.”
Stanley, the older brother of rap music legend Luther Campbell, is one of a handful of Black golf course owners in the USA. He joins a golf fraternity that includes NBA legend Michael Jordan.
Campbell believes his business acumen will help him be successful. “As a pilot, I was trained as a tactical operator,” Campbell said. “What was our strategy? It’s the same way running a golf course. You have to have a plan, and you have to stick with it. I think I’m ready.”
