FEATURE
STORYDonald Ross
in Florida:
A Tour Through
Ross's
Public
Access Golf
Courses
in North
Florida
By Derek Duncan,
Senior Writer
ORLANDO, FL (July 29, 2002) -- Who is the "hottest" golf course architect at the moment? Tom Doak? Kelly Blake Moran? Mike DeVries?
How about Donald Ross?
Ross died in 1948 but over the past three years there has been as much interest in the Scottish-born architect as with anyone living. Much of hoopla surrounding him began in the summer of 1999 when the U.S. Open traveled for the first time to Ross's personal laboratory and home, Pinehurst #2.
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It's become rather en vogue to speak of Ross and not uncommon to hear this club or that boast that they have a "Ross course". The renewed interest has, however, prodded many old clubs to consider "restoring" courses that have been altered over the years back to the original Ross design or intent. Several contemporary architects such as Brian Silva, Ron Prichard, Gil Hanse, and Bobby Weed have been instrumental in bringing much of the architect's defunct work back to life.
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While the state of Florida is blessed with a significant number of Ross-designed courses, many of them are of the "topography map" variety. Ross did travel to Florida, most importantly to Seminole Golf Club in North Palm Beach, but the majority of his courses available for public play were constructed without his direct guidance.
Nonetheless, each of these golf courses possesses a notable history owing to their original author. While some have been altered out of recognition, others retain original aspects that remind us of why Ross is revered as one of the great architects.
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It's also the last course Ross officially designed, though much of it was constructed over a six-year period following his death in 1948. New Smyrna Beach features what many construe to be "trademark" Ross pushup greens (more common to his flatter Southern courses than to those in the Northeast), an economical routing, and very modest bunkering.
Just up either I-95 or Highway A1A in Daytona Beach is the 36-hole Daytona Beach Municipal Golf Course, of which the South Course was designed by Ross in 1922. Situated on dead flat property, Daytona Beach South is, like New Smyrna Beach, common golf on sub-common land.
Though he never saw many of his designs, Ross's brilliance was typically evidenced in his routing plans. Few architects could match his gift for drafting a golf course that not only guided the player over the property in thrilling fashion but also creatively identified and implemented every nuance of the land. When the land offered relatively little - Seminole and Pinehurst #2 come immediately to mind - he was able to go on-site and create strategy and intrigue through labyrinthine routings or complex greens.
When he had
neither an inviting
property nor
time to visit
personally,
the result was
often something
like Daytona
Beach South.
The routing
is tight as
expected, taking
one or two unexpected
turns, but in
large, the course
is squarish,
flat and dull,
and without
a single standout
hole; in fact
its most memorable
aspect is the
train that runs
through the
center of the
course. Though
most of the
course has survived
in its original
shape - several
greens have
been rebuilt
and, quite frankly,
they are the
most interesting
on the course
- decades of
lackadaisical
care have stripped
the course of
any subtlety
it may have
once possessed.
Driving north on US Highway 1 eventually takes us through Saint Augustine to the Radisson Ponce de Leon Resort just off the highway on the right. It's here the Ross courses become more interesting.
In 1916 Florida tycoon Henry Flagler hired Ross to construct an 18-hole course along the tidal marshes and woodlands adjacent to the Intracoastal Waterway. Flagler used the course to entice wealthy Northerners to visit St. Augustine, along with other Florida coastal towns where he owned hotels and property, and The Ponce de Leon course quickly came to be regarded as among the finest courses in the land. Ross returned in 1927 to design a third nine holes, but these were eventually abandoned around the time of World War II (the current practice range, hotel and clubhouse exist over them now).
Director of
Golf Mary Hafeman,
who for the
last 13 years
has researched
the history
of the course
through documents
and by speaking
with long-time
members, says
13 of the original
18 holes still
exist in faithful
shape. Desmond
Muirhead worked
on the course
in the 1970's,
breaking up
a long par five
along the Intracoastal
(#4) into a
par four and
the scenic par
three fifth
over the marsh
(the course's
most photographed
hole) and eliminated
the old short
inland par three
5th. In 1990
Joe Lee added
three holes
(12-14) that
were to accompany
a since defunct
housing project.
These holes
play in far
to the wooded
portion of the
property but,
while scenic,
they struggle
to blend in
with the spirit
of the Ross
holes. The original
three holes
that these replaced
are now part
of the pitch-and-putt
course.
In 1999 the resort hired a Florida-based contractor to sympathetically restore the greens of the first nine to their original shapes using old photographs as a guide. In the process, the putting surfaces were enlarged to better accommodate modern play and the contours were enhanced. The still rather small, tumultuous greens and wide views of the Intracoastal help to make Ponce de Leon one of the better Ross pedigreed courses in the state, especially as the superintendent vows to keep the course playing firm and fast.
From St. Augustine
we travel north
on I-95, then
I-295 to west
Jacksonville
and to another
of the truer
Ross courses
in Florida,
Hyde Park. Built
in 1925, Hyde
Park is a core
design that
has changed
little over
the years. Owned
locally since
the early 1970's,
the only significant
alterations
have been the
removal of a
number of fairway
bunkers (carried
out when the
city owned the
course in the
1950's and 1960's),
some alterations
to several tees,
and the resurfacing
of a handful
of greens.
Like Wilmington Municipal (NC) and Forest Hills in Augusta, Hyde Park is one of the more beloved purely public Ross courses in the South. A PGA event was played at the course in the 1940's and 1950's where once Ben Hogan took an 11 at the par three 6th. The course is fairly benign, with mid-size push-up greens of moderate slope, subdued traditional bunkering, pine-lined fairways, and lots of room off the tee. The home stretch of holes starting at the par five 14th show Ross's ability to coax the most out of the terrain as all five holes traverse from high point to valley back to elevated green.
We next pick up Highway 17 just on the other side of the St. Johns River and follow it south to the town of Palatka. Palatka Municipal Golf Club may not impress many members of the Donald Ross Society but it is a relatively faithful expression, if a modest one, of the course circa 1925. A few of the greens have been rebuilt or reshaped but largely the course has remained unaltered save for the wear and erosion, primarily in the bunkering, that we see so often at his older public courses.
Unlike New Smyrna Beach and Daytona Beach South, the Palatka site was blessed some minor undulation and even a hill or two. The combination of arrow straight holes and holes that dogleg too soon (5, 10, 11, 18), however, make it quirky or annoying, depending on your view. The Palatka greens do possess subtle slopes at the edges that can make for adventurous putting and chipping, especially coupled with their traditionally choppy conditioning. Unfortunately, a resurfacing project in the winter of 2001 that was supposed to solve this problem went terribly wrong and stripped the greens of virtually all grass.
Not quite on par with Hyde Park, Palatka does have a few holes of note, namely the 188-yard 3rd over a gully to a crowned, shallow green; the odd 5th with its bending, sloping fairway; and the short par four 13th playing over the crest of a hill.
Bearing west
from Palatka
on State Highway
100 brings us
to one of the
real gems of
the Florida
Ross tour, sleepy
Keystone
Heights Golf
& Country
Club in
Keystone Heights.
This little
town was a rustic
lakeside winter
retreat in 1928
when Donald
Ross drew the
plans for a
9-hole resort
course, and
it hasn't grown
much since.
Blessed with
modest hills
and a remarkably
quiet atmosphere,
Keystone Heights
has gone virtually
unnoticed through
the years by
all but the
local residents
and members.
According to the club, the original nine Ross holes (1-3, 13-18) have never been touched save for standard maintenance. The holes are idyllic with a timeless appearance and dainty, sloping greens designed for ancient strains of bermuda. The bunkering is minimal yet strategic, especially at the first where, after a drive through a virtual pasture, the approach must bravely carry a steep, raised bunker that obscures nearly the entire putting surface of the smallest green on the course. The downhill, dogleg 13th is pretty and perhaps the most natural hole on the course, and the quirky, angled 16th with its tiny, tricky green is also cause for joy.
In 1959 the
members added
another nine
holes to the
course (credited
to Albert Anderson)
in shooting
gallery fashion,
and though not
a match for
the Ross holes,
these too have
a distinct character
to them. Keystone
Heights might
still not compare
to the Ross
clubs of the
Northeast, but
for Florida
it is quiet,
natural and
rare.
The final leg of the tour ends 20 minutes west of Keystone Heights in Gainesville, where Ross designed the University of Florida Golf Course in 1921. By all accounts this was never one of his better products, and whether by poor construction, lack of land, or maintenance neglect the course was renovated numerous times through the years.
In 2001 Bobby Weed was hired to renovate the course, and though he did not restore it to its original design - records of such were scarce and the need to modernize the course to challenge collegiate players was a larger priority - his work is in many ways a faithful reproduction of Ross principles and his traditional architecture.
Weed re-routed
sections of
the University
of Florida course
and completely
reconstructed
it, demonstrating
an understanding
of Ross by building
quirky, boxy
greens rather
than stereotypical
crowned, fall-away
greens (which
are fairly unique
to Pinehurst).
His putting
surfaces are
marked with
vivid contour
and multiple
ledges and edges,
with portions
that fade into
chipping areas
or bunkers.
They are large
and bold and
there is plenty
of room in the
fairways to
drive the ball
up to them while
picking the
best angle of
attack. It's
no longer an
original, but
the University
of Florida course
possesses as
much Ross as
do countless
other non-restored
courses throughout
the east.
Future stops on the Ross Florida Tour will include several public offerings from Tampa south to Ft. Myers and the many high-quality courses around the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Palm Beach area.
New Smyrna
Beach Municipal
1000 Wayne Ave
New Smyrna Beach,
FL 32168
Phone: (904)424-2190
Daytona
Beach Municipal-South
Course
600 Wilder Blvd.
Daytona Beach,
FL 32014
Phone: (904)
258-3119
Radisson
Ponce de Leon
Resort
4000 US Highway
North
St. Augustine,
FL 32095
Phone: (904)
829-2821
Hyde Park
Golf Club
6439 Hyde Grove
Rd.
Jacksonville,
FL 32210
Phone: (904)
786-2446
Palatka
Municipal Golf
Club
1715 Moseley
Ave.
Palatka, FL
32177
Phone: (904)
329-0141
Keystone
Heights Golf
& Country
Club
294 SE 43rd
St.
Keystone Heights,
FL 32656
Phone: (352)
473-4540
University
of Florida Golf
Course
2800 SW 2nd
Ave.
Gainesville,
FL 32607
Phone: (352)
375-4866
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