Golf Course Architecture - Issue 72, April 2023

72 Jason Straka and Dana Fry’s restoration of Donald Ross’s design at Belleair’s West course in Florida is a triumph, says Adam Lawrence Seaside special BELLEAIR, FLORIDA, USA ON SITE For a state with 1,350 miles (2,710km) of coastline and over a thousand courses, Florida has remarkably little seaside golf. Seminole, the state’s perenially top-ranked course, is genuinely oceanfront and the Jupiter Island club is located along the estuary of the Jupiter River (but the actual sea shore is occupied by housing). William Flynn’s Indian Creek club is to be found on a small island in Biscayne Bay, just north of Miami; one side of the island is golf, but the rest is reserved for the extremely luxurious homes with which the club shares its property. Up and down the peninsula the story is the same: golf holes are placed inland of the houses that generated most of the income for the developers of the sites. It is the inevitable result of the way that America has done golf for most of the game’s history in the country: courses and homes have been developed

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