73 together, and the houses, which paid the piper, have called the tune. Which makes the Belleair club, located just south of Clearwater on the Pinellas peninsula in the west of the state, to the west of Tampa Bay, rather unusual. Founded in 1897, Belleair claims to be the oldest golf course in Florida; the Breakers resort in Palm Beach makes the same claim, but Belleair supporters add ‘continuously operating’ to reinforce their case. Whatever, the club is certainly one of the founding fathers of Florida golf; its West course was originally built in 1897 under the control of railway and steamboat magnate Henry Bradley Plant. Six, presumably rather rough, holes were laid out at Plant’s command. He died in 1899, and his son Morton had the course expanded to nine, and, after extensive experiments with grasses, soils and fertilisers, was responsible for the club Postcards from the past: an exhibition match on Donald Ross’s 1915 design of the course at Belleair, on Florida’s Clearwater Bay Images: Belleair CC
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