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Alex Elias  Steve North Formerly a 1989 Arthur Hills–designed course, The Match at Jonathan’s Landing Golf Club (Old Trail), redesigned by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, strays from a typical South Florida–style golf course. “It really is different because the course doesn’t have any houses in between the holes, which you would normally find on a South Florida course,” said Jared Werner, Head Golf Professional at Jonathan’s Landing Golf Club. Because the fairways are not lined with houses and most of the water is situated along the perimeter, Hanse and Wagner were able to utilize native-covered sand scrapes, as well as bunkers, as a defense on adjacent holes. “Hanse’s design ties the holes together tremendously,” said Ben Spector, Assistant Golf Professional at Jonathan’s Landing Golf Club. “For example, Nos. 1 and 18 share bunkers positioned between the two holes, so a miss to the left on either hole can find the same bunker—some of the deepest on the property, with native-grass islands.”  As a complement to the open playing corridors, Hanse and Wagner designed a varied set of greens, including the punchbowl third, the long, narrow fourth, and the “Dustpan” seventh. “The greens are the defense of the golf course,” said Werner. “Hanse and Wagner give golfers options, requiring players to commit to their shot selection. On certain holes, players must sometimes play away from the flag and trust the contours of the green to bring the ball closer to the hole.”  Drawing on his work at Ohoopee Match Club, Hanse designed the course with match play, not stroke play, in mind.
“The design forces players to decide how aggressive they want to be and opens up the possibility for every club in the bag to be used,” said Werner. Referencing the Par-5 2nd as “the prettiest and most strategically demanding hole on the course,” Werner explained, “With a large water hazard along its right side, the tee shot invites players to take on as much risk in order to shorten the hole and gain a better angle to a narrow green that slopes from back to front, featuring a false front.” On the back nine, the Par-4 13th is reminiscent of both the Par-3.5 14th at Ohoopee Match Club and the Par-4 16th at nearby The Park West Palm, another Gil Hanse design. At 298 yards, this drivable Par-4 features a slightly elevated, severely contoured green, protected by a greenside bunker, five bunkers positioned sixty yards short, and a steep run-off behind the green. “When you’re standing on the tee, you think it’s an easy hole, but if you carry it even slightly long, a short chip can quickly run off the green. I’ve made an eagle and a birdie a handful of times, and probably bogeyed more often than I’ve made par,” said Spector. In transforming a relatively flat and monotonous property, Hanse and Wagner delivered a unique, challenging, and enjoyable course that has cemented The Match at Jonathan’s Landing Golf Club as one of the top courses in the Palm Beach/Jupiter area.
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Alex Elias  Founded in 1897, Belleair Country Club (Belleair, FL)—25 miles west of Tampa—is the oldest club in Florida. Originally a six-hole course, the West Golf Course expanded to eighteen holes in 1909. In 1915, Donald Ross redesigned the West Course and added the East Golf Course. Less than a decade later, in 1924, Ross returned to revise both courses, drawing on another decade of experience designing courses across the U.S. In 2020, Belleair Country Club hired Fry/Straka Global Golf Course Design to oversee the restoration of the West Golf Course. To return the course to Ross’ 1924 design, Fry/Straka turned to historical records stored at the Tufts Archives at Pinehurst Resort (Pinehurst, North Carolina) and The Belleview Inn (Belleair, Florida). “The vast bulk of the work we did at Belleair was to undo what had been done over the past sixty years,” said Straka. “Through previous rebuilds, where the greens had been built on top of the previous greens rather than removed and rebuilt at the same grade, and decades of top-dressing, the greens had been raised significantly—five, six, seven feet in the air, even more in some cases.” In particular, the Par-3 4th green, which had strayed drastically from Ross’ vision, had been pushed up several feet, with runoffs in all directions—so much so that when standing on the tee, the Intracoastal Waterway behind the green was hidden from view. Restored to Ross’ design, No. 4 (pictured above) now plays slightly downhill to an island green, surrounded almost entirely by sand. “No. 4 was incredibly restored and is absolutely beautiful,” said Jim Slattery, Director of Golf at Belleair Country Club. “Not only does the green now sit at zero grade, offering a view of the water, but it appears as if the water is directly behind it, when in fact there are two fairways between the green and the water.” Though No. 4 may be the most captivating transformation, the Par-4 14th green was perhaps the most dramatic. “As we reviewed Ross’ notes, he had a four-foot backsplash on the fourteenth green, where if you hit it slightly long, the ball would feed back toward the center. But when we stood there, the green was built up like a volcano, falling away on each side,” said Straka. “When we started lowering the fourteenth green, we went through the layers of the old greens like a birthday cake. On most greens, we knew when we reached the original grade because the surrounding grade tied in better, but on the fourteenth, we hit the old railroad bed Ross had built the green on.”  In addition to the greens, Fry/Straka’s restoration of Ross’ cop mounds—what Straka referred to as “inverted bunkers”—and streams—which come into play on eleven of the eighteen holes—had an immense effect on returning the course to how Ross intended it to be played. On the 416-yard Par-4 3rd, which Straka admitted was “painstakingly restored to Ross’ design,” cop mounds were restored on the left, and the stream was restored on the right. “No. 4 is a perfect example of how Ross’ strategy has really come back to life,” said Slattery. “Before the restoration, members would tend to hit away from the stream to the left, which offers the ideal angle. But with the return of the cop mounds, players are forced back toward the center, bringing the stream into play. On No. 3 especially—but really throughout the entire course—players now have to think much more about risk-reward on the tee.”  In all, Straka restored seventeen holes and replaced an existing Par-3 with the Par-3 7th. The downhill Par-3 7th plays to a peninsula green that extends into the Intracoastal Waterway. Although there was initially some hesitancy to design a new hole, Straka said, “The consensus was that if Ross had had access to the land, then he would have used it,” since at the time the peninsula was owned by the town of Belleair.
“If you hit it short, long, or right, you're in the water. If you hit it left, you're in a bunker—or possibly cop mounds. It's a demanding hole, but the view trumps even its difficulty,” said Slattery. Alex Elias  Five months after hosting The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican for the fourth consecutive year, Pelican Golf Club (Belleair, FL) is set to host the 2024 SEC Women’s Golf Championship. As Pelican Golf Club has cemented itself as an ambassador for women’s golf, Justin Sheehan, Director of Golf at Pelican Golf Club, said, “It means so much to us to be hosting the women. From Day 1, the Doyle family (Founders of Pelican Golf Club) wanted the golf world to see this isn’t a club just for men.”
“There’s something incredibly special about the women’s game,” said Sheehan. “It’s underappreciated and important to keep supporting it.” Heading into the 2024 SEC Women’s Golf Championship, eight of the fourteen SEC teams rank inside the Top 20. “The SEC is one of the strongest, if not the strongest conference in the country. It’s where you find yourself competing against the best amateurs in the world. If you can win an SEC Championship, then you have reached the highest level of Division 1 golf,” said Angelica Moresco, former University of Alabama women’s golfer. Within the field, five SEC players are on the 2024 Annika Award Spring Watch List: Maisie Filler (University of Florida), Maria Jose Marin (University of Arkansas), Ingrid Lindblad (Louisiana State University), Caitlyn Macnab (University of Mississippi), and Louise Rydqvist (University of South Carolina). “The composure that these young women have is so impressive. They’re so level headed,” said Sheehan. “Many of the best players don’t excel because they have certain physical traits that are substantially better, but rather because they understand how to play golf.” A second-shot golf course with firm and challenging green complexes, Sheehan said, “The ability to manage the green complexes will be key, but with multiple long Par-4s on the course, whoever can hit some long, high 180-yard shots into the greens will separate themselves.” |
