GOLFERS FIND TIME FOR 9
COURTESY OF THE WINTER PARK GOLF COURSE
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he Winter Park Golf Course reopened five years ago to considerable fanfare following a $1.2 million renovation. Since then, patrons of the city-owned course — sometimes called the WP9 — are still giving the upgrades a big thumb’s up. “Our tee sheet is busy pretty much every single day,” says Gregg Pascale, recreation superintendent/golf programming. Pascale attributes at least some of that to newbies who have come to regard golf as the best way to play a competitive sport while social distancing during a global pandemic. Built in 1914 on property then owned by Winter Park benefactor Charles Hosmer Morse, the 40-acre course — which was founded as the Winter Park Country Club — had aged like a rambling historic home whose outward charm belied an increasingly urgent need for repairs. The irrigation system no longer worked reliably, the turf was old and tattered, and the relentlessly flat terrain was uninteresting and offered little in the way of a challenge, even to self-described hackers. Clearly, it was time. The reconfigured par-35 course occupies the same footprint and still abuts Palm Cemetery, where errant balls sometimes land. (The protocol: Retrieve your ball, but please don’t play out of the cemetery.) However, the layout makes the most of its 2,480 yards. Gary Diehl, a resident who served on a city task force that recommended improvements, recalls some skeptics asking: “Why in the world are we renovating that golf course? It’s green.” But Diehl, who spent 37 years in the golf equipment and apparel business, says the more he and his colleagues learned about the course’s condition, the more convinced they became of the need to act. A trio of accolades since the reopening in 2016 serves as testament to the wisdom of that action. In September 2020, the WP9 occupied the No. 41 spot on GOLF magazine’s inaugural ranking of the best nine-hole courses in the world. In 2017, the course was ranked among Golf Digest’s Best 9-Hole Golf Courses in the U.S. In 2018, the course was among 25 featured in the book The Finest Nines: The Best NineHole Golf Courses in North America. Although it’s more expensive to play than it used to be, fees are still relatively low. Residents who play Monday through Thursday mornings pay $15, while nonresidents pay $18. Fees rise to $18 and $22, respectively, on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. Annual memberships for residents are $900 and $1,080 for nonresidents. (At press time, however, there was a waiting list for nonresidents, as membership has more than doubled since the advent of COVID-19.) Junior rates are also available, including a summer (May 1-August 31) junior pass for $200. There’s a free, 10,000-square-foot putting
The Winter Park Golf Course draws players of every age, every skill level and every sartorial style. Golf legends such as Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Gene Sarazen and Walter Hagen have played the legendary layout, sometimes in exhibition matches. It has been the scene of countless charitable tournaments and has become a second home to many locals, some of whom play nearly every day.
course on Park Avenue near the ninth-hole tee box. The exclusive sounding “country club” label was eliminated when the course reopened. The two golf course architects who led the redesign, Keith Rhebb and Riley Johns, both say they recognized the rare opportunity they had been presented. After all, the course, which Hall of Fame pro Nick Faldo once dubbed “Winter Park National,” is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. However, it’s only the second-oldest course in the Orlando area. The Country Club of Orlando opened a year earlier. Golf legends such as Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Gene Sarazen and Walter Hagen have played Winter Park’s course, sometimes in exhibition matches. It has been the scene of countless charitable tournaments and has become a second home to many locals, some of whom play nearly every day. A central challenge in the redesign was making the course more strategic while keeping it inviting for beginners and those who love the game but possess only modest skills. “It’s the easiest thing in the world to make a difficult golf course,” Rhebb notes. It’s also easy to spend money, Johns adds. But the two recognized that on a community course committed to low fees, “we couldn’t go in there and build water features and make it more costly.” Besides adding undulations to the fairways and moving tee boxes, they redesigned the bunkers. A well-placed bunker, they determined, would help “steer” golfers so the
balls they hit would be less likely to dent a passing BMW. There was one thing the architects couldn’t change, though: the streets, sidewalks and other landmarks that define the course’s perimeter. “There’s no negotiation with concrete,” Johns says. “We had to work within those constraints.” Unchanged is the lovingly maintained but entirely unpretentious clubhouse, with its working fireplace and oak floors. The adjacent pro shop, which was renovated in 2011, features exposed wood on the interior walls salvaged from a 1914 starter shack and from a previous remodeling effort in 1967. Casa Feliz, a restored Spanish-style farmhouse that was saved from the wrecking ball following an uprising of irate citizens, was moved in 2001 to a patch of unused city property adjacent to the 9th hole and repurposed as a community building. The historic home’s stately presence only adds to the course’s irresistible charm. As far back as 1899, Winter Parkers had a place to play golf. The so-called “Rollins 9” was a nine-hole course commissioned by Morse that encompassed the west side of the Rollins College campus and part of what is now downtown Winter Park. But in 1914, Morse and others decided that a proper country club was needed. The Winter Park Country Club, a nonprofit corporation, was established and a nine-hole course was designed by H.A. “Harley” Ward and Dow George, who became the club pro. LI VI N G IN WIN T ER PA RK
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