GOLFERS FIND TIME FOR 9

The 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.

The course experienced a resurgence of “glow golf” by investing in state-of-the-art equipment that facilitated night play, encouraging private groups, nonprofits and corporations to host fundraisers, teambuilding events and holiday parties under the stars at the course. Night golf became so popular that the course began hosting Public Night Golf every Tuesday from November through March.

The course, and the $3,500 clubhouse, was built on property owned by Morse, who was also elected first president of the nascent organization.

Another 18 holes were added the following year. Although the 27 holes were considered two separate courses, they shared the first fairway and green, and extended all the way to U.S. Highway 17-92, where Winter Park Village now sprawls.

Play was sometimes interrupted by stray cows, prompting club officials to erect a fence. Some livestock, including sheep and goats, were welcomed, though. The unwitting animals kept the grass in check and were later slaughtered to help alleviate a meat shortage during World War I.

A decade later, the club’s heyday had seemingly come to a close. The Aloma Country Club, which encompassed the present-day location of Ward Park and AdventHealth Winter Park, opened in 1926 and lured players away.

Aloma’s 6,180-yard course and $45,000 clubhouse made the relatively modest Winter Park Country Club obsolete, forcing it to close shortly thereafter.

The block bounded by Interlachen, Webster and Park avenues was bought by the city and repurposed as Charles H. Morse Memorial Park. (The industrialist had died in 1921.) The clubhouse remained and was occupied for a time by the newly formed University Club of Winter Park. The rest of the land was, thankfully, never developed.

Winter Park Golf Estates, the real-estate development surrounding the Aloma course, ultimately failed, and the course itself was abandoned in 1936, a casualty of the Great Depression.

Later that year, led by the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce, local movers and shakers decided to reactivate the dormant Winter Park Country Club and raise funds to rehabilitate the older course. Donations amounted to $6,250, which was more than enough to do the job.

When the club reopened in 1937, the annual membership fee was $44 and greens fees were $1. George, who had been snapped up by the ill-fated Aloma Country Club, was rehired as club pro — a position he would hold until his retirement in 1964.

The new incarnation of the club leased the property, partially from the city but primarily from the Winter Park Land Company, which had been formed by Morse in 1915 when he acquired the vast land holdings of its defunct predecessor, the Winter Park Company.

Later, the Winter Park Land Company’s portion of the property, totaling about 25 acres, was transferred to the Charles Hosmer Morse and Elizabeth Morse Genius foundations, which continued to lease it to the city in 10year increments.

While the land was owned by the foundation and leased to the club, there was no guarantee that this prime swath of real estate would forever remain green space. In fact, as an extension of the lease was being discussed in 1996, foundation officials expressed an interest in selling the land to developers.

City leaders and residents weren’t about to let that happen. In a lively referendum, voters overwhelmingly approved a proposal to raise taxes and buy the course. The $8 million purchase price was backed by a 20-year, $5.1 million bond issue. The bonds were paid off in early 2016.

Golf courses, many of which have closed, have had an especially hard time attracting millennials. Bloomberg News recently reported that consumer spending on golf has remained flat over the past eight years, and Nike has decided to get out of the golf equipment business. Castoff clubs go unsold at garage sales and thrift stores.

Yet, the geographical limitations of the Winter Park Golf Course could give it an edge as the sport regroups. Busy Americans who can’t spend four or five hours on 18 holes may be willing to spend two hours on nine holes — especially if they can combine golf with lunch, dinner or shopping.

“Most golf courses don’t have the luxury of being attached to an asset like Park Avenue,” says Diehl. The emphasis on the compressed round of golf gave rise to hopeful slogans such as “Quick Nine,” “Nine Is the New 18,” “Time for Nine” and even “Wine and Nine.”

In its first year after reopening, the course launched the Winter Park City Amateur Golf Championship. In May of that year, nearly 60 golfers, young and old, participated.

The course also experienced a resurgence of “glow golf” by investing in state-of-theart equipment to play golf at night. Private groups, nonprofits and corporations hosted fundraisers, team-building events and holiday parties under the stars at the course. Night golf became so popular that the course began hosting Public Night Golf every Tuesday from November through March.

In 1999, the Winter Park Golf Course became the first golf course in Florida to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The following year, Florida Secretary of State Laurel M. Lee announced that the WP9 had been chosen as the featured course on the Florida Historic Golf Trail for the month of January.

There’s no doubt in Pascale’s mind that the future looks sunny for the course he’s managed since being hired by the city during the renovation five years ago. “In the golf world,” he says, “we have kind of become the poster child for what people consider the future of golf to be.”

Tee times must be scheduled in advance by calling 407-599-3419. For more information visit cityofwinterpark.org/departments/ parks-recreation/golf-course. n