golf history
By Mike May
Palm Beach County’s More Historical Golf Destinations North Palm Beach CC, courtesy of the Jack Nicklaus Design Group
While Florida is the home of more than 1,100 golf courses, the heartbeat of golf in the Sunshine State is Palm Beach County, which has more than 160 golf courses. Some of Palm Beach County’s more well-known layouts include: PGA National Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens, the annual home of the PGA Tour’s Honda Classic; the ever-exclusive Seminole Golf Club in Tequesta hosted this year’s Walker Cup; the Ocean Course at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach is Florida’s oldest 18-hole golf course; and the LPGA has staged past events at the Wycliffe Golf & Country Club in Wellington and the
Palm Beach County’s four FHGT courses are the North Palm Beach CC, Lake Worth Beach GC, Delray Beach GC, and the Resort Course at the Boca Raton Hotel & Club. At one time, these golf courses were the cream of the crop for golf in Palm Beach County. These four courses are still great destinations, but they now share that distinction with other great golf courses around Palm Beach County. But, other local golf courses lack the cool, quaint and historical appeal which the North Palm Beach CC, Lake Worth Beach GC, Delray Beach GC, and the Resort Course all share.
Stonebridge Country Club in
The year 1926 was sig-
Boca Raton. While the list of
nificant for golf in Palm Beach
Palm Beach County’s top-tier
County as all four courses
golf courses is lengthy, four
opened for play that year.
of Palm Beach County’s most
Funded by developers Paris
treasured golf courses are
Singer and Harry Kelsey and
part of the Florida Historic
designed by golf course archi-
Golf Trail (FHGT), which has
tect Seth Raynor, the North
53 golf courses that stretch 32
from Pensacola to Key West.
Boca Raton Hotel & Club
Golf Central • Volume 22, Issue 5
