Confession: I’m a golf fanatic. With The Masters Tournament kicking off this week the timing is perfect for a golf-themed F5. Enjoy!
Also, if you’re reading this and happen to be playing in the tournament then best of luck this week (let me wear the green jacket and I’ll comp your CE for life.)
Florida’s First FORE!
The earliest iterations of the West Course at the Belleair Country Club in Belleair and the Ocean Course at The Breakers in Palm Beach opened for play in 1897. Still in operation today, both claim to be the state’s oldest.
Sarasota begs to differ. In fact, some historians claim the city as home to the first golf course in the United States. According to The Florida Historic Golf Trail publication: “Early golf enthusiasts in Sarasota insist that the first golf ball ever put into play in the United States was on a small practice course on Sarasota’s Main Street in 1886. Colonel John Hamilton Gillespie, Sarasota’s number one citizen for over three decades, designed and built the course in a small, natural clearing close to where Sarasota’s Central School now stands.”
Born in 1852 in Edinburgh, Scotland, Gillespie moved to Sarasota in 1886. Considered one of the pioneers of American golf, he cleared land for a two-hole course behind his house in the area now occupied by the post office on Ringling Boulevard.
For the full story as well as other awesome insights on Florida’s golf history check out the Florida Historic Golf Trail website from the state’s Division of Historical Resources.
The Florida Historic Golf Trail publication