Belleair has two Donald Ross-designed golf courses, with golf being played here as early as 1897. The recent restoration to the 1924 design has vaunted the West Course firmly inside the Florida Top 100.
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Belleair has two Donald Ross-designed golf courses, with golf being played here as early as 1897. The recent restoration to the 1924 design has vaunted the West Course firmly inside the Florida Top 100.
Belleair Country Club West Course
The West Course at Bellair Country Club in Florida, USA, was rebuilt by Jason Straka, of Fry Straka Global Golf Design, who was asked to restore the Donald Ross design and boy, did he deliver! The course was reopened to rave reviews in November of 2022.
The original golf course was designed in 1897 and had just 6 holes. Donald Ross would arrive in 1915 and then return in the mid-20's. The West was known as the No. 1 Course, much the same as the No. 1 course at St George's Hill in London, England.
Straka took the plans from 1915 and 1924 and worked from them. Fairways were widened by 50% and greens were built at grade as per the original, hand-drawn plans. All but one of the holes on the West Course have ocean views of Clearwater Bay.
Unlike many golf courses in Florida, the club has nearly half a mile of ocean frontage and is quite hilly… for Florida anyway. An absence of internal out-of-bounds and lakes also make it a very different offering to most Florida country clubs.
The 120-acre parcel of land was restored to the 1924 rendition but with new greens built to USGA specification. The greens now sport TifEagle ultra dwarf with Bimini Bermuda grass for the rest of the playing surfaces. (Source: Golf Course Architecture)
This is not a pure restoration, however. Straka did add a hole of his own - a new, heroic par 3 on a jetty that has become the 7th. The hole sacrificed was another par 3 on the front nine considered to be one of the weaker holes. Why wouldn't have Ross found this hole? Simply because the land was not available to him… The hole can play from 80 to 182 yards from seven different tees!
The show stopper may just be the other par three on the front nine - the fourth. Reminiscent of the great short hole at Sleepy Hollow, this one may just be more beautiful.
The course can be played from 4141 yards and stretch to 7124 yards. The par 72 goes out in 35 and home in 37. A single par 5 on the front is offset by three on the back.
After just 8 months of work, the West Course re-opened to rave reviews with a thousand fewer trees and two fewer ponds. Long lost vistas restored and stunning period architecture reimagined, Belleair West is one of Florida's golden age greats once again.