Fort Lauderdale's early golf courses and the one still operating today

 

Broward County golf course in construction 1973
State of Florida Archives

By Jane Feehan

Fort Lauderdale embraced golf as a way to promote the city and draw tourists as early as 1921.  The city’s first course, a nine-hole affair, was built off Dixie Highway (today the site of the Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport) to attract visitors on their way to Miami. President-elect Warren Harding played a round there shortly after the fairway opened.

Golf expanded in December 1926 with construction of the Westside Golf Course. A tournament between Miami and Palm Beach pros opened the two-course  attraction (one was 18 holes, the other, nine). Reporters of the time described Westside as providing 6,410 yards to play with a par 71. There was one long hole of 830 yards, several of 500 yards, and others of 200. Greens fees were $1.50 per day or $30 per month. Memberships were offered at $50.

The clubhouse opened January 1927. Fort Lauderdale architect Francis L. Abreu* designed most of it. The Miami News listed the golf course architect as Capt. H.C.C. Tippett.

Today, Westside is the beautiful 36-hole Fort Lauderdale Golf and Country Club, four miles from 

downtown. Its clubhouse underwent a $4.8 million renovation in 2007. It stands as the oldest private country club in South Florida.  Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

*Abreu left Fort Lauderdale after the 1926 hurricane a few months prior. See a list of his designs at: 

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/08/fort-lauderdales-first-architect.html

For more on Fort Lauderdale golf, see:

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2013/02/golf-deemed-game-for-fat-old-feeble.html
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Sources:

Gillis, Susan. Fort Lauderdale: The Venice of America. Charleston: Arcadia (2004).

Weidling, Philip J. , Burghard, August. Checkered Sunshine. Gainesville: University of Florida Press (1966)

Miami News, Nov. 29, 1926, p. 11

Fort Lauderdale Golf and Country Club

http://www.fortlauderdalecc.com/Club/Scripts/Home/home.asp

For golf in South Florida, the Fort Lauderdale area, visit:  http://www.sunny.org/sports/golf/

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