Florida's golf obsession begins in ...

By Jane Feehan

Florida's association with golf began at the close of the 19th century and continues today.

The first golf course in the state of Florida was designed for the Royal Poinciana Hotel in Palm Beach in 1897 by the “father of American golf,” Alexander H. Findley.  Hotel owner and railway magnate Henry M. Flagler hired the golfer, who was also a close associate, to build only nine holes because he thought golf was just a fad.

The same year, Flagler extended his Florida East Coast Railway to Miami and established the Royal Palm Hotel, the site of the first course in Miami. It was built by Jack Hagan with sand greens and rough fairways. This early course was a six-hole layout.

In 1898, Henry M. Flagler built the first nine holes of the Miami Country Club at the Miami River and NW 11^th Street.  The club was accessible only by boat or coach and horses (a tally-ho) on a trip that took two hours from the Royal Palm over rough, primitive roads, but players continued to make the trek in pursuit of their sport.

Golf proved to be more than a passing fancy in South Florida; it was wildly popular by 1915. Other courses sprang up, including the Miami-Hialeah Club, which was organized in 1915 and sold three years later to the city of Miami. It became the first municipal golf course in South Florida. Then Fort Lauderdale got into the swing, opening its first club in 1921.

By 1925, golf was firmly woven into the South Florida social scene. The cities of Miami and Miami Beach posted $11,000 for the Miami Open, the Miami Beach Open and the International Four-Ball matches making it the first resort area to put that amount of money into golf tournaments on the winter trail.

By 2012 Florida had about 1,250 golf courses  - more than any other state. So much for that fad ...   

Copyright © 2012, 2020 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

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Sources:

Miami News, Dec. 2, 1951

Miami News, Aug. 28, 1927

http://www.stateofflorida.com/portal/desktopdefault.aspx?tabid=95

Tags: Golf history, golfing in South Florida, Golf Miami, Fort Lauderdale history, South Florida history, Miami history, Palm Beach history,

Golf deemed game for the old, feeble - Fort Lauderdale

Early Florida golf course
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 to attract visitors on their way to Miami. It was built off Dixie Highway, today the site of the Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport. 

President-elect Warren Harding played a round of golf in Fort Lauderdale shortly after the city fairway opened. Also there at the beginning was a writer for the Miami Metropolis.  Describing the first game at the Fort Lauderdale course for the newspaper (Jan. 4, 1921) the writer claimed it “did not make a hit with the common peepul.”

He (or she?) wrote:

Did you ever play golf? It’s a lady-like game; no shouting, no cheering, no violent talk and no violent exercise. In the contest game last Saturday hardly anyone spoke above a whisper.

It’s a game especially suited for fat men, over-wrought nerves and for the old and feeble. And it’s a rich man’s game – no one is expected to play who cannot afford Scotch plaid breeches, heavy knee length stockings, the kind grandmother used to knit, a caddy, a leather sack full of golf sticks and a little checkered cap loud enough to disturb the peace of an entire neighborhood.

Muscle, alertness, quick thought, energy and enthusiasm are not needed, they have no place in the game.

The unknown writer described the game between Fort Lauderdale and Miami players.  After the first round, he writes: "...  the crowds had enough and did not follow. Cars were starting back for town. Who won the tournament? I don’t know and couldn’t find anybody who did."

Today there are more golf courses in Florida than in any other state. People from all economic strata now play. Some “peepul” obviously saw more in the game than the above-mentioned writer did.  What do reporters know?

For more on Fort Lauderdale golf, see index


For more on Warren G. Harding in Fort Lauderdale, see: 

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2021/07/fort-laudedale-from-outpost-to.html

Tags: Golf history, golfing in Florida, golf in Fort Lauderdale, early golf game in Florida, Fort Lauderdale history, Jane Feehan film researcher, Warren G. Harding in Fort Lauderdale, history Fort Lauderdale