"These were very different nines, designed by two legends 25 years apart," the architect John Sanford told Golf Course Industry about the Delray Beach Golf Club on Highland Avenue. "But the finished product will flow."
That last part depends on the turf. The Ross and Wilson nines were not blended into one style. Sanford Ferris Golf Design, the Jupiter firm leading the $33 million renovation, rebuilt the course so that the nine south of the clubhouse is all Donald Ross and the nine north of it is all Dick Wilson. The course closed on November 3, 2025, and the City has anticipated a November 2026 reopening. The course coming back this month is two courses that share a clubhouse, and they play differently enough that which side you start on matters.
Why there was nothing left to restore
The split goes back a century. The City bought the land in 1923, and the original nine, designed by Ross, opened in 1926. Ross was busy across the region at the time. His private layout at Gulf Stream Golf Club had opened in Delray Beach in 1921. The second nine he planned for the city was never built, mainly because of the Great Depression.
The next six decades, as Golf Course Industry recounts them, explain why so little of either architect survived.
- During those lean years, the club's golf pro and greenkeeper was Dick Wilson himself.
- The course closed during World War II. Wilson started his own design practice in 1946, and his nine, one of his first solo designs, opened north of the clubhouse in 1950.
- In 1962, Red Lawrence expanded the facility to 27 holes. Soon after, the family of Robert Bruce Harris bought the property and remade all three nines, largely erasing the work of Ross, Wilson and Lawrence.
- The city bought the course back in 1979 and sold the Lawrence nine to commercial developers two years later.
- Karl Litton renovated the remaining 18 in the 1990s, and years of heavy play with little reinvestment followed.
When crews broke ground in December 2025, the designers agreed there were no Ross or Wilson features left to save. Golf Course Industry called the result "tantamount to an original design, an interpretive tribute." Without original features to copy, the designers worked from documents. The City's December 2025 announcement says the restoration followed an evaluation by Michael Fay of the Donald Ross Society. Ross left a routing plan and site notes, and those guided the holes south of the clubhouse. Wilson left nothing, so the team relied on aerial photography from 1953.
Since the two nines were never built as one design, the designers made no attempt to unify them. "One nine will be all Ross, the other entirely Wilson," the magazine reported.
North of the clubhouse, the bunkers set the route
The Wilson nine announces itself on the first tee. In Golf Course Industry, Sanford describes the opening hole as a par 5 "where the clusters define the landing areas and putting surface." Co-designer David Ferris explained that Wilson built many Florida courses on flat ground with little vegetation. To give them character, he grouped bunkers into big complexes. Ferris also passed along what Wilson's protégé Joe Lee once told the pair: Wilson's bunkers "created a road map to the golf holes."
The greens hold the rest of the challenge. Sanford said the defense of a Wilson course is its green complexes, with subtle contours tied to the high points around each green and three to four exits between the front, middle and back bunkers. "They do require an astute study of their contours to best navigate their subtle breaks," he said. Expect a nine that rewards reading the ground before you swing.
South of the clubhouse, a canal and quieter sand
The Ross nine sits south of the clubhouse, with a canal running north to south through the middle of it. Exotic vegetation once covered the canal banks, and they have been cleared. The best-known hole on this side is the volcano-style par-3 8th. Sanford remembers it best from his junior golf days at the course in the 1970s, and it still plays across the canal, just as Ross's routing plan shows.
The bunkers here follow a different idea than Wilson's. Ferris told Golf Course Industry that Ross's Florida work typically used low sand lines, very little movement in the bunker floors and edges, and grass faces. His bunkers were placed for strategy but, "just as often, randomly." Ross's greens also move differently. Sanford said they rely on small internal rolls and more convex shapes, with pinnable crowns that don't depend on the ground around the edges. Across both nines, all 18 greens were cored and rebuilt to USGA specifications.
On a practical note, the City's scope of work includes new cart paths and a new cart crossing on the Ross nine, along with upgraded restrooms and rain shelters.
What ties the two halves together is grass and sugar sand
With the architecture kept separate, the designers used turf as the common thread. The greens are TifEagle, the fairways are Bimini, and the unirrigated outer areas are Pensacola Bahiagrass.
The Bahia changes the look of the course most. Darryl Bartlett of NMP Construction Corp., the general contractor, told Golf Course Industry that it was planted to frame holes and influence decisions off the tee, more like a "Southern fescue" than ordinary rough. He said the look is meant to stand apart from the manicured style common on South Florida courses:
"The appearance is rugged."
The idea began on the Wilson side. The 1953 aerials showed exposed sand between holes, and NMP's shapers carved what Sanford called "scoured-out, windswept blowouts" in the white soil "the locals call 'sugar sand.'" The team liked them enough to extend them across the whole course, about 25 acres in all. Irrigation designer The Pignato Group worked to keep water off the Bahia so it stays dry, open and playable. Bartlett noted that the grass needs far less irrigation and fertilizer than many traditional Southern turfs.
The schedule was also unusual. Crews started in December, and the course was substantially grassed by mid-summer, while a typical Florida project breaks ground in April. That head start is how a course that closed last November can reopen this November.
What a round is set to cost, starting in 2027
The renovation is funded by a revenue bond that is repaid from user fees, not from general taxes, according to Boca Magazine. On October 21, 2025, the City Commission approved Resolution 231-25, which sets a maximum rate structure prepared by PFM. The adopted table begins in 2027 and divides the year into three seasons:
| 2027 maximum, 18 holes | December–April | November–December | April–November |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resident | $88 | $69 | $51 |
| Non-resident | $113 | $89 | $65 |
| Existing permit holder | $67 | $53 | $39 |
Nine-hole caps for residents in 2027 are $39, $36 and $28 for the same three seasons. The table schedules increases in later years through 2037. These are ceilings the Commission approved, not posted prices. The $80 resident and $105 non-resident peak figures reported this September came from an earlier consultant proposal.
For comparison, Golf Course Industry reported that at recently refurbished municipal courses up the county, including The Park in West Palm Beach and North Palm Beach Country Club, tee times run from $200 to $350. Even at its highest 2027 ceiling, a resident round on the Ross and Wilson nines costs less than half the low end of that range.
The weeks just ahead
Bobby Jones Links, which also runs the City's Lakeview Golf Club, has been selected to manage the reopened course. The City has given November 2026 as the reopening month for the course, the clubhouse and the new practice facilities. Boca Magazine's September report estimated late November, and PGA Magazine's October issue says the club is "scheduled to reopen in November." No exact day, opening-season fees or new booking details have been announced so far. Those details will come from the Delray Beach Golf Club and the City's renovation site. Rates and tee-time policies posted before the renovation predate the new course and the new operator.
When the course opens, starting on the Wilson nine puts its bunker clusters and broad Bahia meadows on your first tee. Starting on the Ross nine puts the canal and the volcano 8th in the middle of your round.
At Vlasek Real Estate Group, we've followed Delray Beach's public spaces closely since our family's local roots began in 1986, and the course on Highland Avenue is one of the city's oldest. If you'd like to talk through how the reopened course and the area around it fit your plans in Delray Beach, we'd be glad to help. Request your personalized consultation.
