About 25 acres of white sand now sit between the holes at the city course on Highland Avenue. These scoured, windswept blowouts are bordered by Pensacola Bahiagrass that is left to grow tall enough to form seed heads. Architect John Sanford says the look came from aerial photography from 1953, which showed Dick Wilson leaving open sand in the spaces between his holes. "The sand here is white as sugar; the locals call it 'sugar sand,'" Sanford told Golf Course Industry in its October 2026 issue.
Darryl Bartlett of NMP Construction, the general contractor, called the result "rugged — very different from the typical manicured South Florida golf presentation." That sentence is the clearest preview of what reopens this fall. The Delray Beach Golf Club closed on November 3, 2025. What comes back is a new golf course drawn in the styles of two architects who worked 25 years apart. It doesn't restore the course regulars knew, and it doesn't look like anything else in the Delray area.
There Was Nothing Left to Restore
The word "restoration" sets up the wrong expectation. When crews broke ground on December 1, 2025, Sanford, his partner David Ferris, and NMP agreed that no Ross or Wilson features remained to save. Decades of municipal play, several renovations, and hurricanes had left the routing with almost no original features, according to Golf Course Industry. Ross had left a routing plan and site notes for his holes. Wilson left nothing.
The ownership history explains how the original work disappeared. Golf Course Industry tells it in order:
- Donald Ross got the Delray Beach commission in 1924, and the first city-owned nine opened in 1926. The Great Depression stopped the second nine.
- Dick Wilson worked as the club pro and "greenkeeper" through many of those lean years.
- The course closed during World War II. Wilson opened his own design practice in 1946, and his nine opened north of the clubhouse in 1950.
- Red Lawrence expanded the facility to 27 holes in 1962. Soon after, the family of Robert Bruce Harris bought the property and reworked all three nines, which erased the earlier architects' influence.
- The city bought the course back in 1979. The Lawrence nine was sold to commercial developers two years later. Karl Litton renovated the remaining 18 holes in the 1990s.
After the 1990s, Golf Course Industry describes heavy play, little maintenance, and no reinvestment. Its verdict is that the new course "is tantamount to an original design, an interpretive tribute." The same piece calls Delray Beach the only 18 holes known to combine original work by both Ross and Wilson. Because nothing from either architect survived, the design team chose to make the two nines look clearly different.
Two Nines on Purpose
Sanford Ferris did not try to blend the two styles. One nine is entirely Ross and sits south of the clubhouse. The other is entirely Wilson and sits north of it. The differences are clear once you know what to look for.
| Ross Nine | Wilson Nine | |
|---|---|---|
| Location | South of the clubhouse | North of the clubhouse |
| Originally opened | 1926 | 1950 |
| Planned length | 3,603 yards | 3,508 yards |
| Bunkers | Low sand lines, flat floors, grass faces | Big clusters, irregular edges, sand flashed up the faces |
| Greens | Small convex rolls inside the green | Contours tied to the high and low points around the edges |
| Holes cited by the architects | Volcano-style par-3 8th across the canal | Opening par 5 framed by bunker clusters |
The yardages come from the Bobby Jones Links announcement in April 2026. It lists the full course as a par 72 playing from 4,611 to 7,111 yards and notes that the numbers could still change before completion. The design details come from Golf Course Industry. "Wilson was known for irregular bunker lines, small capes and bays with flashed sand," Ferris said. Wilson's protégé Joe Lee once told the designers that Wilson's bunkers worked as "a road map to the golf holes."
The hole longtime players will recognize first is on the Ross side. A canal runs north to south through the middle of that nine. Its banks were once overgrown with exotic vegetation and have now been cleared. The volcano-style par-3 8th, which Sanford says he remembers best from playing junior golf there in the 1970s, still plays across the canal as Ross's routing plan shows.
The greens are where the two nines diverge the most. Sanford says a Wilson green defends itself with subtle breaks that respond to the bunkers and slopes around it, usually with three or four exit points between the bunkers. Ross's greens rely on smaller convex movement inside the putting surface. All 18 greens are being cored and rebuilt to USGA specifications.
What Ties the Two Halves Together
Since the bunkers and greens split the course in two, the turf and the sand do the work of unifying it. The greens are TifEagle, the fairways are Bimini, and the unirrigated areas outside play are Pensacola Bahiagrass. The Pignato Group designed the irrigation to keep water off the Bahia as much as possible, because the grass stays more open and playable when it is dry. Bartlett says the grass is placed almost like a "Southern fescue" to frame holes and influence decisions off the tee. It is not ordinary unmanaged rough.
"These were very different nines, designed by two legends 25 years apart. But the finished product will flow, and this wide-angle framing will really pull the two loops together." — John Sanford, Sanford Ferris Golf Design
Ronnie Dunayer, who has taught at the course for 20 years, saw the work in progress this spring. She told WFLX she expects it to play "a bit more difficult because of some of the changes they've made to the bunkers," and called the chance to play "a virtually new golf course, but yet have the old integrity" something she was looking forward to.
Why the Price of a Round Is Part of the Design
The way the project was paid for explains why the proposed green fees matter. Boca Magazine reported that the renovation was approved in October 2025 and is financed with a revenue bond that will be repaid over time with user fees. An earlier proposal for a public-private partnership would have given a developer part of the land in exchange for rebuilding the course. Six developers submitted proposals, and the commission at the time rejected them after residents and golfers objected. The city kept all of the land, and the cost of rebuilding it will be covered by golfers paying to play.
The reported price depends on the source. WFLX reported $30 million in June 2026. Bobby Jones Links said $32 million in April. Boca Magazine reported $33 million in September.
According to Boca Magazine, a city consultant proposed these 18-hole rates: $80 for residents and $105 for nonresidents in peak season, which runs November through April, and $39 and $47 in the off-season. That is a proposal, and no City Commission approval has been reported. For comparison, Golf Course Industry describes tee times of $200 to $350 at two other renovated Palm Beach County courses, The Park in West Palm Beach and North Palm Beach Country Club. Before it closed, the club reported about 60,000 rounds a year, along with weddings and special events, so the bond rests on a large base of regular players.
When It Actually Opens
There is no confirmed date yet. The city's project page still lists "November 2026." The renovation site says the course and clubhouse are expected to reopen "late fall/early winter." Boca Magazine's September 9 estimate was late November. In April, Bobby Jones Links said "late 2026 or early 2027." Golf Course Industry says the city will decide when the grand reopening and public play happen.
The construction itself moved quickly. Bartlett says a typical Florida project breaks ground in April. This one mobilized in December and was substantially grassed by midsummer. Bobby Jones Links, which now manages the city's courses, is overseeing the grow-in. Bartlett expects the remaining civil work to be done by December. That includes the maintenance building, the Lake Worth Canal work, and the clubhouse, so the building could finish slightly after the grass. No restaurant operator or new tee-time booking system has been announced.
Until then, the city's other course is open. Lakeview Golf Club at 1200 Dover Road is a public par-60 executive course, 3,006 yards long, and has been operating since 1972. Its posted hours are 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. in season and 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. the rest of the year. The latest rate sheet online is dated May 1, 2025. It lists $27 to ride or $17 to walk before 3 p.m., and residents with a valid city card get a 5% discount. The sheet says rates are subject to change, so a call to the pro shop will give a more reliable figure.
Bobby Jones Links CEO Whitney Crouse says he took his first swings at the Delray Beach Golf Club as a child while visiting his grandparents. Sanford says he hopes people who play the new course also played the old one, "especially the junior golfers."
The course on Highland Avenue is one of the Delray Beach landmarks we follow closely. Projects like this one, where a city spends years deciding what to rebuild, how to fund it, and how much land to keep, are the kind of development we study in our own work. If you would like to talk through how civic investments like the golf club's reopening fit into your plans in Delray Beach, The Schirripa Group is glad to help. Contact Us.
