This Donald Ross Muni just returned to life with $ 6 million restoration

Nearly a century ago, when the 1920s were still noisy and no one thought a collision was just around the corner, Donald Ross Completed work on a course known then as Dunedin Isles Golf Club, an 18 -hole design on the Gulf of Florida.

Situated in the city of Dunedin (pronounced Dun-Din), only to the north of Tampa, the appearance, which opened in 1927, sat on the ground that Ross considered ideal for the game: gently rolling and caught with natural dangers. The water roads passing through it rose and fell with the wave. Ross tried to do background justice. His routing presented fair ways that bowed and withdrew strategic fashion. The greens, in accordance with the reputation of their author, made startup targets, with delicate bumps and tested cavities and runoffs pouring here and there. In the style and variety of challenge, which encouraged the formation of shooting and clashes, Ross had brought part of his birth Scotland THE Sunshine.

He was pleased with the results to call the course a “masterpiece”, high praise from a man who had accumulated a very good wallet.

Then the economy withdrew. Depression made Duardin Isle GC what he did for countless projects. The club changed ownership more than once, until 1939, when the city of Dunert won it. Like this, Ross’s masterpiece became a muna.

And her story was just starting in clothing.

In 1944, with the end of the war and the golf that regains steam, America’s PGA She moved her headquarters from Agoikago to Florida and chose Duneed as her home base. The organization stuck until 1962. During its stay, Dunes Isles GC was renamed PGA National Golf Club. Under the flag, he would continue to host 18 consecutive PGA championships as well as inauguration Merchandise PGA show. If you are keeping the result at home, it is worth noting that a meeting now held at a Cave Congress Center started in a golf course parking.

As for the course itself, nothing remains the same.

Over the years, the great Muna of Dunerty was born less and less similar to what Ross had created. Ordinary time-time suspects, driven maintenance, old-fashioned dress and tears partially to blame. But so were a small part of the renovations that attracted the property from its roots of the Golden Age.

Until then, the course was re -adhered to Dunedin Golf Club – a simple name that highlighted its connection with the city – and many locals recognized its value. In 2014, it was listed in the National Register of Historical Countries. A decade after that, a $ 6 million restoration began.

The project started a year ago in March and ended in December. Within nine months, the deaf features for generations grew in life.

It helped make the submission bones intact. Buried under the layers of organic construction, the greens, in all their beautiful forms and contour, remained much as Ross had built. Kris Spence, the Ross expert who oversee the restoration, compared the project to an excavation: the archeology applied to the ancient game.

The located spleen surfaces have the same contours and altitude shifts that they presented players in the 1920s. They are, says Spence, “just as good as any of the great variety.” The separation, meanwhile, remains unchanged, although some bunkers have been moved to account for modern -day equipment; A Ross-Ian test, updated for the era after titanium.

On his return to Lavdi, Dunedin has joined a short list of the best municipal courses in Florida, along with the Winter Park in Orlando and the West Palm Beach park. Call that Golf Golf at prices of the lids of the time. The prices for 18 holes range from $ 85 to $ 130.