The city golf course on Highland Avenue, just west of I-95 and south of Atlantic, has been closed since November 2025. When it reopens, golfers won't find a restored version of the course they remember. The architects found nothing original left to restore. So they built two new nines from historical records, one in the style of Donald Ross and one in the style of Dick Wilson, and made a deliberate choice to keep the two styles apart.
Golf Course Industry describes the result as the only 18 holes known to combine original work from both Ross and Wilson. The same article says the renovation "is tantamount to an original design, an interpretive tribute." Both statements hold up, and the course's history explains how.
Nearly a Century of Redesigns Erased Both Originals
The city bought land for a course in 1923, and a nine-hole Ross layout opened in 1926. According to Golf Course Industry, Ross drew a routing plan for the full property, but the Great Depression stopped the second nine from being built. The club pro and greenkeeper during those years was Dick Wilson. He had already worked with William Flynn on Indian Creek and Shinnecock. After World War II he opened his own design firm, and his nine at Delray, one of his first solo projects, opened north of the clubhouse in 1950.
Golf Course Industry tracks what came after:
- 1962: Red Lawrence expanded the facility to 27 holes.
- Shortly after: the family of Robert Bruce Harris bought the property, and Harris redid all three nines, wiping out the work of Ross, Wilson and Lawrence.
- 1979: the city bought the course back.
- Two years later: the Lawrence nine was sold to commercial developers.
- 1990s: architect Karl Litton renovated the remaining 18 holes.
When work began in December 2025, the design team "agreed there were no Wilson or Ross features there to be saved." The city's project site says Michael Fay of the Donald Ross Society came to the same conclusion. He toured the course, found little of Ross's work remaining, and supported rebuilding the other nine in Wilson's character.
The two architects left very different records. Ross left a routing plan and site notes, which have guided the work on his holes south of the clubhouse. Wilson left nothing. For the Wilson side, the team used aerial photographs from 1953.
How to Tell Which Nine You're On
Architects John Sanford and Dave Ferris of Jupiter-based Sanford Ferris Golf Design described the plan plainly to Golf Course Industry. Making the course stylistically uniform was "not the goal here. One nine will be all Ross, the other entirely Wilson." The differences are built into the ground, and an ordinary player can see them.
| Feature | Ross nine, south of the clubhouse | Wilson nine, north of the clubhouse |
|---|---|---|
| Bunker shape | Low sand lines, very little movement in floors and edges, grass faces | Irregular lines with small capes and bays, flashed sand |
| Bunker placement | Strategic, but "just as often, randomly" | Big clusters that serve as "a road map to the golf holes" |
| Green contours | More convex, with small undulations that stand apart from the surrounds | Shaped by high and low points around the edges, with subtle breaks and three to four exit points between bunkers |
| Signature hole | The volcano-style par-3 8th, played across the canal | The opening par 5, where bunker clusters frame the landing areas and green |
Ferris explained the Wilson clusters by pointing to the terrain. Wilson "built a lot of bunkers in Florida on flat ground, with not a lot of vegetation. To give a course character, contrast and definition, he designed big complexes or clusters, and that's what we are doing out here."
The 8th hole is the one direct link to the old routing. A canal runs north to south through the middle of the Ross nine, and its banks were once overgrown with exotic vegetation. They've now been cleared. The par-3 8th still plays across the water, as Ross's plan laid out, and Sanford told Golf Course Industry it's the hole he remembers best from playing junior golf there.
The greens on both nines have the same foundation. All 18 are being cored and rebuilt to USGA specifications, and NMP's Darryl Bartlett said the two architects' greens are similar in size. The contours are where they differ.
Grass and Sand Hold the Two Nines Together
With the design styles kept separate, the team used turf to tie the course together. The greens are TifEagle and the fairways are Bimini. The unirrigated areas between holes are planted in Pensacola Bahiagrass. That last choice will give the course a different look from most South Florida courses. Sanford explained it to Golf Course Industry:
"We chose Pensacola Bahia to get that meadow, native-field look. ... We do have aerial photography from 1953, and you can see that Wilson exposed quite a bit of sand between holes, in these outlying areas. We started experimenting. The sand here is white as sugar; the locals call it 'sugar sand.'"
The shapers from NMP Construction, the general contractor, cut what Sanford called "scoured-out, windswept blowouts" into that sand. The team liked the result enough to extend it across the whole course, about 25 acres, as the feature that connects the two nines. The irrigation designer, The Pignato Group, worked to keep water off the Bahia so it stays dry and playable.
Bartlett called the Bahia drought tolerant and said it needs "significantly less irrigation and fertility" than many Southern turf varieties. He also described how the course will look, calling the appearance "rugged" and "very different from the typical manicured South Florida golf presentation." Anyone who drives past the course regularly will see a different landscape from the old one.
The project also includes new practice facilities, new irrigation and drainage, new cart paths, a new cart crossing on the Ross nine, a new maintenance building, and upgraded restrooms and rain shelters. The clubhouse is being updated as well. No restaurant plan or food operator has been announced.
Paid for by Greens Fees, After a Development Deal Fell Through
How the project is funded affects what golfers will pay. Boca Magazine reported that an earlier plan would have partnered the city with a developer, who would have rebuilt the course in exchange for part of the land. Six developers submitted proposals. The commission rejected them after pushback from residents and golfers. A city consultant then recommended a revenue bond repaid with user fees, so taxpayers wouldn't carry the cost, and the commission approved the renovation in October 2025.
Boca Magazine put the price at $33 million. An April 2026 release from Bobby Jones Links gave a figure of $32 million. Because the bond is repaid from user fees, rates are effectively the repayment plan. The consultant proposed 18-hole rates of $80 for residents and $105 for non-residents in peak season, November through April, and $39 and $47 in the off-season. Boca Magazine reported these as a proposal. As of October 2026, our research hasn't turned up an adopted rate card. For comparison, Golf Course Industry says tee times at the renovated municipal courses at The Park in West Palm Beach and at North Palm Beach Country Club run $200 to $350.
Bobby Jones Links has been selected to manage both city-owned courses, Delray Beach Golf Club and Lakeview Golf Club. According to Golf Course Industry, the company is overseeing the grow-in now underway.
Where the Reopening Date Stands in October 2026
Construction has moved quickly. Crews started December 1, 2025, and Golf Course Industry reports most of the course was grassed by mid-summer. Bartlett said a typical Florida project wouldn't break ground until April. No source has set a firm opening date, though, and each gives a slightly different window:
- The city's December 2025 schedule expected the course, practice facilities and clubhouse to reopen in November 2026.
- The Bobby Jones Links release in April 2026 said late 2026 or early 2027.
- Boca Magazine estimated late November 2026 in its September 9, 2026 report.
- The city's renovation site currently lists both the course and the clubhouse as "late fall/early winter."
Golf Course Industry adds that the remaining civil work on the maintenance building, the Lake Worth Canal and the clubhouse should finish by December. NMP will stay on site through the fall, and the city will decide when public play resumes. Late November is a reasonable estimate for the golf course. The clubhouse could open later.
Sanford told Golf Course Industry he hopes people who play the new course got a chance to play the old one, "especially the junior golfers."
Fran Hall Finch follows these Delray Beach projects from the first public meeting through opening day, and can explain how the golf club's return fits into a property decision near Highland Avenue. Let's Connect.