Lake Wales Country Club

Historic Golf Trail

3.0 of 5 starsReviewed December 1, 2022

...we are persistently working on our project to play old and very old golf courses.

Two course planners are named, Seht Raynor and Donald Ross. It's very possible that Donald Ross has sharpened his pencils. It is well known that Donald Ross never saw about a third of all the courses he designed.
It was built by Seht Raynor, who also designed Mountain Lake - which is even older - according to the information available to us.

The employees are proud of Donald Ross, they have his name on their shirts. I would have liked to have bought such a shirt, but unfortunately the pro shop was almost empty.

None other than the then President of the USA - Franklin D Roosevelt - financially supported the new building of the clubhouse by approving the loan.
Today's was built in 1984, the size of this house with a ballroom, as well as the huge park area are witnesses of a heyday.

It was a pleasure to play on such an old course, he cannot hide his age.
This can be seen in the mostly narrow tees, the rather small bunkers and the only average - but also below-average - grown greens.
The fairways are mostly flat and hard, unless the terrain provides movement.

The layout corresponds to the practice at that time, almost all holes are straight - a course for the driver, there is a lot of space - with an amazing number of bunkers.
We believe the ponds were built much later.

What got us thinking was the course maintenance - car path, tees, fairways and bunkers - which was very rustic, as was the visit to the playing ground.
The greens and the pre-green area were very good, and the ball speed was right.

You have to keep the playing conditions in the early days of golf in mind, they didn't correspond to the level usual today, that's how golf was played back then. We call this living memories.

It was fun anyway - or perhaps because of it.

Star rating wasn't easy, had to be decided by a coin - three or just two - due to maintenance.

Translated by Google.