Dunedin Golf Club, located just north of Tampa, has completed an extensive $6 million renovation, meticulously restoring its legendary Donald Ross-designed course to its original Golden Age of Architecture glory. Spearheaded by Kris Spence, an expert in Donald Ross’s designs, this renovation revitalizes the course to reflect the vision of its acclaimed designer.

The course, which opened on January 1, 1927, as the Dunedin Isles Golf Club, was immediately hailed by Ross as “his masterpiece.” He meticulously crafted the course to blend perfectly with the natural landscape, utilizing rolling hills, waterways, and other natural hazards to create what he believed to be the ideal golfing experience. In 1939, the city of Dunedin acquired the property, and in 2024, it assumed full control of the course’s management.

In 1944, the PGA of America relocated its headquarters to Dunedin Golf Club, renaming it PGA National Golf Club and leasing it from the city. During this period, the course hosted 18 consecutive Senior PGA Championships and even the inaugural PGA Merchandise Show in 1954. Despite the PGA eventually moving its headquarters, the course’s rich legacy within the golfing world remained strong.

Over the years, various renovations veered the course away from Ross’s original design, most notably reducing the size of the green complexes by 35-50%, altering the strategic challenges Ross had so carefully intended. In 2014, Dunedin Golf Club was honored with a spot on the National Register of Historic Places.

Now, thanks to the thoughtful restoration, the course has been returned to its original form. The greens, bunkers, fairways, and tees have all been carefully restored, allowing golfers to step back in time and experience the course just as Ross envisioned it. This renovation ensures that the course retains its historical significance while providing an exceptional golfing experience.

“At Dunedin, the most pleasant surprise was that I could see the old green extending out beneath those renovations and was able to measure them and compare them to his original plans and notes, and I quickly realized that the original greens had never been destroyed,” says Spence. “They were just buried under this material, so the opportunity to remove the material, excavate and expose the original greens, and restore them was possible. It’s fairly rare that they hadn’t bulldozed them away. There’s no question that by the number of bunkers and the contouring we found in the greens, Ross was clearly given a mandate or a directive to build a top-shelf championship layout on that property.”

Spence says the greens’ original contours and elevation changes are back for today’s golfers to experience firsthand. “They’re as good as any out there with great variety,” he says. “There are some subtle greens on some of the longer holes, and some with a lot more movement, tilt, and complexity to them on some of the shorter holes. It’s what we’re used to seeing out of Ross when he was really on point. In hindsight, it was a blessing that they just buried the greens. It was sort of an archeological dig to go down and find the surface of the old greens and peel off the newer material like we’re peeling the rind off an orange – to reveal that original green. Once we did, we could see the original greens that had been buried for 75 years.”

“Players are going to experience the greens and bunkers how he envisioned it,” continued Spence. “There’s some difficulty and depth to it all, and the bunkers are very challenging. That’s the unique thing about Ross: He brought the style of golf to this country, which he grew up experiencing in Scotland. There are a lot of different shots golfers won’t experience on other courses. The little bump and runs on the ground and the low approaches into the greens you experience in Scotland, you can now experience at Dunedin.”

The response from golfers has been nothing short of spectacular. According to Blair Kline, the course’s General Manager of Golf Operations, a lot of that is because of authenticity. “If Ross crawled out of his grave today and saw how far the ball goes and how fast the greens are compared to his era, I do not believe he would design the same course today that he designed in 1926,” says Kline. “Now we have the course that we believe he would design. The routing is still the same; some bunkers changed locations to account for driving distance, and the greens are incredible. We recaptured all the pin placements, too.”

Dunedin Golf Club has established itself as one of Florida’s top municipal courses, earning a spot alongside prestigious locations like Winter Park Golf Course in Orlando and The Park at West Palm Beach. Green fees for an 18-hole round range from $85 to $130, depending on the season, with exclusive discounts offered to local residents.

“It’s been an overwhelming success, said Kline. “People are going out of their way to come here and play it. From that respect, it is helping to put Dunedin in front of some people who may not be aware of this community and how great it is. Our rates are very competitive compared to many of the top courses and destination golf resorts in the region, and some of them have already started sending us golfers.”

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