Cany anyone identify this very old Miami Beach golf course ?

[Neil Regan]

I don't know what course this is, or the year of the picture.

[Daniel_Wexler]

Neil:

I've never seen this precise image before, but what's pictured bears a great resemblance to shots I've seen of the old Miami Beach Golf Course.  Built circa 1915, located close to the modern Bay Shore GC (which, if memory serves - and that's no guarantee - has recently been renovated and/or renamed.)

DW

[paul cowley]

cool photo ....I love the way the mounds tie in and relate to the pits next to them!

[TEPaul]

PaulC:

Not to offer a dissenting opinion to yours for no good reason, but simply for the sake of better and more interesting and edifying discussion of golf architecture in light of the fascinating "evolution" it's come through---particularly in this country in the last century---but that photo or painting or sketch or whatever it is---is an example of golf architecture in an early age that ultimately received a "horrified reaction" from certain architects who were getting into developing the art into a more interesting and sophisticated art form---or certainly thought they were---both strategically and aesthetically.

The truth is that sketch depicts a pretty fair example of what we sometimes refer to as 'geometric" architecture. I think it developed from the early golf architects' penchant to just purposely create the startlingly man-made and generally that had to do with straight lines and forms of obstacle creation that were remarkably similar to things such as "steeple-chasing" that probably makes logic sense since golf and golf architecture in that time was surrounded by the world of the horse---and the popular sports involving the horse!!

In any case, my questions to you will follow.....

[paul cowley]

Tom....as always I welcome your dissenting opinion and my comment was more than tongue in cheek as I to enjoy and find the early attemps facinating ....I only wish there was one left intact today........and, having just built a monumental, clearly geometric, manmade earthform of 200,000 cu yds, I view tie ins with more than a passing interest.
  When some stand atop the structure , I am commonly asked 'where did you truck in all this dirt from?'.....which pleases me because it wasn't anything more than a balanced cut and fill, a pushup in essence , albiet quite large.
....it works because it ties in with its surrounds naturally and designed in the same manner as other earthwork structures from an earlier age ....and built only after I did considerable study and research about earthwork fortifications in north america and europe.....its shape patterned after the Castilo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, which, although constructed of soft coquina stone, had the same ability to absorb projectiles in its mass... and it might surprise you to know the new version is a larger variant of that periods style...almost 900 ft diagonally across the points....and I could go on, but lets get back to discussing the finer points of GCArch  

[ForkaB]

I'm almost positive that is a picture of Fernandina Beach Muni and it is TE Paul striding up towards the green leaving his fiancee and her caddy in the bunker.......

[frank_D]

IF the street light in the lower right hand corner indicates a main road - which might be ALTON ROAD - it could be one of two courses - BAYSHORE or La GORCE - but i'm not sure the latter was around in 1915 [i know normandy shores and indian river came later]

[Patrick_Mucci]

Frank D,

I also thought that it might be Alton Road.

Neal,

Where did you find this picture ?

[Mike Vegis @ Kiawah]

I used to play Bayshore all the time when I headed up marketing and public relations for Windjammer Barefoot Cruises (there offices were just down the street).  I don't recall any large bodies of water like you see in the distance.  That almost looks like intercoastal...  (BTW, I used to watch Kristie Kerr pound balls on the range there with her dad and her little sister.  They were there almost every evening.)

[Neil Regan]

Neal,

Where did you find this picture ?

It's an old postcard I saw for sale on eBay.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Neil,

Ask what's on the back of the postcard.

Many postcards offer a brief discription on the reverse side.