I played my future home course for the first time yesterday and really enjoyed myself. The course has been mentioned as worth a look once or twice on this site but doesn't seem like many have actually seen it. I should start by saying it's a military course so the conditioning is very likely a put off for many. The course was overseeded and often times the transition from rough to fairway occurred with longer grass in the fairways (but hey the fairways were green
). I've also played courses where the fairways looked like the greens on this course. All that being said I think the course is still worth discussion and I'm excited to have it, and a companion course, for my home course in 6 months.
The course has a bit of history. I'm not much of a researcher but what I've found on the internet indicates a Chicago businessman, James Plew, purchased the land the golf course is on (as well as an additional few thousand acres) and commissioned Langford and Moreau to create an 18 hole golf course that opened in 1925. It's also rumored that Al Capone was a primary financial backer in the creation of the course and some of the more senior locals have stories about caddying for Capone and his "friends."
After Plew died the course apparently went through some hard times and 9 holes were let go, for about 10 years, this also coincided with WWII. Interestingly enough Plew can also be attributed with the creation of Eglin AFB. In addition to his golf hobby he was an aviation enthusiast and he donated a large portion of his land to the government for the creation of an Air Field. Eglin was the largest military reservation during WWII and is still one of the largest in the DoD.
The establishment of the military base probably saved the failing golf course as Congress purchased the land and the course in 1946 and re-established 18 holes. There is certainly much more to the history but that's about as much as I know at this point. I know the current routing isn't entirely original but not sure which parts of the course were changed. The earliest aerial I've found is from the 1950's but hope to piece a little more together once I move out here.
Here is a historical photo from the courses facebook site:
The facebook page says this is the current first green but I really can't see how that can be the case.
All of the following photo's were taken with my smart phone and the sun was less than ideal so sorry about the poor quality and remember the photos take flatten the terrain. I was amazed at the changes in elevation. I won't provide a lot of commentary because I figure what I'll add probably isn't much benefit if you have the pictures.
The first hole is a dogleg right par 4 at 407 yards.
1st tee
1st from 150 out
The second is a 158 yard par 3 over the marsh.
I know the greens aren't original and I've read comments online from people who were upset about relatively recent alterations (since I've been alive) that flattened the greens but I thought this had some fun movement.
The 9th is a par 5 that goes up an over the hill. It looks like originally the green had a horseshoe shaped bunker around it. Lots of sand originally that has been lost with time.
Over the crest of the hill on 9.
Edited to remove a bunch of the photos.