3 Ross courses in the St. Pete, Florida area

[Ted Sturges]

I have learned that there are 3 Ross courses in the St. Pete area.  One is called Belleair Country Club, which is actually a 36 hole complex, the second is called Belleview Biltmore Country Club, and the third is called Dunedin Country Club.  The only thing I know about any of them (I haven't seen any of them) is that Dunedin used to be the headquarters of the PGA of America.  I would greatly appreciate learning more about these 3 courses.  Can anyone shed light on these 3?

TS

[Pete Lavallee]

The Belleair CC is actually the two courses ajoining the historic Belleview Biltmore Hotel. Apparently the Hotel has fallen into disrepair and is in desperate need of renovation. I played both the East and West courses 30 years ago and the west was the better of the two layouts with a nice par 5 along the Intercoastal Waterway. There is also a memorable par 4 along the road with a large gully in front of the green. I believe there was a restoration performed about 4-5 years ago.

The Bellview Biltmore CC is actually about a mile south of the Hotel complex and was associated with the Hotel at one point. It was definetly inferior to the two courses at the Hotel and to my eye did not have very much Ross influence. It used to have the word Pelican somewhere in it's title and I noticed on their web site that there is a Pelican Club.

The Dunedin CC is probably the better of the 4 layouts and I enjoyed my round there a few years ago with Sarge and Lou Duran. Very typical for a Ross course in Florida, a flat site with pushup greens and some incoporation of the local waterways.

[Kyle Harris]

Dunedin is a wonderful little layout. It seems to be largely unchanged from the photo shown in Thomas's Golf Architecture in America.

I find the course to be surprisingly hilly given the proximity to the gulf and it has one of the tougher opening stretches of which I can think. Just to provide some counter to Pete's description, the course features more than a handful of enough-uphill-to-influence-club-selection approaches.

Also, it's the town of Dunedin's municipal course.

[Andy Troeger]

Belleview Biltmore is dull, or at least was 15 years ago. In fairness I don't pretend to be a huge fan of Ross, but I wouldn't bother with visiting this one. I can't say that I remember much of anything about it, but slightly pushed up greens seems about right.

[Tom MacWood]

Belleview Biltmore is dull, or at least was 15 years ago. In fairness I don't pretend to be a huge fan of Ross, but I wouldn't bother with visiting this one. I can't say that I remember much of anything about it, but slightly pushed up greens seems about right.

Belleview Biltmore is very early Ross, around 1914. There was an existing 18 course when he laid out 36 holes. I'm not sure if used any of the existing course, nine of which dated back to around 1899, with the other new nine added by Lawrence Auchterlonie in 1908. I'm not sure how good it was to start, or how its been changed over the years.

[Bill_McBride]

Belleview Biltmore is dull, or at least was 15 years ago. In fairness I don't pretend to be a huge fan of Ross, but I wouldn't bother with visiting this one. I can't say that I remember much of anything about it, but slightly pushed up greens seems about right.

Agreed, plus a particularly virulent strain of common Bermuda rough.

[Matthew Runde]

My father and I played Dunedin in the summer a couple of years ago, thanks to Kyle Harris' recommendation, and we're thinking of playing it this summer.  From memory, the greens were built up and seeded with MiniVerde.  I enjoyed that grass as putts rolled very true (plus, the color was light and quite vibrant).  There were some gentle hills, but most fairway lies were pretty flat, which made the fairways a bit of a slog, in my opinion.  Overall, I most enjoyed the approaches to the greens and the greens, themselves.  From what I recall, there wasn't much shade anywhere on the course.  So, if you play in the summer and you're not from Florida, keep in mind that it can quickly get very hot.

[Mark Steffey]

Sam Parks Jr was a long time member at Belleair.  i worked in the clubhouse during the summer of 1987.  i got out to play there everyday since the place is nearly empty then.  Mr Parks would get a daily allowance from his wife and take the bus to the club.  As I grew up in the Pittsburgh area I would wander over near where he was seating and start talking courses from western pa.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Played them all over the years.  Certainly not Ross best work, but all pleasant.  I do recall some drainage issues on Dunedin that would have been solved in modern day with more fw grading.