On the north side of the property off Highland Avenue, the ground between the holes now looks like a meadow. Pensacola Bahiagrass grows tall there and goes to seed. Around it are scoured patches of white sand that the course's architect says locals call "sugar sand." These windswept blowouts cover about 25 acres of the rebuilt Delray Beach Golf Club. They are the clearest sign that the city's 1926 public course is coming back looking very different from the clipped, wall-to-wall green most South Florida golfers know.
The course has been closed since November 3, 2025. Most of the talk around it has been about when it reopens. Two other questions matter more to the people who will play it once it does. First, the rebuild treats its two nines as two different golf courses on purpose. Second, the green fee is meant to do more than pay for a round.
Two architects, 25 years apart, and no attempt to blend them
Delray Beach Golf Club is the only 18-hole course known to combine original work from both Donald Ross and Dick Wilson. That's according to Golf Course Industry, which covered the redesign in September. Ross's original routing plan dates to 1925. Wilson's holes came about 25 years later.
Many classic restorations pick one architect's style and carry it through all 18 holes. The redesign by John Sanford and David Ferris of Jupiter-based Sanford Ferris Golf Design doesn't do that. One nine will be all Ross and the other entirely Wilson. Ross left a routing plan and site notes, and those notes guided the work on his holes south of the clubhouse. Wilson left nothing behind. Decades of municipal play, earlier renovations and hurricanes had erased nearly every original feature on both sides.
Sanford has a personal history with the place. He told Golf Course Industry, "I played high school and junior golf at the Delray muni back in the 1970s." On joining the two halves, he said, "These were very different nines, designed by two legends 25 years apart. But the finished product will flow, and this wide-angle framing will really pull the two loops together."
Bobby Jones Links, the company selected to manage the course, says Ross's signature features will still be there: raised greens, strategic bunkering and a routing that is easy to walk.
The grass is what ties the two nines together
The two nines don't share a design style, so the team used turf to connect them. All of the work was built by NMP Construction Corp. on an accelerated schedule. The turf comes in three layers:
- Greens: TifEagle Bermuda, built to USGA specifications
- Fairways: Bimini grass
- Outlying, unirrigated areas: Pensacola Bahiagrass, framed by the sugar-sand blowouts
The Bahia is the unusual choice. Sanford said the team picked it "to get that meadow, native-field look." They started on the Wilson side, the more open north half, using a 1953 aerial photograph that showed Wilson had left a lot of sand exposed between holes. The NMP shapers then built the blowouts, and the look ended up being used across the whole course. The irrigation designer, The Pignato Group, worked to keep water off the Bahia, because the grass plays more open when it stays dry.
Darryl Bartlett, NMP's senior manager and chief development officer, told Golf Course Industry that the Bahia is used "almost as a 'Southern fescue'" to frame holes and shape decisions off the tee. "The appearance is rugged," he said, "very different from the typical manicured South Florida golf presentation." He added that the grass needs much less irrigation and fertilizer than many turf varieties common in the South.
That matters for the city's budget. A course that uses less water and fertilizer on its rough costs less to maintain. This course also has to earn back what it cost to build.
The green fee is supposed to pay off the bond
The rebuild was approved after a different plan fell apart. As Boca Magazine reported, an earlier proposal would have had a private developer redevelop the course in exchange for part of the land. Six developers submitted proposals. The City Commission at the time rejected them after pushback from residents and golfers. A city consultant then suggested a revenue bond backed by course revenue, so taxpayers wouldn't carry the cost.
On October 21, 2025, the city approved $32.19 million in Public Improvement Revenue Bonds for the course, clubhouse and related facilities. That's according to the city's audited financial report, which says the bonds are secured by certain non-ad-valorem revenues, meaning revenues other than property taxes. Boca Magazine describes the bond as being paid back over time through user fees. The published project scope covers the following:
- restoration of both the Ross and Wilson nines
- new irrigation and drainage
- practice and teaching facilities
- a reconfigured driving range
- new cart paths and a cart crossing
- on-course restrooms and rain shelters
- a new maintenance facility
- parking and landscaping work
The construction contract is still being adjusted. The City Commission's November 2 agenda included a $140,000 amendment that would bring the construction agreement to $28,100,667.14.
That's why the fee schedule matters. Boca Magazine reported these 18-hole rates from the consultant's proposal:
| Season | Resident | Non-resident | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peak, November through April | $80 | $105 | $25 |
| Off-season | $39 | $47 | $8 |
In this proposal, the resident discount is worth much more in winter. The peak rate is roughly double the summer rate for both groups. That fits a course with a bond to repay: most of the revenue would come in the months when winter visitors fill the tee sheet. These are proposed figures from a consultant, not an adopted rate card.
For comparison, Golf Course Industry notes that at two other renovated public courses in the county, The Park in West Palm Beach and North Palm Beach Country Club, golfers compete for tee times priced from $200 to $350. Even the proposed non-resident peak rate at Delray is well under the low end of that range.
When the gates open
The reopening date has moved over the past year:
- November 3, 2025: The course closes for renovation. The clubhouse stays open through December 2025, and its renovation runs alongside the course work.
- December 30, 2025: The City of Delray Beach posts its schedule with an anticipated reopening of November 2026.
- September 9, 2026: Boca Magazine reports significant progress and an estimated reopening in late November 2026.
- Latest operator outlook: Bobby Jones Links describes the course as reopening in early 2027 and calls it one of the best daily-fee golf experiences in Florida.
Golf Course Industry reports that the city will decide when the course reopens to the public. It's a busy course to have offline: Bobby Jones Links says it hosts nearly 60,000 rounds a year and has a popular event facility. The city's facility page directs golfers to the club's website and to AffordableGolf for tee-time information.
Lakeview, the city's other course
Delray Beach owns a second course, and Bobby Jones Links manages it too. Lakeview Golf Club at 1200 Dover Road is a public, 18-hole, par-60 executive course that plays 3,006 yards. Tee times can be booked online through the club's website.
Lakeview is a short course built mostly around iron play. It offers no Bahia meadows and no Ross-versus-Wilson contrast. It's the nearby option while the course on Highland Avenue finishes its rebuild. When that course does reopen, golfers will find new practice facilities and a reconfigured driving range, and two nines that were designed to play differently from each other.
If you own a home near the Delray Beach Golf Club and want to know where its value stands before the course reopens, The Gobin Group can give you a clear, local read. Request a home valuation and we'll go through it with you.
