Breakers Golf Course

Henry Flagler built the Palm Beach Golf Club in 1897 for guests of his two Palm Beach hotels, the Royal Poinciana on the lake and the Palm Beach Inn, renamed The Breakers, on the ocean. Alexander H. Findlay laid out the first nine holes, and Flagler put up a club building near the first tee, between the two hotels. Tees in those years were mounds of wet sand that caddies or players built in the tee box. A Golf Club Atlas researcher, working from photographs of the early 1940s, describes the course running from the back of The Breakers on the ocean side to the gardens of the Royal Poinciana on the lake side, split by the tree-lined path that carried guests between the two hotels. The Florida East Coast Hotel Company owned the course with both hotels, and when it hired Donald Ross to build Palm Beach Country Club, which opened in 1917, part of the aim was to take pressure off this course.

Ross's documented work here came two decades later. The Donald Ross Society's directory lists a Ross remodel of the course in 1938-1939, under the name Breakers Golf Course, formerly Palm Beach Golf Club, and records that the Tufts Archives hold information on it. The same researcher describes the Ross remodel as fairly significant and as adding about 400 yards, citing a November 20, 1938 report in the Palm Beach Post, and a Palm Beach Daily News article of December 20, 1938 on the changes. No read source describes a Ross plan, drawing or site visit. Later architects of record were Brian Silva, who redesigned the course in 2000, and Rees Jones with his associate Steve Weisser, who rebuilt it in 2018.

Holes to Know

From the Black tees the course is par 70, 35 on each nine, 5,654 yards on our card: 14 par 4s, three par 3s and a single par 5. Eleven of the par 4s measure under 350 yards on our card, and the 16th and 17th pair the last par 3 with the only par 5 before a par-4 finish.

The 337-yard 4th, a par 4 and stroke index 7 from the Black tees, starts on the Cocoanut Row side of the property, with the Flagler Museum across the road; Golf Course Architecture names the museum among the buildings the 2018 tree clearing opened to view, placing it behind the 4th green, although on the current hole map the 4th plays east, away from it, and the museum sits behind the 3rd green.

The 371-yard 6th from the Black tees is the longest par 4 and stroke index 1. Golf Course Architecture describes it wrapping around a lake, with the option of a bold approach to a green that looks like a sliver from the fairway. The Royal Poinciana Chapel stands behind the green.

The 272-yard 8th from the Black tees is the shortest par 4 and stroke index 15. It plays straight toward the Atlantic, so the prevailing wind is in the player's face, and the 9th turns back the other way.

The 344-yard 10th from the Black tees, a par 4 and stroke index 10, opens the back nine in a quiet corner of the property. Its raised green gives a glimpse of the ocean.

The 191-yard 16th from the Black tees is a par 3 and stroke index 14. Golf Course Architecture calls it perhaps the hardest of the par 3s: a shot that misses right or long finds water. It leads straight into the 17th, the only par 5.

Ross's Design Here

What Ross did in 1938-39 is known only in outline: a remodel that a Golf Club Atlas researcher, citing the Palm Beach Post, describes as fairly significant and as making the course about 400 yards longer. No source ties any hole, green or bunker on today's course to Ross, and none describes the shape of the course before or after his work.

What can be described is the site he worked with, which has not changed. The course sits on flat ground in the middle of the island, between the ocean and Lake Worth, and roads divide it into four quadrants of four or five holes each. Golf Course Architecture reports that this left so little room that Jones kept the routing essentially as he found it in 2018. The short card is a product of that site: even after the length Ross and Silva added, the course measures 5,778 yards from the back tees today.

Wind does much of the work on a course this short. The holes run in both directions, toward and away from the ocean, as the 8th and 9th show, and the resort describes left-to-right and right-to-left holes. Six lakes are part of today's course, and water defines the 6th and the 16th.

Historical Significance

The Ocean Course is the oldest course in Florida by the resort's account; the Palm Beach Civic Association calls it the state's oldest 18-hole course. Its early profile came from the Gilded Age hotels it served. Findlay is said to have persuaded Harry Vardon to come to the United States at the turn of the century, and the two played exhibition matches at the Palm Beach Golf Club.

Ross's connection was long overlooked. A 1983 trade profile in Weeds Trees & Turf called the Ocean Course a Donald Ross design, but the Donald Ross Society did not add the course to its directory until the 2022 revision, one of five courses included that year on documentation that Ross had been involved in a significant way. The 1938-39 remodel sits late in Ross's career and alongside his other work on the island and nearby, including Palm Beach Country Club, opened in 1917, and Seminole, built in 1929.

No read source records a national championship held here or a national ranking.

Changes Since Ross

Golf Club Atlas research records that the course had changed to grass greens around 1929, before Ross's remodel, and that a Palm Beach Post article of December 6, 1931 described further changes without naming an architect.

In 2000 Brian Silva redesigned the course. A 2015 review records that he added about 200 yards, built 88 new and refurbished bunkers, installed new drainage and irrigation, and grassed the course in TifEagle Bermuda from tee to green. GolfPass lists Gus Grantham alongside Silva.

In 2018 the resort stripped the course to bare earth for a full rebuild of every tee, green and fairway bunker complex by Rees Jones and Steve Weisser, finished late that year. Jones enlarged the greens by almost 50 percent in total, gave each green slopes that act as backstops, and reduced the bunkering to about two-thirds of its previous total, lining the bunkers with Capillary Concrete. All turf except the greens became paspalum, with TifGrand collars around the TifEagle greens. The eastern part of the site was raised, landscaping between holes was taken out and trees were thinned, opening views across South County Road. The project also added wooden bulkheads, reverse-osmosis irrigation and an expanded practice area for the John Webster Golf Academy.

None of the read sources identifies a green, bunker or hole corridor that survives from Ross's 1938-39 work. The routing within the four quadrants is the one element every account describes as kept.

Uncertainties

• Whether Ross worked here before 1938. A Golf Club Atlas researcher cites a January 21, 1923 Palm Beach Daily News item mentioning Ross redoing the whole course, and a 2015 review says Ross converted the sand greens to grass in the 1920s; the Ross Society lists only 1938-1939, which this listing follows.

• When the course grew from Findlay's nine holes to 18 was not found.

• The Donald Ross Society entry and newspaper citations confirm the 1938-39 remodel, but its scope beyond the added length is not documented in any readable source.

Sources & Notes

1. Donald Ross Society, Directory of Courses (January 2026 revision), https://rosssociety.org/resources/Documents/Ross%20Course%20List/Final%20Ross%20Directory%20of%20Courses%20Jan%202026%20website.pdf - 1938-1939 remodel, FKA Palm Beach Golf Club, Tufts information; 2022 revision notes on its addition.

2. Golf Club Atlas forum, "Florida in 1928", Sven Nilsen posts of April 2014, https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,57804.100.html - Palm Beach Post Nov 20, 1938 and Palm Beach Daily News Dec 20, 1938 on the Ross remodel and ~400 yards; Jan 21, 1923 item; grass greens c. 1929; Dec 6, 1931 changes; course between the two hotels.

3. Golf Club Atlas forum, Andrew Mack, "Palm Beach CC (Ross 1917) - The Course Before 2010" (2014), https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,59592.0.html - Florida East Coast Hotel Company ownership and the reason for Palm Beach Country Club.

4. Historical Society of Palm Beach County, "Hotel Life: Seasonal Amusements", https://education.pbchistory.org/flagler-era/hotel-life-seasonal-amusements/ - 1897 club building near the first tee, nine holes by Findlay for hotel guests, sand tees.

5. Toby Ingleton, "The Breakers Ocean course: Great expectations", Golf Course Architecture, 12 August 2019, https://www.golfcoursearchitecture.net/content/the-breakers-ocean-course-great-expectations - 2018 scope, four quadrants, greens, backstops, bunkers, turf, raised east side, holes 4, 6, 10 and 16.

6. The Breakers, Courses page, https://www.thebreakers.com/activities/golf/courses/ - oldest course in Florida, Findlay 1897, late-2018 Jones renovation, 56 bunkers, six lakes, yardage, private access.

7. The Breakers, press release on the Ocean Course reopening, https://www.thebreakers.com/press-resource-center/press-releases/ocean-course/ - renovation scope, bulkheads, irrigation, academy, clubhouse.

8. Palm Beach Civic Association, "The Breakers Golf Course Undergoing Complete Re-Design", 17 May 2018, https://palmbeachcivic.org/the-breakers-golf-course-undergoing-complete-re-design/ - oldest 18-hole course in Florida; Jones and Weisser; course stripped; December 2018 completion.

9. Steve Pike, "Steve Pike Anywhere: The Breakers Ocean Course", New England Golf, https://newengland.golf/steve-pike-anywhere-the-breakers-ocean-course - Findlay and Vardon exhibitions; landscaping removed; paspalum.

10. David Theoret, "The Ocean Course at the Breakers Resort Review", 4 November 2015, https://www.illinoisgolf.com/articles/2468 - Silva's 2000 redesign; the 8th and 9th relative to the ocean.

11. Maureen Hrehocik, "The Breakers", Weeds Trees & Turf, August 1983, https://archive.lib.msu.edu/tic/wetrt/article/1983aug50.pdf - "a Donald Ross design".

12. GolfPass, The Breakers - Ocean Course, https://www.golfadvisor.com/courses/bvr/1028273/ - published hole-by-hole card (5,778 yards), architects of record.