Hyde Park Golf Club
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Hyde Park Golf Course Designer Donald Ross, 1935 |
An Editorial by Mr. Edward Cherry of Golfer's Guide Magazine
Rolling hills, history and hospitality combine to make this legendary course a North Florida favorite
Conveniently located in Central Jacksonville, just west of the St. John's River off #I-295 (exit on Wilson Blvd.), Hyde Park Golf Club has since 1925 been a mainstay on the Jacksonville golf scene, and an all-time favorite for discriminating golfers of every stripe. Designed by the inestimable and prolific Scot, Donald Ross -- who also is responsible for Congressional, Pinehurst #2 and Homestead, among more than 400 others -- Hyde Park features scenic rolling hills, gorgeous Spanish Oaks and towering Southern Pines more reminiscent of North Carolina than North Florida.
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Hyde Park Golf Club
(904) 786-5410
6439 Hyde Grove Ave., Jacksonville, Florida 32210
The course was a welcome stop for the Men's and Women's PGA Tours in the 1940s and '50s, and hosted such notables as Byron Nelson, Sam Snead, Ben Hogan (more on Mr. Hogan later), Babe Zaharias, Patty Berg, Louise Suggs and Mickey Wright, who won her first professional tournament here in 1956. Hyde Park preceded the Greater Jacksonville Open and The Players Championship in making Northeast Florida an historic and memorable total golf "experience."
The course was purchased by former Tour professionals Billy Maxwell and Chris Blocker in 1971, who vowed to restore it to pristine condition while maintaining the architectural theme and the personality of Ross's original design. In 2000 Hyde Park was voted the #1 Public Course by Folio Magazine, evidence of their complete success.
An eminently walkable course with tees and greens set close to each other, and with a liberal walking policy uncommon to the region, Hyde Park's tight and undulating fairways and frequently uneven lies require more thought than muscle to post a good score. And while much of the layout is relatively "Florida flat," seven of the holes, primarily on the closing nine, feature either downhill drives to the fairway or uphill shots to the green.
Now, about Mr. Hogan ... Wouldn't you have loved to have been at Hyde Park for the 1947 Jacksonville Open, when Gentle Ben's ball went slightly sideways on No. 6, a short par-3 of 151-yards? The result was his normally other-worldly game came crashing back to earth -- while leading the tournament, no less -- when he posted an 11 (That's not a typo!) on the scorecard. True, a head-high bunker guards the entire right side of the green, directing tee shots toward a small pond on the left. Hogan unfortunately missed to that side, the ball dribbled down the slope and into the hazard -- repeatedly -- and the rest, as they say, is history.
