Info
Miami Beach Par 3 Golf Course
Closed - 9 Holes Executive
2795 Prairie Avenue
Miami Beach, Florida
Miami-Dade County
33140
3rd Party Website
Award for Best Picture
CommunityWalk.com
Notes
Designed by Langford and Bendelow in 1913. The first 9 holes opened in February, 1915 and the full 18 opened on December 22, 1915. The course was called the Miami Beach Golf and Country Club.
In 1922, it became one of three courses to belong to the Miami Beach Golf Club.
In 1927, the City of Miami Beach took over the course, and it was known as Miami Beach Municipal Golf Course and stayed open until February 1942, when the army took over the course.
After the war, much of the land was set aside for City building projects. The course was not used for 20 years.
In 1961, the old northern part of the course was used to build the Miami Beach Par 3 Golf Course, a 9-hole executive style course which no longer became playable in 2015.
Course Area
Miami Beach Par 3 Course Layout and Scorecard [1961]
Street View of Entrance
Google Maps
Bing Maps
History
This small course, believe it or not, has had an amazing history. I found over 160 references that pertain to the history of the golf course, and I still have holes in the complete history, but here is a condensed version.
Carl Fisher was one of the main visionaries of Miami Beach, and one of his first projects, was to build a golf course on the island. Fisher originally laid out plans for a 5-hole golf course, insisting that 5 holes were enough for anyone. However, protests from the other visionaries of Miami Beach relented and a 18-hole golf course was planned. So Fisher, a millionaire from Indianapolis, who got his land from the Lummus brothers, and Thomas Pancoast set aside land holdings on the island to build an 18 hole golf course. Fisher hired golf architect William "Willy" B. Langford in 1913 to design and build the golf course and Tom Bendelow of the A.G. Spalding company was brought in to create a scientifically correct golf course.
Nine temporary holes were built south of the Collins canal, and these holes were opened on a temporary basis in February, 1915. This 9-hole course was bounded to the north by the Collins Canal; to the south by Lincoln Road; to the east by Golf Course Drive (now Washington Avenue); and to the west by Meridian Avenue.
Here is picture from 1914 from the State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/55278 showing The Golf Course. The caption on the bottom of the photo states: "1914 - Looking west across The Golf Course from the tower at 18th Street and Ocean Drive". If you look closely at the photo, there is a black wagon at an intersection. This intersection is Washington Avenue and 18th Street. I am assuming that the white covered building on the golf course was the temporary clubhouse when the course opened up in February, 1915. Note: The Florida Memory website refers to this golf course as the Bayshore golf course. This is incorrect as the Bayshore golf course was still a dream in 1914.
Just to give you an idea, how undeveloped the island was in 1914, here is another photograph taken in 1914 from the same tower, but this time looking south down the beach which today is known as South Beach. The pier in the picture was located at the end of Lincoln Road. From this angle, the golf course is not viewable.
On March 26, 1915, the island was incorporated as "Ocean City".
Work continued on the other 9 holes and grass planting was started on the northern section of the golf course in April, 1915. Here is a picture dated July 9, 1915 by photographer John Kunkel Small showing the grass planted on the northern part of the course.
In 1915, Fisher hired architect August Geiger, who designed the Miami City Hospital, to design a permanent clubhouse for the golf course and to design plans for the Lincoln Hotel to be built on Lincoln Road. Both buildings were built by 1916. Guests of the Lincoln Hotel could walk out of the hotel and directly onto the golf course. It was reported that the first tee of the golf course was beside the Lincoln Hotel.
Here is a picture dated 1920 showing the Lincoln Hotel in the background and the golf course in the foreground.
Back to the clubhouse. Here is the earliest picture I could find of the clubhouse. It is dated 1917, and the caption on the bottom states: "Club House on Carl Fisher's Golf Links, Miami, Florida". At this time, the Ocean City area was commonly grouped together with the City of Miami.
Here is a postcard dated 1923 to show the clubhouse in full colour.
This clubhouse still stands in Miami Beach at 2100 Washington Avenue, and in 1979 it was individually designated as a historic structure on the local register of historic places. Here is the current streetview of the building which today is known as the SoBe Institute of the Arts. It is said to be the oldest building still in existence in Miami Beach.
Back to the golf course and 1915. On December 22, 1915, the Miami Beach Golf and Country Club opened with a full 18 holes. Ten holes were south of Collins Canal and the other 8 were on the north side.
In 1916, Henry Kirk Brown Davis, an engineer, came on staff.
On February 3, 1916, the first golf tournament was held at the Miami Beach Links. It was only a 15-hole affair since holes 4, 5 and 6 were still being worked over. So it would be safe to assume that since an extra hole was added to the southern section, since it held 10 holes now, instead of the original 9 holes when it first opened in 1915, that the extra hole was put in this range of holes. The golf course at this time was 18 holes, par 75, 6088 yards with its' young trees around 10 feet tall all on 120 acres. The northern section of the golf course was bounded by Boulevard (now Dade Blvd.) to the south; Prairie Avenue to the west; Sheridan Avenue to the east; and W 28th Street to the north.
In May, 1917 a footbridge was built across the Collins Canal for the golfers.
On May 21, 1917 the name of the city was changed from "Ocean City" to "Miami Beach".
As you can see from these snippets from a 1918 Sanborn Map Company map collection, the golf course is marked as the Miami Beach Golf & Country Club and clearly shows the boundaries of the golf course and the location of the clubhouse.
Here are 3 pictures from 1919, the first showing the south section and the second showing the north section of the golf course. The third picture is looking south on the south section of the golf course with the Lincoln Hotel in the background. The last 2 pictures are from DigitalMiamiBeachArchives.com.
On April 13, 1920 the locker house of the Miami Beach Golf & Country Club burnt down but it was rebuilt by June.
Here are a couple of pictures from 1920. The first image is looking southeast over the south section of the golf course and the second picture is looking north over the north section. The 1st image: WolfsonianFIULibrary and the 2nd image: State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/36245.
Here is a picture of the clubhouse looking over Collins Canal in 1921.
Starting in 1920 and finishing by 1922, Henry Kirk Brown Davis had redesigned and rebuilt the golf course, due to the fact that the southern section of the golf course was narrowed to Euclid Avenue on the west side and to Lincoln Lane on the south. One hole was removed from the south side leaving 9 holes and 1 hole was added to the northern section increasing the holes on that side from 8 to 9. The Miami Beach Golf & Country Club at this time was 18 holes, par 72, 6028 yards.
The winter play of the 1921/22 season was unusually hard on the golf course and caused the golf course to close in the spring of 1922. Since Carl Fisher had interests in all 3 golf courses on Miami beach, he created the Miami Beach Golf Club which included the Flamingo Golf Course, the Miami Beach Bay Shore Golf Course and the Miami Beach Golf Course. Herbert Charles Tippet was appointed the golf director of the Miami Beach Golf Club. In this way, the Miami Beach Golf Club could control the number of daily players on each golf course on each day for the period of November 14, 1922 to May 1, 1923. The Miami Beach Golf Course was limited to 150 players per day when the golf course reopened in late November, 1922.
Up to this time the Miami Beach Golf Course was open to the public, but pressure from its members caused the course to be a private club in 1922/1923.
All 3 courses on Miami Beach closed in the summer of 1923, since there were 3 courses available in Miami. By 1923, $29M had been spent on creating Miami Beach and Miami Beach had 3 golf courses on 325 acres.
During the 1923/24 winter season, the Miami Beach Golf Course attracted 40,000 golfers and again closed for the summer to let the course recover. Here is a picture of the golf course in 1924. The Miami Beach Bay Shore Golf Course is the background, and the Miami Beach Golf Course is in the foreground.
State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/42601. Photographer: GW Gleason.
When the course reopened for the tourist season of 1924/25 it had underground some minor alterations and now was 6130 yards.
Here is an aerial picture of the Miami Beach Club and its 3 golf courses in 1926:
DigitialMiamiBeachArchives.com
On September 18, 1926, a major hurricane hit Miami Beach nicknamed "The Big Blow". Storm surge flooded the city and wind damage was extensive. Here is a picture taken on December 1, 1927.
After the hurricane, Fisher Properties leased the Miami Beach Golf Course to the City of Miami Beach and after many alterations and the installation of several double greens by John Brophy, the course opened as a municipal golf course in the middle of June, 1927. The course was longer by at least 250 yards from its previous layout and the double greens would allow for perfect putting surfaces at all times. The course changed its name to the Miami Beach Municipal Golf Course. The lease between Fisher Properties and the City of Miami Beach was not permanent according to the Miami News in 1928.
Here an aerial picture from 1935 showing the Bay Shore course on the left and the Miami Beach course on the right.
DigitalMiamiBeachArchives.com
In 1941, along the banks of the Collins Canal, red-leaved shrubs were planted and trimmed to form the words: "Municipal Golf Course, Visitors Welcome".
For the first 4 months of 1940 and again in 1941, the Miami Beach Municipal Golf Course lead all the Miami area golf courses in attendance. In 1941 the course drew 25,000 golfers.
In December 1941, the manager was moved over to the new Normandy Isles Municipal Golf Course.
World War II was under way, and in February 1942, the army took over hotels, buildings and the Miami Beach Municipal Golf Course for use as drill grounds. The Army Air Corps leased the golf course for $1/year. Here is a picture of cadets marching on the golf course in 1942.
Burdine's: Sunshine Fashions & the Florida Store, p.94
The war was over and on May 22, 1945, the State of Florida enacted a bill empowering the City of Miami Beach to construct a hospital, a library, an auditorium, and public buildings on the property known as Miami Beach Municipal Golf Course.
By 1947, 2 large reservoirs were added to the north part of the course.
By 1949, the Miami Beach Municipal Golf Course was reduced to 9 holes with it clubhouse now located at Washington Avenue & 19th Street. This meant the northern 9 holes of the 18-hole golf course had been shut down and the clubhouse had been moved south down Washington Avenue.
For the 1951 American Legion Convention, the Miami Beach Municipal Golf Course was mentioned as 1 of the area golf courses.
By at least 1955, the southern part of the course was permanently gone as building projects had already started.
The northern part of the northern section of the golf course had been shut down since around 1949, and many plans were discussed for this property.
In 1961, the City of Miami Beach built a par-3 9-hole golf course on the north part of the north section of the old Miami Beach Municipal Golf Course. It was 9 holes, par 27, 1300 yards on 25 acres with its ticket hut at 2795 Prairie Avenue and was called the Miami Beach Par 3 Golf Course. The designer of this course is unknown. Note: many websites state that this course was built in 1940 and designed by Bruce Devlin - and both these statements are incorrect. Bruce Devlin started his golf course design career in 1962 when he parterned with Bob Hagge (later known as Robert von Hagge). Aerial photography and newspaper articles provide the proof that the par-3 course was not built till 1961.
Since this golf course was right beside the Bayshore Golf Course, the maintenance of the course was handled by Bayshore. Therefore the golf course was also known as the Bayshore Municipal Par 3 Golf Course.
Here is a picture from January 1962 showing about half of the new course.
DigitalMiamiBeachArchives.com
In 1984, the City of Miami Beach plans to close the course, but yield to protester wishes and keep the course open.
In 1992, a Jewish mikvah (shown below) is built obscuring part of the 3rd hole. The hole is reduced from 170 yards to 100 yards, and the course's new yardage is 1230 yards.
Here is an aerial picture picture from 1995 showing the course and a picture from the mid 1990s showing the 3rd green with the 4th tee in the background.
MiamiHerald.com
In October 1997, the City of Miami Beach hires an Arthur Hills & Associates to prepare plans to upgrade all 3 municipal courses. The other 2 courses were upgraded, but the Miami Beach Par 3 Golf course was not due to a lack of funding.
By 2001, the course is in bad condition and is not well kept. Collection of green fees is hardly done.
Between 2000 and 2002, the course loses the 3rd hole altogether to a neighbouring school and the course is down to 8 holes.
In 2003/2004, the course loses hole 4 to a parking lot.
By 2005, the collection of green fees is stopped, but the course is still minimally maintained by the nieghbouring Bayshore course and is free to play. The greens are unputtable, and basically the course becomes a practice course for chipping.
In 2010, the hole loses hole 2 to a parking lot, but regains use of hole 4. The course still has 7 holes. The City of Miami Beach hires McCumber Golf to prepare a Par 3 Golf Master Plan. However thes plans are discarded.
Here is a picture of the 1st green in 2013.
BillLisasSportingLife.blogspot.ca
In 2014, the City starts using the golf course as a storage facility for extra dirt from construction sites and by 2015 the dirt hills that have accumulated make the course unplayable, and the course finally dies after a very long and prolonged process.
MiamiHerald.com
