Hyde Park Golf Club

Jacksonville, Florida

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. 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.