The City of Savannah created a Bacon Park Commission in 1925 to manage a new public recreation reserve, including a municipal golf course on the south side of town. Contemporary municipal records summarize that a Ross-designed 18-hole course opened in 1926 and that the facility was later expanded to 27 holes in 1985.
Richard Mandell’s restoration research—grounded in original Ross drawings and aerials—adds important nuance. Mandell reported that in 1925 Ross routed four courses (a 72-hole municipal scheme) for Savannah, of which two were built; one of those two closed in the 1940s. In the mid-1980s a new third nine was built and the surviving Ross holes were split among three nines, with six of the original Ross green complexes redesigned during that era.
These accounts agree on the presence of Ross golf here by 1926 and on a later 27-hole era, but they diverge on how many holes were in play at the outset and how to classify the early multi-course build (see “Sources & Notes” for the dispute).
In 2014, the City awarded the management contract to O.C. Welch Golf Properties, and Welch hired Mandell to restore the original Ross eighteen using Ross’s master plan and individual hole drawings, supplemented by 1950s and 1970s aerial photography. The restored eighteen reopened on October 10, 2015.
The non-Ross nine—rebranded the Legends Nine—was rebuilt and brought back later, with local news reporting an opening by October 2016. The result returned Bacon Park to a 27-hole facility: a restored Ross eighteen plus a separate nine.
Design intent on this property
Mandell’s fieldwork led him to conclude that the surviving “master plan” functioned as Ross’s as-built for the two courses that were actually constructed, an unusual case where that plan contained more refined detail than the individual hole sheets. This provided unusually specific evidence of Ross’s intended tee/green shapes, hazards, and mounding at Bacon Park.
Ross’s intent to adapt to Bacon Park’s low-lying ground appears most clearly on the closing run. On the last four holes he specified only five bunkers total, substituting large earthen mounds for sand hazards because bunkers would not drain reliably in those areas. The fifteenth was drawn with four big fairway mounds and no sand at all; the eighteenth was drawn with a “bold trio” of mounds guarding the second landing—features that Mandell restored in lieu of bunkers.
At the green sites, Ross drew low-profile platforms for Bacon Park—elevations generally 18 inches to four feet above grade, far subtler than the towering pads seen elsewhere. Mandell cites Ross’s notes and the ground itself as justification for restoring this low-slung expression at Bacon Park.
Unique design characteristics on the Ross eighteen (by hole)
Bacon Park’s restored front nine presents a crisp reading of Ross’s hazard placement as recorded in his drawings; Mandell notes that “a number of bunkers on the front nine have been placed exactly where Ross placed them originally.” The restored sixth and seventh greens are the best single-hole windows into Ross’s idiosyncratic shaping here: the 6th is “literally the shape of Mickey Mouse’s head, ears and all,” divided by a pronounced central spine, while the 7th is a multi-tier “rollercoaster” with three levels and two transverse swales. These forms—documented in Ross’s drawings and verified against aerials—were rebuilt to the larger footprints Ross originally indicated.
On the back nine (holes 15–18), Ross’s plan emphasized mounding over sand to solve drainage and maintenance in the low reach of the property. The restored 15th (“Belly Acres”) now plays exactly as Ross intended—across a field punctuated by four large mounds rather than into a necklace of bunkers. The 18th (“Home”) again leverages mounds at the second landing to squeeze the ideal angle and create optical pressure into the home green.
Across the course, the greens were enlarged to the dimensions Ross drew—“much larger than what was actually built”—and tee pads were lowered and redistributed to re-balance Ross’s intended ground expression and sightlines. These choices, plus the removal of mid-century ponds that had shifted several Ross targets, restore the internal variety Ross sketched for Bacon Park’s green surfaces without resorting to modern earthworks that would contradict his drawings.
The course retains its historic hole names, which help locate specific features: the 6th (“Blind Tom”) and 7th (“The Stretch”) carry the unusual green forms noted above; the closing stretch—“Belly Acres,” “Triangle,” “The Oak,” “Home”—presents Ross’s mound-in-lieu-of-bunker approach in the property’s lowest ground.
Historical significance within Ross’s work
Bacon Park illustrates Ross’s municipal planning at city scale in the mid-1920s. The 72-hole scheme he laid out for Savannah (with two courses built and later consolidation) is one of the few instances where a city commissioned such an expansive Ross plan and where the as-built master plan and hole drawings still guide modern work on the same ground.
The course’s documented low-profile greens and deliberate use of mounding instead of sand on soggy ground capture Ross’s site-specific problem-solving at Bacon Park, rather than a generic “Ross look.” Mandell’s published commentary highlights these choices as a conscious response by Ross to the local hydrology, placing Bacon Park among the clearer surviving case studies of Ross tailoring construction to coastal plain conditions.
As a civic venue, Bacon Park has hosted the Savannah City Amateur for over fifty years, reinforcing its regional importance even when conditions waned prior to restoration; recent coverage confirms the event’s continued staging on the restored Ross course.
Although Bacon Park is not a fixture on national “best of” lists, the restoration has been cited in roundups of notable municipal revivals since 2000, bringing Ross’s Savannah work back into the public conversation.
Current condition & integrity
Routing & greens: The Ross eighteen—today’s main 18-hole course—has been re-assembled from the three-nine configuration of the 1980s using Ross’s master plan as the controlling document. Greens were enlarged to Ross’s drawn outlines and restored to his low-profile elevations, with Mandell indicating that many of the front-nine bunkers now sit exactly where Ross had them. This places a substantial share of the Ross ground game and target geometry back on the same sites.
Hazards & earthworks: The project also removed ponds that had been inserted during the late-20th-century remodels and re-introduced mounding on 15–18 per Ross’s drawings to respect the drainage limitations of the low ground.
What changed in the 1980s and how it was addressed: When the third nine was added in the mid-1980s, six Ross greens were redesigned and multiple holes were broken apart, which diluted the coherence of the Ross eighteen. Mandell’s restoration reunified those holes to their original sequence and proportions; where 1980s alterations had shifted greens or inserted water, the work moved targets back to the Ross placements where the physical canvas still allowed.
Facility today: Bacon Park now operates 27 holes again—the restored Ross eighteen plus the Legends Nine—with the Ross course stretching to “barely 6,600 yards” and carrying the historic hole names noted above; the Legends Nine was rebuilt and reopened by late 2016.
Integrity estimate: Because the restoration relied on Ross’s as-built master plan and hole drawings, and because numerous bunkers and all green platforms were set back to Ross-documented locations, the Ross eighteen at Bacon Park today presents a high-fidelity rendering of Ross’s work as specifically documented for this site. (Mandell avoids a percentage, but his published comments describe the result as “very authentic,” with several features exactly as drawn.)
Sources & Notes (and disputed points)
City of Savannah, “Bacon Park Commission, 1931–1932, Finding Aid.” Notes that “the municipal golf course was originally designed as an 18 hole-course in 1926 by…Donald Ross” and that it was “expanded to 27 holes” in 1985. Useful for municipal governance context and the 1926 opening date. (This conflicts with another city planning PDF that mistakenly states “opened…as a 72-hole course”; see item 3.)
Golf Course Architecture interview with Richard Mandell (Sept. 8, 2015). Primary technical account of the restoration, citing Ross’s master plan and hole drawings, 1950s/1970s aerials, the 1925 four-course (72-hole) layout for Savannah, mid-1980s changes (including six redesigned greens), and specific features restored: low-profile green elevations, mounding replacing sand on holes 15–18, the “Mickey Mouse” 6th green, tiered 7th green, and bunker placements on the front nine. Also records the Oct. 10, 2015 reopening date.
City of Savannah Planning PDF, “Bacon Park and Sandfly Community” (2023). States that “Bacon Park…opened in 1926 originally as a 72-hole course,” then notes a 1940 closure of “a portion” and later 27-hole configuration. This likely conflates Ross’s 72-hole plan with the number of holes actually opened. Included here to mark the dispute; the finding aid (item 1) and Mandell (item 2) are preferred for opening configuration.
Bacon Park Golf Course (official site), “About” page. Publishes the hole names in order, the 1926 Ross attribution, the 72-hole plan with “two…built” and one closed “around 1940,” the 1985 expansion to 27 holes, and the 2014 management change preceding restoration. Also notes the course’s yardage (≈6,600) and civic role, including hosting the Savannah City Amateur for more than 50 years.
ASGCA news item (Oct. 5, 2015). Echoes Mandell’s research and elaborates Ross’s choice to limit bunkers on the last four holes in favor of mounds because of drainage, with a hole-specific note on the 15th and a description of the 18th’s mound cluster at the second landing.
GCA news brief (July 2, 2015). Documents the phased construction and the project aim “of restoring the course to its original design using hand-drawn plans from Ross himself,” created in the 1930s (i.e., the period of detailed drawings used for the restoration).
WTOC-TV (Aug. 15, 2016). Local report on the Legends Nine rebuild and planned late-October opening, confirming the facility’s return to 27 holes after the Ross eighteen reopened in 2015.
WJCL-TV (Oct. 17, 2024). Confirms the Savannah City Amateur’s continued play on the restored Donald Ross course at Bacon Park.
GolfPass photo gallery (2021). Includes Bacon Park among notable municipal restorations since 2000, placing the course within the broader public-golf revival discourse.
Disputed/uncertain points flagged above:
• Opening configuration (18 vs. 36 vs. “72”): City archival finding aid records a Ross 18 opening in 1926; Mandell’s research states two Ross courses were initially built (implying 36), with one closed in the 1940s; a later city PDF inaccurately frames 1926 as opening “as a 72-hole course,” likely conflating plan with construction. For chronology and fabric, this narrative treats 1926 as the opening of at least one Ross 18, with evidence supporting a second 18 constructed soon thereafter and closed mid-century.