The course now known as the Ocean Course at The Breakers began as a seaside layout for Henry Flagler’s resort, first laid out by Alexander H. Findlay in 1897 for the Palm Beach Golf Club—often cited as Florida’s earliest 18-hole venue. Over the ensuing decades, successive hotel fires (1903 and 1925), the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane, and shifting resort needs led to periodic rebuilding of the island’s golf grounds. The key “Ross moment” arrived later: the Donald Ross Society’s directory records 1938–1939 as the years Ross was retained to redesign the Palm Beach/Breakers course (listed as “Breakers Golf Course (FKA Palm Beach Golf Club)”), formalizing his authorship as a redesign rather than the original creator. Contemporary narrative histories of Palm Beach corroborate this timing, describing Ross’s return after the Royal Poinciana Hotel’s demolition to lengthen and toughen the resort course in 1938–39.
Evidence of intent is necessarily circumstantial because club minutes and Ross plan sheets for this project have not been made public online. However, multiple local histories report that the post-1928 storm condition of the seaside holes prompted a greens reconstruction and, later, the late-1930s lengthening, consistent with a Ross brief to restore durable putting surfaces and add resistance-to-scoring on a compact, wind-exposed site. Those narratives assert that Ross “redesigned the greens on the Poinciana–Breakers course” after the hurricane and, a decade later, “redesigned and lengthened” the course following the Poinciana’s removal—two phases that align with the 1938–39 directory entry.
Ross’s return visits beyond 1939 are not documented in accessible sources. The next architect-of-record changes came much later, during a major Brian Silva rebuild around 2000, followed by a full-scale Rees Jones renovation completed in late 2018. These later campaigns were comprehensive—replacing tees, greens, bunkers and irrigation—and they frame how little tangible Ross fabric can be verified on the ground today.
Unique design characteristics (as tied to this site)
Because 2000 (Silva) and 2018 (Jones) reconstructions reset the course’s green complexes and bunker scheme front to back, Ross’s late-1930s shaping is largely archaeological rather than physical. The present routing occupies a small island footprint with constant ocean exposure—precisely the environmental constraint Ross faced. Contemporary reports of his work emphasized greens redesign and added length, both logical responses to wind and firm seaside turf. Where Ross likely sought elevated, well-drained targets that could shed salt and resist shell-sand contamination, the 2018 project replaced those surfaces with new TifEagle greens and salt-tolerant fairway/rough grasses while also rebuilding 56 sand- and grass-faced bunkers and adding bulkheaded water features. In short, the intent—presenting controlled approach trajectories into perched, breeze-buffeted greens on a tight site—remains embedded in how the Ocean Course still plays, even if the Ross ground itself has been superseded.
Hole-by-hole survivals of Ross’s exact features cannot be responsibly asserted given the extent of later rebuilding and the lack of a publicly accessible Ross plan for this project. The clearest “Ross” here is historical rather than literal: a resort course on a scant acreage that forces angled, wind-aware approaches to raised targets—a playing character that today’s Jones renovation consciously preserves “inheriting the original layout designed by Alexander H. Findlay in 1897,” while modernizing grassing lines and hazards for present-day resort play.
Historical significance
Within Ross’s Florida portfolio, Palm Beach is not an original creation but a notable late-1930s commission to rethink Florida’s earliest resort course. Its significance lies in Ross’s role as a national figure asked to rebuild and lengthen a storied, storm-battered seaside layout for the state’s most high-profile hotel complex, placing his hand on a venue that had already hosted celebrated exhibitions, including Harry Vardon’s 1900 appearance at the Palm Beach Golf Club. That early event—part of the Ocean Course/Palm Beach Golf Club lineage—anchors the site’s place in American golf’s popularization.
Although the Ocean Course no longer appears in national Ross rankings (owing to the succession of modern rebuilds), its Ross redesign credit (1938–39) persists in professional directories and local histories. In the broader Ross chronology, this job fits the late interwar period when he frequently returned to existing courses for lengthening and green updates—here, executed in a setting where hurricanes and hotel reconstructions repeatedly forced change.
Current condition / integrity
Today’s Ocean Course measures 5,778 yards, par 70 from the back tees. The resort confirms a 2018 Rees Jones overhaul that rebuilt every tee, green and bunker, re-grassed with salt-tolerant turf, added new water features and wooden bulkheads, modernized irrigation, and expanded the practice grounds. An earlier Brian Silva campaign around 2000 had already “completely refurbished” the course, underscoring that original (Findlay) and later (Ross) features were successively replaced. Given these two comprehensive rebuilds, no specific Ross greens or bunkers are credibly intact, and any Ross corridor continuity would be incidental to the resort’s small site rather than preserved fabric per se.
What the course does preserve is the historic function Ross served: keeping a compact, ocean-side resort course strategically relevant. The current design team states that they “inherited the original layout” lineage while updating playability and sustainability, which is a tacit acknowledgment that today’s look and features are Jones-era, not Ross-era. As a result, Ross’s authorship here should be read as a 1938–39 redesign in the course’s long evolutionary chain, not a surviving set of Ross greens and bunkers.
What has been preserved vs. altered
Preserved (function, not fabric): a tight, wind-exposed resort routing that asks controlled approaches to elevated targets on limited acreage; historical lineage to the 1897 seaside grounds that Ross reworked in 1938–39.
Altered or lost (fabric): original Findlay and Ross green pads, bunkers, and surface contours—replaced in 2000 and again (entirely) in 2018; modern turf palette (TifEagle on greens; salt-tolerant turf elsewhere); added bulkheaded water edges and contemporary bunker styling.
Sources & Notes
Donald Ross Society, Final Ross Directory of Courses (June 2023). Lists “Breakers Golf Course (FKA Palm Beach Golf Club), Palm Beach, FL — 18 holes — 1938–1939 — redesign.” Confirms Ross’s role and dates.
New York Social Diary: “The Sporting Life at Palm Beach.” Notes Ross returning after the 1928 hurricane to redesign greens on the Poinciana–Breakers course and later (after the Royal Poinciana’s demolition) redesigning and lengthening the course in 1938–39.
New York Social Diary: “The Greening of Palm Beach: Palm Beach Country Club.” States that 1938–39 Ross work produced a more challenging “Palm Beach Golf Club … now known as The Breakers Golf Course,” clarifying name lineage.
The Breakers (official site): “Courses — Ocean Course at The Breakers.” Provides current par (70), back-tee yardage (5,778), and 2018 Rees Jones renovation scope (new greens, bunkers, salt-tolerant grasses, water features, bulkheads, RO irrigation).
Press release/coverage of 2018 renovation: The Breakers’ press resource page and travel trade coverage confirm the Rees Jones full-scale rebuild and scope details; Travel Weekly adds the course’s 2000 Brian Silva redesign antecedent.
Trade reporting on Silva’s 2000 work: GCN (2001) notes Silva’s “completely refurbished Ocean Course,” situating the extent of early-2000s changes before the Jones overhaul.
Links Magazine (state-oldest list) & other histories: Affirm Findlay’s 1897 authorship and the Ocean Course’s claim as Florida’s oldest, grounding the pre-Ross lineage.
Findlay/Vardon context: Links/The Fried Egg and other histories document Harry Vardon’s 1900 exhibition at Palm Beach Golf Club, underscoring the venue’s early national profile.
Disputed or uncertain points
Scope of Ross’s physical work on today’s holes. The DRS directory and local histories agree on 1938–39 Ross authorship, but no publicly accessible Ross drawings for the Breakers job have been located online. Given the 2000 and 2018 comprehensive rebuilds, precise hole-by-hole survivals of Ross greens or bunkers cannot be verified and are likely non-existent today.
Two-phase Ross involvement. Some sources imply post-1928 greens work and a separate 1938–39 redesign/lengthening; others only list the 1938–39 commission. Both phases are plausible within resort operations of the era, but the documented (directory) dates are 1938–39.