In 1919 the newly formed Daytona Golf & Country Club engaged Donald Ross to plan an 18-hole course on city-edge land south of downtown. Walter B. Hatch, a trusted Ross associate, supervised construction locally with help from club president Carl H. Knappe. After roughly eighteen months of clearing and shaping, nine holes opened late 1920 and were formally dedicated in January 1921; the full 18 opened in early 1923 at a then-robust par 75 and just over 6,200 yards, reflecting the generous scale of Florida’s 1920s boom courses.
The private club era ended during World War II. In 1943 the City of Daytona Beach purchased the course from H.E. Young and, the next year, re-hired Ross to redesign the layout. Ross arrived in September 1944, working with greens chairman H.K. Sturdy to correct incomplete implementations from the 1920s. Contemporary accounts emphasize two interventions: a new drainage system and raising every green by roughly two to eight feet—a pragmatic response to a flat, sandy site and seasonal rains. The renovated course reopened in 1945.
To mark the relaunch and promote winter play, the city hosted exhibition matches with contemporaneous legends: Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, and Harold “Jug” McSpaden played in late 1945; the following year Snead, Nelson, Hogan, and Jimmy Demaret returned, with Demaret shooting 63. The Florida Amateur followed in 1947, firmly re-establishing the municipal course as a competitive venue in the post-war years.
Unique Design Characteristics
The South Course’s routing still follows most of Ross’s original plan, set across gently rolling, sand-based ground bounded in part by the Florida East Coast Railway (FEC). That corridor is not cosmetic: the tracks directly influence strategy along holes 4, 13, and 14, with the par-5 4th in particular playing up the left-side rail line. Local knowledge preserves a telling artifact of the early plan at the 4th: Ross’s original green site lay across Wilder Boulevard; today that pad survives as the facility’s practice green, while the current 4th green sits to the south—evidence of iterative refinements as roadway and municipal needs evolved.
On the ground, players face tightly presented approach targets rather than water-dominated hazards. The club’s own summary notes forgiving tee shots but demanding approaches; regional descriptions consistently point to “turtle-backed” or crowned green surfaces on the South Course. Whether one attributes those crowns to Ross’s 1920s shaping or to the explicit 1944/45 raising of the green pads, the effect for today’s golfer is the same: short-grass runoffs around relatively small, elevated targets emphasize precise placement into the correct thirds of the green. Photographic documentation supplied by the state trail program highlights distinct targets at #8 and #15, reinforcing the course’s emphasis on compact, perched putting surfaces within close-cut surrounds.
Given the documented 1944/45 reconstruction of all green sites, the clearest “original Ross” survivals on the South Course are its macro-routing choices and corridor relationships—the way the holes traverse sand ridges, return near the clubhouse, and interact with the FEC rail—rather than untouched 1920s green contours. Put differently: the Ross routing skeleton remains; the green platforms represent Ross’s own mid-1940s revision of his earlier work.
Historical Significance
Within Ross’s Florida portfolio, Daytona Beach sits at an instructive intersection of 1920s expansion and wartime civic stewardship. It was one of several city-owned Ross munis in Florida that paired daily-fee access with high-profile winter exhibitions and state championships, helping democratize championship-caliber golf in the state’s coastal towns. The post-war exhibition matches by Snead, Nelson, Hogan, McSpaden, and Demaret are unusually well-documented for a municipal course and signal the city’s desire to market Daytona as a winter golf destination alongside its motorsports identity. The hosting of the 1947 Florida Amateur added a competitive credential that many peer munis lacked. While the South Course is not commonly cited on national ranking lists today, regional heritage programs have emphasized its authenticity as a Ross municipal routing that still plays close to its original lines and retains the elevated, exacting approach targets that define its character.
Current Condition / Integrity
Routing. State documentation and club materials agree that the South Course “still follows most of the original routing laid out by Donald Ross.” Aerials reproduced by the state trail program (including a 1943 view) underscore the continuity of corridor relationships, especially along the rail line and through the interior loops.
Greens. The most consequential change to Ross’s 1920s work occurred under Ross himself in 1944/45, when every green was raised and drainage improved. As a result, today’s putting surfaces are best described as Ross-authored—but mid-1940s Ross, not untouched 1920s Ross. Subsequent municipal maintenance and re-grassing cycles have not been publicly chronicled in detail for the South Course; however, contemporary course descriptions repeatedly stress the firmness and crowned character of the targets rather than wholesale recontouring by later architects.
Hazards & corridors. The South Course remains light on water by Florida standards; lateral pressure derives mainly from tree lines, out-of-bounds, and the FEC railway. Bunkering today reads as restrained and strategic in count and placement relative to typical modern Florida munis, consistent with the site’s classic-era origins, though a hole-by-hole chronology of bunker changes is not published and would require access to municipal construction files.
Practice areas / surviving features. The former #4 green—across Wilder Boulevard—survives as a practice green, a rare in-situ artifact that connects current users with the course’s earlier configuration.
Context of the North Course. The North Course is a distinct, non-Ross 18 that the city attributes to Slim Deathridge (built 1946; comprehensive rebuild in 1997 with all greens, bunkers, and tees redone). Other directories cite 1966 as the original build date under head pro Amos “Slim” Deatherage, also noting Lloyd Clifton’s 1997 redesign. Those differences do not affect the South Course’s provenance but explain why facility-wide data sometimes conflict across sources.
Sources & Notes
Florida Historic Golf Trail – Daytona Beach Golf Club (South Course): concise, sourced narrative on commissioning (1919), construction supervision (Walter B. Hatch), staged openings (1920/1921; 1923), municipal purchase (1943), Ross’s 1944 return (with H.K. Sturdy), greens raised 2–8 feet, 1945 reopening, high-profile 1945–46 exhibitions, 1947 Florida Amateur, present-day par 71 and 3,800–6,200 yards, railroad adjacency on #4, #13, #14, and the old #4 green now used as a practice green.
Florida Department of State press release (Dec. 16, 2016): reiterates staged openings (1921/1923) and Ross’s 1944 redesign of “several holes and greens,” aligning with the Trail narrative.
Daytona Beach Golf Club – official site (“Course Details”): identifies South as Ross’s original 18; provides public-access status, practice amenities, and scorecard link; supplies the city’s own history for the North Course (Deathridge 1946; rebuild 1997).
Daytona Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau features (2020–2021): secondary summaries noting Ross authorship of the South, current turtle-backed green character, and recognition on the Florida Historic Golf Trail. Wikipedia – Daytona Beach Golf Course: facility overview (36 holes; municipal ownership) and North Course alternative chronology (1966 Deatherage; 1997 Clifton). Used narrowly to flag discrepancies needing primary records; current South par listed there as 72 conflicts with the club card.