The city's December 2025 schedule had the Delray Beach Golf Club reopening in November 2026, with the course, clubhouse and new practice facilities all coming back that month. That target has moved. The project's renovation site now lists both the golf course and the clubhouse as "Expected to re-open February of 2027."
The Highland Avenue course's original nine holes opened in 1926, so it reached its 100th year behind construction fencing. When it reopens, it will look less like the city course people remember and more like two period pieces placed side by side, each tied to a different architect and a different decade.
Two architects, 25 years apart, on one property
The split goes back a century. Donald Ross got the Delray Beach commission in 1924, and the first city-owned nine opened two years later, according to Golf Course Industry's September 2026 feature on the project. The Great Depression stopped the second nine. In those lean years the club pro and greenkeeper was Dick Wilson, who went on to become a major golf architect himself. The course closed during World War II. After it reopened in 1945, the city hired Wilson to design the second nine. His nine, one of his first solo designs, opened in 1950 north of the clubhouse.
Most classic-course renovations try to give all 18 holes one consistent style. Here the designers, John Sanford and David Ferris of Jupiter-based Sanford Ferris Golf Design, went the other way. One nine will be entirely Ross and the other entirely Wilson.
South nine | North nine | |
|---|---|---|
Architect | Donald Ross | Dick Wilson |
Opened | 1926 | 1950 |
What the designers worked from | Ross's routing plan and surviving site notes | 1953 aerial photography; Wilson left no plans |
Planned length | 3,603 yards | 3,508 yards |
Bobby Jones Links, the company now managing the club, describes a par-72 course playing from 4,611 to 7,111 yards, with the yardages still subject to adjustment.
A restoration with almost nothing original left to restore
Golf Course Industry reports that after decades of municipal play, several renovations and a number of hurricanes, the routing had "next to nothing in terms of surviving features."
The search went down into the greens themselves. Crews from NMP, the contractor, peeled back layers from earlier green rebuilds looking for the black soil layer Ross used to hold moisture in his putting surfaces. Sanford told the magazine the results were incomplete as a historic reference because earlier renovations had removed or altered the original Ross green pad.
So the course coming back is an interpretation built from what survived on paper and film: Ross's notes for the south nine and the 1953 aerials for the north nine. All 18 greens are being rebuilt to USGA specifications, with different green contours and bunker styles on each nine.
Turf ties the two nines together
With the two nines intentionally different, the designers used turf and sand to make the course read as one property. The greens are TifEagle, the fairways are Bimini, and the unirrigated outer areas are Pensacola Bahiagrass.
The sand came out of the Wilson side. Sanford told Golf Course Industry that the 1953 aerials showed Wilson leaving a lot of sand exposed between holes, so the team began experimenting on the north nine:
"The sand here is white as sugar; the locals call it 'sugar sand.' The NMP shapers came up with some awesome, scoured-out, windswept blowouts. We all loved the way they looked. So we carried them through the entire golf course, about 25 acres worth, as a unifying element."
The Bahia was chosen for "that meadow, native-field look," in Sanford's words. Irrigation designer The Pignato Group is keeping water off it as much as possible, because dry Bahia plays more open. Darryl Bartlett of NMP told the magazine the grass gets a seed head and is being used almost as a "Southern fescue" to frame holes and influence decisions off the tee. He called the look rugged and "very different from the typical manicured South Florida golf presentation."
Anyone who last played the course before November 2025 will need to adjust. A missed fairway may now end in a sandy waste area or a stand of seeded meadow grass instead of a mowed rough.
Why February instead of November
The grass was never what held up the schedule. NMP broke ground on December 1, 2025, and the course was substantially grassed by mid-summer. Golf Course Industry notes that a typical Florida renovation doesn't even break ground until April. In June, WPTV reported that the project was 50 percent complete, the Wilson nine was fully grassed, the Ross nine was being grassed, and the city was still aiming for November.
The remaining work is everything around the course. NMP, which is also the general contractor, said the remaining civil work on the maintenance building, the Lake Worth Canal and the clubhouse should be done by December. Bobby Jones Links is overseeing the grow-in. Golf Course Industry was clear that the city will decide when the course has its grand reopening and when public play resumes.
The rest of the city's scope covers the parts golfers handle every round: new irrigation and drainage, removal of exotic vegetation, new cart paths, a cart crossing on the Ross nine, and restroom and rain-shelter upgrades. The city's facility listing adds new on-course restrooms, a replacement cart bridge on the south nine, parking lot improvements and new practice facilities.
What the project costs, by source
The total depends on whose figure you use, because each source is counting something different:
- $28.5 million. The NMP Golf Construction contract the City Commission approved in October 2025, as reported by The Coastal Star.
- $30 million. The project budget the city gave WPTV in June 2026, which it said had not changed since construction began.
- $32 million. The figure Bobby Jones Links used in its April 2026 announcement.
- $33 million. The cap on the revenue bonds the Commission authorized on October 21, 2025, under Resolution 257-25. This is a borrowing limit, not a record of what was spent.
On the same day, the Commission adopted Resolution 231-25. It sets a maximum rate structure for the course, clubhouse and related facilities and followed a rate study of 29 comparable courses. That resolution sets the upper limit on what the city can charge after reopening. The actual 2026-27 green fees haven't been published. The rates page on the club's website still shows a 2024 summer-rates graphic, so treat those numbers as a record of the old course, not a preview of the new one.
Where the course stands as you read this
These points are settled:
- The course closed November 3, 2025.
- Construction began December 1, 2025.
- Both nines were grassed over the summer, and the grow-in is under Bobby Jones Links.
- Civil work on the maintenance building, canal and clubhouse is expected to finish by December.
- The project site lists February 2027 as the expected reopening for both the course and the clubhouse.
These are still open: the exact reopening day, any opening event, the new rate table, whether the old resident-card and loyalty discounts carry over, and the plans for food and drink in the renovated clubhouse. No centennial celebration for the 1926 Ross nine has been announced either. The renovation site posts drone footage as work moves forward, most recently from July 28, 2026, and it's the first place to check for a firm date.
Lakeview is the city's open course this winter
Until February, the city's other course is the one you can book. Bobby Jones Links took over management of both city courses in April. Lakeview Golf Club is at 1200 Dover Road. It is a public par-60 executive course of 3,006 yards, about the length of one nine on the renovated Highland Avenue layout, and tee times can be booked online on the club's tee-time page. On a par-60 layout, the irons and short game get a full workout, and that's good preparation for greens that will play differently from the ones that closed last November.
At Engel & Völkers Fort Lauderdale, we follow changes like this one across Delray Beach, from the course on Highland Avenue to the streets around it. If you'd like to talk about what the February reopening means for the west side of town, or about owning near one of the city's courses, please contact us.
