Hyde Park Golf Club

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.