Delray Beach Golf Club Turns 100 Behind a Fence and Is Now Due Back in February
November 12, 2026
November 12, 2026
The fairways along Highland Avenue, just west of I-95 and south of Atlantic, have been closed since November 3, 2025. In that time the Delray Beach Golf Club reached its 100th year. A nine-hole course opened on this land in 1926, and the city has spent its centennial year rebuilding it. The latest schedule from the City's renovation team says the course and the clubhouse will both reopen in February 2027.
The delay is more than a schedule note. The renovation is designed to bring back a course that had largely lost its original character. When the gates open next winter, the course is meant to play more like the 1926 and 1950 layouts than the one that closed in 2025.
The course's history explains why its designers are rebuilding it the way they are. According to the City's project summary and its December 2025 release, the timeline runs like this:
The man who designed the course's second nine had worked as its greenskeeper before the war.
The City's December 30, 2025 release gave a November 2026 reopening for the course. The new practice facilities were also due back in November 2026, and the clubhouse was to stay open through December 2025, be renovated alongside the course, and reopen in November 2026.
In April 2026, Bobby Jones Links announced that it had been selected to manage the City's two courses, and it described the reopening window as "late 2026 or early 2027." In September, Boca Raton Magazine reported that the project was making significant progress and estimated a late November reopening.
The renovation project's own site now lists February 2027 for both the course and the clubhouse. Its most recent visual update is drone footage dated July 28, 2026. February sits in the middle of the season the City's rate plans call peak, which runs November through April. If the date holds, the restored course opens with a little over two months of high season left in the 2026–27 winter.
The City brought in Sanford Ferris Golf Design, supported by Kimley-Horn and Associates, and Bobby Jones Links names John Sanford as the renovation architect. The project's stated goal is to restore and preserve the course in line with the vision of its original architects, Donald Ross and Dick Wilson, while bringing it up to current standards.
The City's project summary admits that much of the original design is gone. Michael Fay of the Donald Ross Society toured the course and agreed that not much of Ross's work remains. He also praised Wilson's work and supported restoring the other nine in Wilson's style. The City still wants to keep the Donald Ross designation and use the course's design history to guide the restoration of all 18 holes.
That gives the renovation an unusual goal. The new course is meant to look older than the one that closed. Betty Jameson, an LPGA Hall of Famer and longtime Delray resident, described the course at its peak in a remembrance the City quotes on its project page:
"It was accurate in measurement, had excellent fairways and exceptional drainage."
Drainage was the course's strength in the 1950s, and the renovation addresses it directly. The work list includes:
The clubhouse is also being renovated to modernize the building.
Funding matters for green fees because this renovation is paid for by golfers. Boca Raton Magazine reports that the City approved the renovation in October 2025 and is financing it with a revenue bond, which will be repaid over time from user fees. The magazine puts the cost at $33 million.
A different plan came first. Two years earlier, the City Commission considered a public-private partnership in which a developer would redevelop the course in exchange for part of the land. Six developers submitted proposals, and the commission rejected all of them after residents and golfers opposed the idea. A City consultant later suggested the revenue bond so that taxpayers would not carry the cost. So the course stayed whole and stayed public, and green fees now carry the cost of the renovation.
The consultant also proposed peak-season rates of $80 for residents and $105 for non-residents for 18 holes, November through April. Off-season rates would be $39 and $47. On October 21, 2025, the City Commission approved Resolution 231-25, which sets a maximum rate structure for the course, the clubhouse and related facilities. These are a proposal and a set of caps. The fees posted at the counter in February may be different.
Under the consultant's plan, residents would pay $25 less than non-residents for a peak-season round. The proof of residency at City recreation facilities is the Residency Activities Card. The City Clerk's page says the card gives Delray Beach residents reduced rates at City recreation and leisure facilities, including the golf course, subject to each facility's rules.
Here is what the City lists:
These eligibility rules come from the City, and the details of your own household are what count. This post is general information, not legal or financial advice. Confirm your eligibility with the City Clerk's office before you rely on a resident rate.
The City still has a course open in town. Lakeview Golf Club at 1200 Dover Road is the City's second municipal course. It is a public, 18-hole, par-60 executive course that plays 3,006 yards from the back tees, and the City lists a pro shop and snack bar on site. Bobby Jones Links manages Lakeview along with Delray Beach Golf Club. Tee times can be booked online through Lakeview's website.
Lakeview is a different kind of round. Par 60 over about 3,000 yards means more short holes and a quicker loop than a full-length course. For the stretch between now and February, it is the City-run option for golfers who want to stay close to home.
When Delray Beach Golf Club reopens next winter, the city will again have two public courses under one manager. One will be the short course on Dover Road. The other will be the century-old Ross and Wilson course on Highland Avenue, restored to the style of its original architects. The project site lists February 2027 as the reopening month for both the course and the clubhouse.
A restored course with a hundred years of history affects the homes around it, from the views to the way a property is described when it comes to market. If you're thinking about buying or selling near the Delray Beach Golf Club in the months before it reopens, Tanya Ajay can walk you through the timing and show you how to present a home near a course with this history. Schedule a Private Consultation.
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