The Park

Overall Thoughts

If you were trying to craft the ideal place for a kid to grow up playing golf, The Park might be it.

The ambitiously reimagined property boasts a terrific Gil Hanse golf course, which has plenty of playability for beginners yet enough difficulty to test an elite player. It also has a lighted short course, a great short-game area, and a monster putting green, with a casual grab-and-go food service to boot. It’s a place that entices kids, young adults, and even older people to hang around, whether they’re playing or not. That’s the true test for a municipal golf course: does it extend a welcome to kids and the rest of the community, and then is it able to engage them and get them to stick around? The Park passes this test as well as any public facility I’ve seen.

The Park’s 18-hole course has an advantage not typically associated with Florida golf: a stellar property. With the site’s significant movement and sandy soil, architects Gil Hanse, Jim Wagner, and Dirk Ziff had the raw material they needed to create a course that rivals any club in the area, including Seminole.

2 Eggs

The Park offers one of the best golf courses in the entire state of Florida. Its mixture of sophisticated design, sandy soil, rolling topography, and superb playing conditions also makes this one of the finest designs in Hanse’s portfolio.

Course Tour

No. 1, par 5, 564 yards

The Park’s opener gives a preview of what is to come. There is plenty of space off the tee, but scoring requires thought, precision, and execution. The bunker sitting about 100 yards from the green forces a decision on the second shot while also obscuring how much space is right of the green. It pushes people left to a less-advantageous angle. The green features a massive false front, which can lead to tricky pitch shots, particularly on a player’s first hole of the day.

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No. 2, par 4, 417 yards

Playing back to the clubhouse, the star of this par 4 is a green that runs away at a fairly severe clip. I particularly enjoy playing No. 2 as a drive-and-pitch hole from a forward tee; hitting a half-wedge into this green is one of the more vexing shots on the course.

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No. 3, par 3, 158 yards

Another outstanding green, which can make this par 3 play drastically different depending on hole location. Up front pins are more gettable, while a hole location on the back-right shelf requires a combination of an excellent shot and the courage to take it on.

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No. 4, par 4, 477 yards

A stellar long par 4 presents a wide fairway off the tee. Playing safely short of the bunkers on the right will leave a blind shot into the green. Taking on the left will require a sizable carry off the tee, but opens up the view of this bunkerless green.

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No. 5, par 3, 260 yards

A beast of a par 3 that requires some lumber to get home. The green is awesome, with a trough cutting diagonally across it, creating distinct sections. A lot of courses would have made this hole a par 4, but it’s better as a hard par 3.

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Favorite Hole

No. 6, par 4, 395 yards

This mid-length par 4 has two distinct features. Players first contend with a pronounced mound in the center of the fairway. Then they encounter a two-tiered green, with a small high side on the right that tumbles down to a lower shelf on the left. The green interacts with the hole wonderfully due to its angle and the large shelf. When the pin is on the lower left side, it is quite beneficial to take on the riskier left side of the mound-divided fairway. Playing left means contending with the natural right-to-left slope of the fairway, as well as a series of bunkers down the left that divide No. 8 from No. 6. This is also the ideal spot to play into the high-right hole location, but the advantage is slightly less pronounced. The dead-center mound plays an important role here, as it’s the worst place to find from the tee thanks to its awkward slope. Upslope and side-slope shots with high-lofted clubs make high-level players uncomfortable, and hitting into this green when the wind is up requires precision if you want to score.

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No. 7, par 3, 201 yards

Another of The Park’s stunning par 3s, this hole plays as a reverse Redan. Land it short left of the green and watch it kick in.

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No. 8, par 4, 453 yards

A beast of a par 4 that has some of the most dramatic land on the course. The fairway moves down and dips before rising to the terrific green site. This grand hole would fit into and be a standout on any first-tier golf course in South Florida.

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No. 9, par 5, 586 yards

Boundary-hole fans will delight in the par-5 ninth, which runs along an out-of-bounds line. This hole is all about avoiding both OB and the bunkers. A tee shot to the right side of the fairway makes attempting to get home in two much easier.

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No. 10, par 4, 453 yards

The start to the back nine bends around a series of bunkers. A word to the wise: play farther left than you think you should off the tee. The second shot plays down to a green that is draped beautifully on the ground, with a few spines that create fun sections.

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No. 11, par 3, 186 yards

Maybe The Park’s most picturesque par 3, the 11th looks like it was imported from the Australian Sandbelt. This multi-tiered green has wavy contours and deep bunkers which challenge a player’s appetite for risk. It’s important to note at this point how each of the three par 3s thus far are challenging to score on for a good player, but each could be approached with a putter if desired from the forward tees. It’s extraordinarily hard to make a 2 but fairly easy to make a 4. An ideal balance.

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No. 12, par 4, 474 yards

This long par 4 plays over a ridge, which makes the approach into the massive punchbowl green a blind one. Behind the green is the tie-dyed caveman that figures into a lot of The Park’s social media posts. It serves as a visual aid, giving players in the fairway an idea of where to find the middle of the putting surface. The punchbowl green has some stellar internal contouring, with a knob middle right.

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No. 13, par 4, 430 yards

Along with the eighth, the 13th, which feels like it’s transplanted from nearby Seminole, is one of the most challenging par 4s on the property. It plays up a ridge, and the green sits on a perch. Any shot short of the green repels down and away to the right; the severe false front and shallow green amplify this effect. Keen players will check out the hole location on the 15th green nearby, which is blind from many approach angles.

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No. 14, par 4, 519 yards

This par 4 plays back down the ridge to a generous fairway. Challenging the left side dramatically shortens this beast of a hole. The approach, often made with long irons and fairway woods, is receptive to running shots.

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No. 15, par 5, 510 yards

A shorter hole than No. 14 yet a par 5 instead of a par 4, the 15th plays up the ridge again. The property line runs along the right, and playing close to it unlocks the guarded green and gives a potential look at the flag. Long hitters will attempt to get home in two. The green is situated on a hard left-to-right angle, with fronting mounds that reject slightly weak or offline shots. These mounds are a great feature for this uphill par 5, as they make the heroic attempt difficult while also adding a strategic element to any layup. The ideal place to attack with a wedge is over the series of bunkers on the right, which is a long carry. The easiest layup is left and short of the bunkers, but that leaves a blind shot from a poor angle. Simply a marvelous par 5.

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No. 16, par 4, 303 yards

This drivable par 4 plays along the back side of the property’s central ridge. The green sits on the edge of the ridge, and everything tumbles off to the right. Long and narrow, the green rewards those who are able to take on the aggressive left line. The simple, brilliant concept of the hole is that the natural tilt of the land sends any slightly right shot farther away and to a worse angle.

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No. 17, par 3, 174 yards

A beautiful and dramatic par 3, No. 17 is all about distance control into the green, which is shallow and pitched on a left-to-right angle. Speaking from experience, the bunkers short left are very deep and not to be messed with.

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No. 18, par 5, 586 yards

The long finisher offers plenty of space for players to hit full send on one final tee shot. The green sits on a ridge, and a dip short of the front makes it possible to run long approach attempts onto the green by catching the downslope.

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Additional Content

The Park in West Palm Beach Is a Model for Great Municipal Golf (article)

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