Study could determine fate of municipal golf course

A full range of options will be considered when a consultant is hired by the city in fiscal 2026 to examine the future of its municipal golf course.

The 76-year-old New Smyrna Golf Club on Wayne Avenue is operated by city employees. It is notable as one of 50 courses on Florida’s Historic Golf Trail and as one of the last courses designed by architect Donald Ross who died in 1948. Ross drew up plans for some of the country’s most fabled courses, including Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina, the site of four U.S. Open Championships.

Golfers love history but the city has its eyes on the future and its finances. The decades-old clubhouse and other infrastructure will need to be updated at some point, so the city made plans to hire a consultant to study whether to invest in improvements or get out of the golf business.

“The goal is to explore long term options, whether to retain, invest, repurpose or divest, and determine the most cost- effective use of the property,” said Jo Anne Drury, the city’s finance director, at the Aug. 6 budget workshop where the study was announced.

This account of the club’s financial performance and history is based on documents provided by city staff; historical records from the Reference Library of the New Smyrna Museum of History; interviews with Greg Holbrook, the museum’s executive director; coverage by New Smyrna Beach News in 1947 and 1948; and a 1997 history pamphlet written by Ted Grisell, then a retired medical doctor from Indianapolis who began visiting New Smyrna Beach in 1949.

Financially speaking, the club’s revenues rose from $1.9 million in 2022 to $2.1 million in 2023 and $2.3 million in 2024. The course took in $233,000 more in 2024 than was spent on maintenance and administration of it. Year-to-date figures were not provided for 2025, but anecdotally speaking, business has been good following the reopening of the driving range after the net and poles were knocked down by Hurricane Milton last October.

“We’ve been busier than we have been in any year since I’ve been here,” said Celeste Sanwick, the head pro shop attendant, referring to her 20 years at the course.

There is also the matter of the 1948 agreement under which the 150-acre property was acquired from a resort located on what was then the city’s sparsely developed western fringe. The city agreed to “permit the said property to be used for no other purpose” than a golf course, and this promise was repeated later in the document as a pledge not to use the property “for any purpose other than a golf course,” according to the text of the agreement reproduced in the Grisell pamphlet.

In early 1947, New Smyrna Beach, like much of the country, was ready for some normalcy after the end of World War II in August 1945.  The city had relinquished some of its most prized properties to the federal government to aid the war effort: “Giving up its municipal golf course, its Angler’s Club, its City park and its Chamber of Commerce building, were only a few of the many, many sacrifices made gladly by this thriving little city during the all-out drive to win World War II,” declared a 1947 article in New Smyrna Beach News.

The original municipal course consisted of some holes near the landing strips that would become the New Smyrna Beach Airport, according to Holbrook, the museum executive director. That site is about three quarters of a mile from the location of today’s course.

When the U.S. entered the war, naval aviators began using the airstrips for training while golfers played on the surrounding holes. Then, in November 1942, a letter arrived at City Hall from the Navy: The landing strips were “being used regularly by Squadron 13 from the Naval Air Station, Jacksonville, for training purposes,” a lieutenant wrote. “Continued use of the golf course by residents of New Smyrna Beach is a serious hazard to both the public and Navy personnel,” the lieutenant explained. Would the city close the course?

The city must have done so, judging by a letter of appreciation that arrived the next month from a rear admiral over the Navy’s use of the landing strips: “I wish to take this opportunity to thank the Commissioners and citizens of New Smyrna Beach for their patriotic action in making this contribution to the war effort,” the rear admiral wrote.

In 1947, golfers and city leaders were ready to get their municipal course back. During the war, the grass landing strips had been developed into an airport. That could be why the municipal course was not returned to that site, although a 1947 advertisement in New Smyrna Beach News invited golfers to come to the “driving range” and “putt and pitch” area at the airport.

It’s at this point that William F. Tydings comes into the historical record. He was president and treasurer of Indian River Plantation, the resort on the city’s rural periphery.  Tydings approached the city with the idea of the resort donating some of its property for a new municipal golf course.

Indian River Plantation was itself part of the city’s post-War revival, having replaced a getaway called the Indian River Ranch in 1946. This was a “dude ranch,” according to Holbrook – a place where visitors came to experience the cowboy way of life. Indian River Plantation retained a riding stable and bridle path and struck a higher-end tone. Writeups and ads in the newspaper promised “lazy days in the warm sunshine, quiet cottages for study,” a well-appointed dining room and main lodge, plus tennis courts and “pool bathing.”

During negotiations with the city over transfer of the property, a drawing showing the layout of the proposed “Indian River Plantation and Municipal Golf Course” was published in New Smyrna Beach News. It shows the clubhouse roughly where it is today, plus a bridle path around the periphery of the course. The resort’s pool, cabin and other facilities are shown tucked in the southeast corner, roughly where the Indian River Plantation neighborhood is today.

Initially, the talks centered on a 99-year lease for the property at a fee of a dollar per year. That idea apparently faded during the months of negotiations. The property transfer agreement was signed on September 28, 1948. The city took ownership of the property with several stipulations, including that the property be used only as a golf course. The resort would save money on county property taxes.

Nine holes were opened in early 1949, according to an account on the website of the Florida Department of State. A title dispute over some of the land halted work on the back nine until four holes were added in 1953. The remaining five were completed in 1956 and those were opened for play in 1957, according to this account.

Today, no horseback riders trot along the periphery of the course, but at last 74 homes abut it, some with footbridges leading over a small drainage creek and onto the course. One current listing touts the property’s “Golf-front” location.

DISCLOSURE: The author and his wife live next to the municipal golf course.

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