The Park: When a City Bets on Public Golf

The original West Palm Beach Golf Course opened in 1947. By the 2010s, the math was the same math that almost killed Cherokee — declining conditions, declining rounds, budget pressure. The easy move was closure. Convert the land. Walk away.

Instead, West Palm Beach raised $55 million. They didn't renovate the old course. They hired Gil Hanse — the architect behind the Olympic course in Rio, the restoration at Los Angeles Country Club — and told him to build something new. Hanse moved earth on a scale that hadn't been seen in Florida in decades. He created elevation change where there was none, shaped fairways that demand shaped shots, built greens with internal contouring that reward approaches from the right angle. The course reopened in 2023.

It immediately entered the national conversation. NCAA regionals. Rankings. Players making the drive from Jupiter and Hobe Sound to play a public course because the architecture is that good. The Park proves something that should have been obvious: public golf can be great golf. The alternative to closure isn't managed decline. It's investment.

For every Cherokee fighting to stay open on a shoestring, there is a Park waiting to happen — if the city decides the course is worth more as a course than as paddleboats and wildflowers. The money exists. It's a choice.

Part of The Muni Manifesto series.