Miami Beach Golf Club

Miami Beach Golf Club is the city's public 18-hole course on Alton Road, a few blocks from the bay side of Miami Beach. It plays to par 72 over 6,813 yards and is open every day, with tee times from early morning into the evening.

The layout opens with a demanding par five to a small, raised green that needs a high, soft approach. The 3rd is a par three played almost entirely over water and usually into the wind, with a huge rolling green, while the 5th is the easiest par five and a real birdie chance for long hitters who can reach it in two.

Practice is a strength here. The driving range is fully lit for evening sessions and has covered bays with fans and lights, plus marked distance targets. You hit from mats Monday to Thursday and from natural grass Friday to Sunday, weather permitting. The Jim McLean Golf School is based at the club, with instructors who teach everyone from beginners to tour players.

The clubhouse restaurant is popular with non-golfers as well, thanks to free parking and a patio overlooking the 18th green. A continental breakfast runs from 6:30am, the kitchen opens at 9am, and weekends bring a full breakfast until 2pm. The pro shop stocks balls, bags, shoes, wedges, putters and Miami Beach logo apparel, and offers club regripping.

The course opened in 1923 as Bayshore Golf Course, part of developer Carl Fisher's Alton Beach subdivision, which was built to tempt wealthy winter visitors from New York, Indianapolis and Detroit. During World War II the U.S. Army rented it for $1 a year as a training ground. In 1944 investors planned to cover it with 650 homes, but neighbors persuaded the city to buy the land and keep the golf course.

Fisher's Mediterranean-style clubhouse was replaced in 1954. Decades later the city funded a $10 million rebuild by Arthur Hills/Steve Forrest and Associates: the turf and most trees were stripped, the lakes were drained and reshaped, the hills and bunkers resculpted and a new clubhouse built, and Bayshore reopened as Miami Beach Golf Club.

Since 2011 the club has co-hosted the South Beach International Amateur with Normandy Shores in the week before Christmas. Kelly Kraft won the first edition over 72 holes, and the event has become one of the strongest amateur fields in the world.