Medalist

Shortly after the course opened, the club hosted Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf, which featured a match between The Shark and Nick Price. This televised event catapulted Medalist onto numerous ranking lists.

“In its early years, the Medalist was widely viewed as a modern classic,” wrote Daniel Wexler in The American Private Golf Club Guide, “its innovative Pete Dye/Greg Norman design wandering across the scruffy, marsh-dotted South Florida landscape, frequently culminating in ground game-oriented putting surfaces whose surrounds drew comparisons to Pinehurst. Unfortunately, club founder Norman has since altered some of Dye’s unique features, leaving a course whose 75.0 rating speaks to its difficulty, but which many discerning players find a bit less appealing than before.”

Since the early accolades, the Medalist has been widely ignored by most ranking lists but it is undoubtedly still one of Florida’s best courses. “More importantly,” wrote Norman, “it possesses many design features worth emulating: broad fairways, turf kept firm and running with greens open in front, greens set at angles dictating the appropriate spot from which to play, and finally, fascinating recovery shots for those times that you miss the green. To achieve so much from a flat piece of land makes it a design worthy of much study.”

“It is weird to speak of ‘restoring’ a course that’s only twenty years old,” commented Tom Doak in The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses Volume 2, but that’s exactly what The Medalist needs after an endless series of changes over the years by its co-designer Greg Norman. Mr. Dye’s track record of changing his own courses is not that reassuring either, so former Dye protégé Bobby Weed is being brought in to sort it all out.”

Bobby Weed commented as follows: “The renovation of Medalist Golf Club was completed to restore the style and strategy of Pete Dye’s original layout. While an exact replica was not the goal, we derived considerable inspiration from photographs of the course taken in 1995 and a video of the Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf match… Several specific steps that were taken include lowering the putting surfaces and reducing their size to what first existed. The new green complexes now encourage a running approach shot and demand dynamic short game play. Revetted sod walls have been returned to the bunker faces and the hazards once again occupy the inside corners of the fairways, tempting players to go for ever-longer carries off the tee. The native aesthetic of the course was enhanced by ‘painting’ new coquina-like screenings and native plant material around the perimeters of each hole, while previously overgrown long views and vistas across the expansive marshes have been re-established. Our hope is that the cumulative effect of these improvements stirs the membership’s soul and cultivates their passion for the game. Once again, they have a golf experience that offer intelligence, authenticity and flair – attributes only the greatest golf clubs enjoy.”

Fast-forward to 2020 and Bobby Weed’s herculean renovation was showcased during Capital One's The Match: Champions for Charity featuring Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning against Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady. It was a poignant return to center stage for Medalist Golf Club, twenty-five years after Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf match, and maybe the latest televised charity event will help rekindle some lost ranking love.