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DONALD ROSS NEWS FEED
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"The article traces the unlikely arc of Dunedin Golf Club, a Donald Ross design on Florida’s Gulf Coast, just north of Tampa, born in the boom years of the 1920s, humbled by the Depression and reborn as a municipal course long before “muni” became a bootstrapping badge of honor. Along the way, it served as the PGA of America’s headquarters, hosted 18 straight Senior PGA Championships and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, even as it drifted from its Golden Age roots."
Tags: Donald Ross; Florida; Kris Spence; Public Golf; Restoration
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When the Ross Expert Speaks - He Affirms Charles River's Standing Among the Finest in New England
The Donald Ross Society held an outing at Charles River this summer, attended by Brad Becken, one of the Society’s longest-serving leaders and a nationally recognized authority on Donald Ross’s work. Mr. Becken has served the Society in several key capacities, including President and Executive Secretary.
Mr. Becken is widely regarded for his comprehensive knowledge of Ross’s design principles, his extensive familiarity with original Ross plans and archival materials, and his practical counsel to clubs engaged in restoration, renovation, or long-term planning. He is frequently the initial point of contact for clubs seeking authoritative guidance on how best to preserve or restore Ross’s architectural intent.
In his published assessments, Mr. Becken has written that Charles River is the most underrated Ross course in New England. Moreover, he ranks Charles River as the finest Ross course in the region and among his top three Ross designs overall.
Mr. Becken has evaluated or consulted with dozens of Ross clubs and has played more than 300 Ross-designed courses. His perspective on Charles River therefore reflects one of the broadest and most experienced views within the Ross community.
The Donald Ross Society is a nationally respected nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Donald Ross–designed golf courses. Since its founding in 1989, the Society has become a leading voice in the modern restoration movement. Its mission is to support courses in maintaining—and, when appropriate, restoring—the strategic, artistic, and playable characteristics that define Ross’s work.
Tags: Brad Becken, Donald Ross, Massachusetts, Private Golf
"The group, Calumet Collaborative, is comprised of disparate parties interested in saving both the golf course, a century-old design of famed architect Donald Ross, and the acreage itself. They banded together in recent days in response to the decision of W&E Ventures, the current property owner, to close the golf course permanently and to seek permission from Hazel Crest to get it rezoned for industrial use to sell it to Ryan Industries."
Tags: Development; Donald Ross; Illinois
“ His grandson, Dr. Bob Jones IV, will visit Sara Bay on February 27, 2026, for a fireside chat to discuss his grandfather’s involvement in the club’s history, and to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Match of the Century.”
Tags: Bobby Jones; Centennial; Donald Ross; Florida; Kris Spencer; Restoration
"The action began with the Donald Ross Closest-to-the-Hole Challenge. Justin Foster (Ridgewood Country Club) earned top honors with a pinpoint tee shot that finished just inside seven feet, claiming a substantial luxury gift package from Donald Ross Sportswear."
Tags: Donald Ross; Leadership
"The Woodberry Forest School in the rolling hills of central Virginia boasts something very few (if any) high schools in the world can claim - its very own Donald Ross course right in the middle of its bucolic campus. It's a nine-hole course with small, crowned greens. It weaves down and back up the hill three times, around athletic fields, past cattle pastures and in the shadows of the gymnasium and chapel and infirmary that each can come into play with a wayward approach shot."
Tags: Donald Ross; Public Golf; Virginia
“ Calumet became my home during a formative stretch of my late 20s and early 30s. It was a good golf course, originally designed by Donald Ross, that had overtime fallen victim to a number of events: a highway expansion that reduced its total land and altered the golf course, thousands of ill-advised tree plantings, shrinking green sizes, and of course, the economic crash in 2008, which sent the club’s membership spiraling into a bad place.”
Tags: Course Closure; Donald Ross; Illinois; Private Golf; Public Golf
"Club officials worried that if the problem was not addressed, the golf course would slowly, inevitably, decline into a kind of swampy miasma: at best, without the lively ground-game attributes that had always been prized at Seminole; at worst, a shadow of its former self, akin more to a poorly managed municipal layout only intermittently playable at all."
Tags: Donald Ross; Florida; Gil Hanse
"In 2025 Seminole Golf Club underwent phase one of a project aimed at combatting a rising water table. In addition, the club decided to simultaneously conduct a restoration of their Donald Ross greens and bunkers, hiring Gil Hanse to complete the work."
Tags: Donald Ross; Florida; Gil Hanse; Private Golf; Restoration
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"Bobby Weed’s extensive experience as a Ross historian and restorer, along with his deep knowledge of Palma Ceia, allowed his team to efficiently improve the golf course design, infrastructure and playing experience. The course reopened Oct. 31."
Tags: Bobby Weed; Donald Ross; Florida; Private Golf; Restoration; Tom Bendelow
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