In Mount Dora, Golf Means History
Mount Dora veterans came back from the Second World War with a need for a serene green space—and then built the city’s golf course with determination a mule
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On Nov. 19, the Mount Dora Golf Club hosts the Golden Triangle Veterans Memorial Golf Benefit, with proceeds going to Cornerstone Hospice. The Lake Veterans Club, VFW Post 8087, American Legion Post 35 and Amvets Post 1992 are collaborating on the event. Open to the public, a $60 entry fee gets 18 holes of golf in a 4-person scramble, free beer on the course, a hole in one contest, free lunch at the American Veterans Post 920, and prizes. Shotgun start is at 8 a.m.
As the Mount Dora Golf Club celebrates its 70th anniversary, this is the kind of event which characterizes the club — a living memorial to veterans with deep roots in the community.
Also this November, Mount Dora’s Historic Preservation board will present a historic marker to the club, recognizing its significance in Mount Dora history.
The course is also recognized on the Florida Historic Golf Trail, a program of the Florida Department of State, Division of Historical Resources. Florida’s golf history is among the oldest in the nation, with the earliest courses created along with the development of railroads and hotels in the state. The Trail recognizes 50 Florida courses established between 1897 and 1949. Today there are more than 1,300 golf facilities statewide, generating $13.8 billion in economic impact.
The city of Mount Dora owns the property, but the club and buildings and course layout belong to members, and the course is open to the public. Course fees are cheap — currently $28 to play on weekends, $25 for weekdays — and membership can be year-round or for six months.
The club is facing some strong challenges this year. Changing leisure attitudes have reduced membership from a high of 300 back in the 1990s to a “very loyal core” of 50. The attrition in membership fees have made it necessary to hold off on updates on the course and clubhouse. Mother Nature has been unkind, too, delivering a lightning strike last summer to the pump which feeds water to the course. Greens wilted in the fierce heat of July and August. The course is now making a comeback, but it still has a ways to go. The annual Invitational tournament, normally scheduled in October, was moved to next spring so the club can get the course in the best shape that it can.
Club president Bob Schmitz says the club is in the process of hiring a new general manager, and this week, a $75,000 GoFundMe fundraiser is being launched to help get the club back in the black.
The Mount Dora Golf Club is not alone in some of these challenges. The Country Club of Mount Dora has struggled to keep its golf course financially afloat, turning to residents earlier this year to increase “social” memberships, i.e., all club amenities excluding golf. A number of golf courses have closed in recent years, including Sabal Point, Lake Orlando, Windemere, Eastwood and Rock Springs Ridge.
Times are changing, but the Mount Dora Golf Club is fighting for its place in the sun.
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Any account of Mount Dora would be incomplete without including the one behind its golf club.
As the story goes, veterans returning home to Mount Dora from the European and South Pacific theaters at the end of the Second World War were looking for some desperately-needed R&R. Mount Dora had a public swimming pool, lawn bowling, tennis courts and even a yacht club — but no golf course.
When the vets went to the city to see if one could be built, officials replied that they didn’t have the money for one. But there was 85 acres of land out by the county line that was in tax arrears, and officials said that if the vets were willing to do the work themselves and with no city financing, they could be granted a 100-year lease on the land.
The vets agreed and got to work, carving out nine holes on an elevated site off Highland Street. Using a mule, they began clearing the dense acreage of pine trees. When the mule died from overexertion, the vets obtained a military surplus bulldozer, and the work plowed on. (Legend has it that the mule is buried somewhere on the course.)
On Dec. 15, 1945, the Hilltop Course as it was called officially opened when course designer Cliff Deming hit the first drive off the tee at the #1 hole. The club was incorporated as the Mount Dora Golf Club and William Wadsworth, who contributed $50,000 toward the construction, became its first president.
Back then, the clubhouse was a little pavilion, and then an old railroad car. A gas station was converted into the first pro shop, and a small shed was used for parking carts.
In the 1950s another nine holes were added. The current clubhouse was built in 1965, with a banquet area big enough for events — wedding receptions, reunions and dances. A new pro shop was added, and men’s and women’s lounges, and larger sheds for golf carts. A tennis court was put in behind the old pro shop.
When American Legion Post 35 were looking for a location, the club offered up three acres on their southeast corner for the facility. It was an easy fit for Mount Dora’s veterans.
The club brought a resident pro on board named Brooks Barth in 1994. According to club old-timers, Barth was a wonderful teacher and “great with the ladies.” The club helped financed Barth’s heart transplant back in 1997, and Barth remained at the club until his death in 2006.
A number of luminaries have played the course, the most famous being In-Bee Park, the #1 ranked golfer on the Ladies Professional Golf Association back in 2014. Park began playing at the course as an 8th-grader at Mount Dora Christian, winning her first tournament at the Mount Dora course.
In the 1990s when the Country Club of Mount Dora was built, a more upscale golf experience was offered to area residents. (The more devoted players could also build houses next to their favorite greens.) Some of the drift in membership was surely attributed to this.
Whatever the case, the Mount Dora Golf Club stuck to its roots as a blue-collar club, attracting veterans, union and working retirees. “We’re a working-man’s club, not a country club,” says president Bob Schmitz, himself retired military. “We more laid back and informal.”
That’s not to say the Mount Dora Golf Club course is easier, too. The par-70 course is nicknamed “the longest 5,700 yards in Florida,” with all sorts of down and uphill lies. The course record is 56, high for relatively short course.
“Our course is smaller than many, but don’t let that fool you,” Schmitz says. “It’s also a rolling one, and most golfers are challenged to hit around trees and manage the changing grade.”
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To get a feel for it, I went for a ride with a long-term member who preferred not to giver he name, climbing aboard a golf cart bearing the distinctive Mount Dora logo. It was around 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning, and about 25 men had just driven out for their round. Hearkening back to more traditional days, the men play on Saturdays and women on Thursdays. It isn’t a rule that’s enforced any more, but not many women players were seen that day.
We started out driving over to the original pro shop that had been converted from a gas station. (The Pistolville eatery once fondly known as the Bucket of Blood now sits under the Medical Village mall just to the east.) Vegetation had grown so densely around the building and you wouldn’t notice it from the road. It’s now used as an occasional rest room. A nearby tennis court was abandoned, last seeing use a few years ago.
Finished with those most unsettling examples of the changing times, we drove out onto the course. I’m not a golfer so I can’t make comparisons, but the view was stunning — quiet, green, rolling, with many oak trees wafting ant moss on a fine breeze and temps around 75.
Seasons make a big difference here. “You have to be a real trooper to play year-round here,” the member said,” though we do have our loyalists. My game isn’t what it used to be, but I just can’t stay away.”
One of the most dramatic drives is the par-5 5th, a 489-yard, downward-sloping green with oak trees encroaching so much from the east you can’t see the pin. “You have to hit a good curve ball to get it round those trees. Some call it the Valley of Death,” she added with a smile.
The reverse plays out in the par 5 6th, 457 yards up a long slope bordered by oak and pine trees on either side. It takes a straight shooter to steer directly uphill, and two of the golfers we paused to watch tee off did it impeccably. (The third golfer — a city official we won’t name — shanked off to one side into the trees, and then proceeded to hammer his wood into the green. Tough shot.)
Some greens are much easier — the 13th is the shortest at 128 yards — many women golfers who’ve had hole-in-ones there. There’s a practice green which is free to the public and quite popular.
The 12th is the course’s “signature” hole, with a small pond and fountain off to the side. Members tend the garden there, as they do across the course on work days. With a maintenance crew of just two, members pitch in a lot, trimming trees and raking bunkers. The women tend the gardens. Members are also out in force for the Invitational tournament.
Beyond the periphery of the course, St. Patrick’s is to the east; US-441 to the north and light industrial and housing to the west on Robie Avenue. Very little of that was visible — the tree canopy is great — creating a calm, insular effect. According to my driver, someone is interested in developing the patch of property leading up to 441 into a hotel — “that would be great.” None of the homeowners along Robie were members of the club — “which is too bad,” she said.
For Mount Dora Golf Club’s 50th anniversary invitational tournament next March, a very special gold-plated trophy is planned. Hopefully the club will be able to attract new members while keeping its laid-back, working-class, veteran-friendly tradition alive.
