By: Wayne Mills
Built in 1924 as the centerpiece of Coral Gables, by George Merrick, the 400-room Biltmore Hotel and its classic Moorish Giralda Tower became the place to be in South Florida during the Roaring Twenties.
In keeping with Merrick’s intentions to create nothing but the finest country club, Donald Ross, the preeminent golf course architect of that period, was hired to lay out 36 holes in the shadow of the hotel.
The Biltmore became a fashionable mecca for royalty, Hollywood stars, politicians, gangsters and sports legends. The Miami Biltmore Open became a popular stop for professional golfers in the 1930’s. Familiar names such as, Gene Sarazen, Walter Hagen, Horton Smith and Paul Runyan, all won trophies there.
The high times at the Biltmore ended abruptly in 1942, when the United States entered World War II. The War Department commandeered the entire property for use as a hospital and set about bricking up windows and putting linoleum over the marble floors. After the war the Veterans Administration used the property until 1968, when they abandoned it.
After much lobbying, the federal government transferred title to the city in 1973. The hotel then sat empty for another ten years and continued to fall deeper into disrepair to the point it was used as a movie set for horror films.
In 1983 the city spent $55 million over four years to restore the property only to close again in 1990 during an economic recession.
The present ownership took control of the hotel in 1993, when Gene Prescott, manager of the Seaway Hotels Corporation signed a 99-year lease to assume ownership. In 2007 the new owners committed $3 million to update the golf course.
Golf course architect and Ross expert, Brian Silva, who had done considerable work on other Ross layouts such as, Augusta Country Club, Palm Beach Country Club and Brookside Country Club, in Columbus, Ohio. He directed the efforts updating the greens and rebuilding fairway bunkers.
In early 2016, Bob Coman, Biltmore’s Director of Golf, had an idea to bring Silva back to once again restore the Ross Course to its former glory.
The Biltmore is the only National Historic Hotel in Florida and is the center piece of Coral Gables. The city commission gave unanimous support to the idea since it maintained and enhanced historic preservation of the entire property.
When Chief Financial Officer Jim Pelletier signed off on Silva’s plan, construction bids began rolling in and the project was on the fast track heading for a December, 2018 reopening.
Ross’s original plans showed vastly different bunkering than what was there in 2018. “It had big and strong bunkering originally,” Silva noted. “The idea was, within reason, to reflect its history, but more contemporary…putting some back and some repositioned….restore original intent, not just original location.”
Over 100 trees were removed, fairway and greenside bunkers repositioned to original specs and the back tees were stretched to 7,112 yards, “The fairway movement was rediscovered. It really accentuates the aesthetics and strategies that Ross intended,” said Silva.
Another improvement is the addition of the Jim McLean Golf School with specially designed practice areas, plus it is now the home course of the University of Miami‘s women’s golf team.
The Biltmore Hotel and its old world charm has been brought back to its former glory with modern amenities and its Golden Age Donald Ross golf course is now in the same class.
