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| J.H. Gillespie, Florida's golfing pioneer, in 1905 |
Colonel
John Hamilton Gillespie brought the game of golf to
Sarasota and Florida in May 1886. Gillespie came to
Sarasota as a
representative of the
Florida Mortgage and Investment Company, which
owned the majority of land in the area. He found time to lay out the
first practice course in Florida, of two greens and one long fairway on what is now
Main Street behind his home on
Palm Avenue.
Gillespie practiced his game there for years, as the locals watched in
wonder.
Alex Browning wrote that when he came upon Gillespie playing golf, Gillespie asked if Browning had ever played. When told that he had not, Gillespie remarked,
“Mon, y’re missin’ half ye life.”
Gillespie was a true golfing pioneer in the state of Florida. He sold
Henry Plant of Tampa on the value of golf as a Florida tourist
attraction. Plant, who was investing in the tourism business in Florida,
hired Gillespie to lay out courses for the Plant Investment Company.
Gillespie designed courses at Winter Park, Tampa, Bellaire (Clearwater)
and Havana, Cuba. Although the idea was spreading in Florida, there were
not many golfers coming to Sarasota. Gillespie continued to promote the
game and in 1905 he built a nine-hole course and a clubhouse on a
110-acre tract of land east of his old practice course. If you wanted to
play this layout today, you would tee off
near the corner of Golf and
Links Streets; play through the
Sarasota County Terrace Building down
past the
Ringling Shopping Center to about
School Avenue; then turn and
play down
Fruitville Road, past
Sarasota Bowling Lanes, through the
Sarasota County Courthouse and finish near the corner of
Golf and Main
Street. Gillespie maintained the course at his own expense for five
years. In 1910 Gillespie sold his course to
Owen Burns. This would be
Sarasota's only course until the 1920s.
On June 7, 1924, the
Gillespie Golf Course, owned by the Sarasota Golf
Holding Company, was sold to
Charles Ringling. Ringling had plans to
build the
Sarasota Terrace Hotel on the site. This left
Sarasota without a golf course. At the time, the Florida Land Boom was
on and the population of Sarasota was growing dramatically. To help
build a golf course fast,
Calvin Payne agreed to sell 14 acres of land
to help pay for a municipal golf course. The sale brought about $150,000
and it was used as a down payment on 290 acres about 2 ½ miles
northeast of the courthouse. This tract of land was purchased from
Honore and Potter Palmer and the East Land Company. To finish paying for
the land, and to build the course, the City of Sarasota approved a
$150,000 bond issue on July 9, 1925.
The City of Sarasota enlisted noted golf course designer
Donald Ross to
design a signature course. Ross had designed the
Whitfield Estates
County Club (presently the
Sara Bay Country Club), an 18-hole course
that opened in December 1925. The city's new municipal course opened in
Sarasota, June 5, 1927. The course was dedicated by the
great golfer
Bobby Jones on February 13, 1927. Afterwards, the city decided to name the course after Bobby
Jones to give it "prestige." Colonel Gillespie never saw the Whitfield
Estates Country Club or Bobby Jones course. He died of a heart attack on
his nine hole course on September 7, 1923.
In 1977, the City of
Sarasota named the nine-hole course at Bobby Jones Complex after John
Hamilton Gillespie.
— From "A Look Back" by Mark D. Smith, archivist, 1996
