Golf Course Information

Description

Colony West was built and designed in 1971 by Robert Von Hagge and Bruce Devlin.

The Championship Course was designed for a PGA Tournament Event. The event was the Jackie Gleason Classic, which is now the Honda Classic. Jack Nicklaus and the Tournament Committee said the course was too tough for the event. Mr. Nicklaus shot a 78 and took a 7 on #3 (#12 today) when he played the course.

The original design was a monstrous par 72, 7,553 yards long with 52 additional bunkers, which were taken out before the course opened in 1971. The original layout has the front nine and back nine reversed. The signature hole was #3 (which is #12 today). The original hole had two fairway bunkers on the right side of the fairway. The hole is 452 yards long from the championship tees. It is guarded by trees and water on the left, trees and out of bounds on the right, and it requires an accurate tee shot about 270 yards to get into position. The second shot requires a precise shot, about 180 yards to the green. The green is guarded by a bunker on the left side, with water tucked close to the green on the right. At the time, Colony West was ranked 4th toughest public in the country.

The course stayed that way until 1981 when the clubhouse was built. The course was turned into a par 70 (6,648 yards) with both #1 and #10 ( par 5's) shortened and the nines reversed to what it is now. It was rated by Golf Digest as one of the top 75 public courses in the United States.

In December 1985, when the Rack Family took over, hole #1 was lengthened back to a par 5. This made the course a par 71 (7,312 yards) and restored Colony West back to the best Championship Course in the country. Colony West Country Club was rated by Golf Digest back to the top 50 public courses in the United States.

Colony West Country Club has also been rated by the Florida State Golf Association to be the toughest and longest par 71 in Florida, and by the Florida Business Journal to be the toughest public course in South Florida.

Colony West Country Club also has one of the best executive courses in South Florida. It is called the Glades Course and it was opened in 1972. It is a par 63 (4,197 yards) that has nine par 3's and nine par 4's.

In 1987, we changed the Glades course to a par 65 with one par 5, nine par 4's and eight par 3's, lengthening it to 4,207 yards.

In 1992, Hurricane Andrew had more of an effect on the Glades Course by taking out 6 major trees which were in play.

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