Pensacola Country Club history

Around 1903 L. Hilton-Green and F. W. Marsh laid out the first nine holes on the property belonging to the Pensacola Navy Park Driving Association, of which Mr.

The first clubhouse was destroyed in the hurricane of 1906, but was subsequently rebuilt and enlarged on the same location.

It’s old Florida design with small greens and narrow fairways were the product of one of the best ball strikers and players of the 1920’s, Bill Mehlhorn.

A new main club building was purchased from W. S. Keyser on Feburary 28, 1924, and club activities were moved from the older clubhouse to the Keyser home.

On November 10, 1925, the new Pensacola Country Club Corporation was formed.

The 1926 hurricane so damaged the old clubhouse that it had to be torn down.

Mehlhorn won more than 47 tournaments in his 10 year playing career and competed on the first Ryder Cup team in 1927 as well as the inaugural Master's tournament.

The first Pensacola Open in 1929 was won by Horton Smith who played a match at Osceola Golf Course the Monday before the event.

Five years later, 1934, Horton Smith would play with Bill Mehlhorn in the first Masters Championship of the which Horton Smith would win.

His name tops the list engraved on the original Trophy Cup, which was retired by Sinclair Watson in 1939 after three straight wins.

In 1993, the clubhouse was expanded and a second kitchen, two meeting rooms and a men's grill were added

In September 2004 came the deus ex machina in the form of Hurricane Ivan to solve the dilemma.

The course was redesigned by our own Jerry Pate and the course construction got underway despite another year of battering hurricanes in 2005 and further tree loss due to storms and disease.

The new course opened November 9th of 2006 after a year of wrangling and a year of construction, on budget and on time.