Ocean Reef Golf Club (Dolphin)

Overview: Ocean Reef Club's Dolphin Course is an active 18-hole private routing in Key Largo, one of two courses at the club. A detailed Florida golf-maintenance record lists the course at par 71 and 6,467 yards, with the original design credited to Robert von Hagge and Bruce Devlin with Mark Mahannah. The Keys setting brings tropical vegetation, tidal water and very shallow soil into the design and maintenance story.

History: Ocean Reef's golf tradition began in 1955, when the first nine-hole course opened on Key Largo. A regulation course designed by Bruce Devlin and Robert von Hagge followed in 1960. The Dolphin course later received greens, tees and cart-path work from Ted McAnlis in 1993-95, then a complete renovation and regrassing project in 2000 and 2001 led by Chip Powell with construction by Reed Berlinsky.

Did You Know? A Florida Green Cover Story recorded that the Dolphin property had only about two to three inches of soil above bedrock. It also described the course's water hazards as tidal, an unusually direct reminder that this is golf built on the porous, low-lying Florida Keys.