Pelican Golf Club

Overview: Pelican Golf Club is a private 18-hole course at 1501 Indian Rocks Road in Belleair. The current club describes a par-70 layout stretching to about 7,000 yards, shaped by the original Golden Age ideas associated with Donald Ross and later work by Beau Welling. The course sits inland from the Gulf but uses undulating ground, mature vegetation and crushed quartz sand to give the routing a distinct character.

History: The golf property began as part of Henry Plant’s Belleview resort development, with a six-hole course established in 1897. The 18-hole Pelican course opened in 1925 after the Belleview-Biltmore hotel commissioned a course on the property. It later operated under other names, returned to the Pelican identity and was acquired by the town in 2013 before a Beau Welling renovation refreshed the Ross-inspired layout. Guests must be accompanied by a member under the club’s current policy.

Did You Know? Pelican’s modern design story is deliberately described as inspiration from Ross rather than a claim that every current detail survives unchanged. Beau Welling’s work retained the historic routing idea while adding modern grass, irrigation and playing surfaces, which is why the course can feel both historic and contemporary in the same round.