Donald Ross uncovered: Jason Straka finds original Belleair CC layout in the Florida ground and in the history books
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Donald Ross uncovered: Jason Straka finds original Belleair CC layout in the Florida ground and in the history books

Architect Jason Straka in June was midway through a major face-lift of Belleair Country Club’s West Course, with a reopening slated for November. In order to save the original Donald Ross layout, which the private club says is the oldest continually operating course in Florida, Straka first was tasked with erasing decades’ worth of alterations that dampened the intent of the original design, often burying Ross’s sublime work beneath good intentions.

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Fry/Straka going big at Union League National

Fry/Straka going big at Union League National

Any discussion of Union League National begins with The Big Fill, a large-scale earthmoving effort — more than 1.6 million cubic yards in scope — that Fry/Straka created at the center of the 268-acre parcel. It rises to 78 feet above sea level, 56 feet above the original grade. However, its tendrils spread out hundreds of yards in half a dozen directions. The man-made ridgelines slowly but elegantly taper down, only to rise again and form new, smaller plateaus, from which other distinct ridge networks splinter off into the landscape.

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