Staff WriterSara Bay Country Club is gearing up for its centennial in a fashion that would make even Donald Ross grin under that famously stern moustache. The club, perched just north of Sarasota’s bustle and brushing close to the Gulf Coast Keys, is rolling into its 100th year with a programme that treats its history not as decoration, but as the spine of the whole celebration.
This is a place where legends quite literally walked the fairways. Sara Bay Country Club—known in the Roaring Twenties as Whitfield Estates Country Club—was the battleground for the famed 1926 “Match of the Century,” where Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen went head-to-head in a showdown that crackled through golf’s early modern era. A century later, that electricity hasn’t faded; it’s simply matured.
A New Book to Anchor a Century of Stories
The club will unveil its definitive history on January 16, 2026, with the release of Sara Bay Country Club: A Century of Golf. Local historian Jeff LaHurd teamed up with club historians Gary Cole and Howard Akey to chronicle the place where real estate dreams, sporting genius and architectural ambition collided.
Members will get the first look during a book signing and Q&A with LaHurd himself. The evening will tip its cap not only to Donald Ross’s masterful design but also to the Atlanta-based architectural duo Pringle and Smith, whose clubhouse design still hosts the kind of stories that age as well as good bourbon.
Bobby Jones—who once hawked real estate for the surrounding development before becoming, well, Bobby Jones—remains a central figure in the club’s lore. His grandson, Dr. Bob Jones IV, will arrive on February 27, 2026, for an intimate fireside chat about his grandfather’s role in shaping Sara Bay’s formative years. The date fittingly lands on the 100th anniversary of that famous 1926 match.
Restoring Greatness Without Diluting It
Heritage isn’t worth much if no one protects it, and that’s where architect Kris Spence enters the frame. Since 2018, Spence has been steadily guiding a restoration that refuses to let Ross’s original 1925 vision fade into nostalgia. Instead, he’s brought it back to life with the precision of a man determined to revive every contour, bunker edge and mischievous green that Ross intended.
Spence’s work earned glowing praise from Golf Digest’s Ron Whitten, who labelled Sara Bay “one of the most authentic Donald Ross designs in the Sunshine State.” High praise from a man not known for slinging compliments lightly.
Recent improvements under Spence’s leadership include rebuilt bunkers, new tees, upgraded cart path bridges, and a full transition to Bimini Bermuda grass—an upgrade that’s given the fairways the firmness and pace Ross would have expected. Strategic tree removal, both planned and hurricane-assisted, has opened turf corridors, restored Ross’s intended angles of attack, and revealed vistas that had been hiding in plain sight.
The greens—those Ross greens—remain the great equaliser. Beautiful from afar, brutal up close, and proudly unchanged in spirit.
A Century Young—and Still Moving Forward
Today, Sara Bay Country Club stands as a private, member-owned sanctuary where golf is still walked, not just played, and where the social scene thrives without overshadowing the game itself. For all its reverence for the past, the club is not stuck there. Its centennial plans prove it: honour the roots, tell the stories, protect the design, and keep improving.
It’s been a hundred years, and Sara Bay hasn’t softened. It has sharpened.
For more information, visit the club’s official website.
