How long must a golf course lie fallow before its reopening would deem it a “new” golf course? That’s the question at man-made Normandy Isle in Miami Beach, Fla., though area golfers aren’t playing that semantic game. They are simply reveling in the reopening of Normandy Shores Municipal Golf Course, closed in 2002 and reopened December 12 thanks to a $6.5 million renovation.
Originally designed by renowned architect William Flynn and partner Howard Toomey, Normandy Shores is located on the north half of Normandy Isle, which didn’t even exist until the late 1930s, when the city of Miami Beach bought it, pumped up the land and created this man-made landfall—and with it, Normandy Shores Municipal Golf Course.
Eventually, Normandy Shores experienced the same decline experienced by South Beach in the 1970s and ’80s. Budget cuts and lack of maintenance eventually led to Normandy Shores’ outright closure in 2002. The closing was never meant to be permanent, however. The city of Miami Beach Commission had already retained a Toledo, Ohio-based course design firm to orchestrate the revival of Normandy Shores and nearby Bayshore Golf Course.
Bayshore came first; it reopened as the elegant, new Miami Beach Golf Club in November 2002. Work finally began at Normandy Shores in September 2007 and finished in early December.
The new design retains the original Flynn routing, although the designers flipped the two nines. The result is a redesigned par-71, 18-hole, 6,465-yard layout with a scenic-but-straightforward golf experience distinctly lacking in ostentation.
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