Featured Golf Course

The Jake Gaither Golf Course is located in the City of Tallahassee in Leon County. Starting in 1953, African Americans advocated for the City of Tallahassee to establish a park and golf course for the Black community. The site chosen was a 120-acre tract that was the former pasture land of the Southern Packing Company. In December 1953, the City Commission announced that the new park including the golf course would be named Jake Gaither Park in honor of Alonzo Smith “Jake” Gaither, who was then serving as Florida A&M University (FAMU) athletic director and its head football coach.

During the era of de facto racial segregation that followed the Brown vs. Board decision in 1954, Jake Gaither Golf Course allowed African American golfers to play at any time on a challenging course, which contrasted with privately owned golf clubs from which they were often excluded. Prior to its opening, African Americans golfers in Tallahassee were limited to working as caddies at segregated golf courses and could only play at these courses at very limited times, if at all.

It was reported that the City Engineering Department designed and laid out the golf course with assistance from Clifford E. ‘Sonny’ Hay Jr., with William Crumbie supervising the construction. Hay had recently left the Tallahassee Country Club (today known as Capital City Country Club) where he served as the head golf professional for 12 years. Crumbie was a Tallahassee native who grew up in the old Smokey Hollow neighborhood, a Black neighborhood located immediately east of the State Capitol. For the previous eight years, Crumbie had worked as a groundskeeper at the same country club. Crumbie became the manager for the new Jake Gaither golf course and John White was hired its golf course foreman. White had 14 years of greens keeping experience at the country club.

The nine-hole, par 36 golf course opened, in December 1956, with a length of 3,118 yards. Holes 3, 4, 6 and 7 took advantage of the elevation on the south side of the parcel where there were as much as 20 to 30 feet in elevation change. Several of the holes (2, 3, 4, and 5), were routed into and/or through the wetlands and across the drainage ditch.

Unfortunately, flooding issues affected the golf course over the next several years. At the November County Commission meeting in 1960, City Manager Arvah Hopkins and City Engineer Miller Walston appeared before the County Commissioners and requested their cooperation in renovating the golf course. The redesign would require a considerable amount of moving dirt to build three new tees and four new greens. The City authorized an estimated $2,500 to redesign the golf course to help with the flooding issues. Walston was in charge of the course redesign and Crumbie was recruited to help rearrange the unplayable holes and create better routing which would remain dry in wet weather. The redesign eliminated holes subject to flooding and rerouted several others to wrap around wetlands.

Over the next few years, the Jake Gaither Golf Course continued to be open for play and hosted many golf tournaments. The Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) Golf Team used it in the 1950s, 1960s, and through the early 1970s as their home course. Also, throughout the 1960s and into the early 1970s, the FAMU Golf Team hosted their Spring Sports Carnival and golf tournaments at the golf course.

On August 9, 2022, Jake Gaither Golf Course was officially listed in the National Register of Historic Places. “I am pleased to announce that Jake Gaither Golf Course has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places,” said Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd. "This golf course served as the only public venue for Tallahassee’s African American golfers in the 1950s and 1960s. Today, it welcomes all golfers and promotes the growth of the game by offering a challenge to players of all skill levels and abilities.”

More recent changes have made the golf course more playable. The current layout and appearance dates from 1998, but the 9-holes still follow historic routing established in the 1960 redesign.