The Country Club of Naples

Architect Bill Diddel designed the majority of his courses in his native state of Indiana and throughout the Midwest, but he also ventured into Florida during different boom periods in that state. His first designs there were part of the original wave of courses that were developed along the coastal cities and railway lines in the 1920s. He returned as golf was exploding after World War II, first at the exclusive Jupiter Island Club in 1958, then to the Country Club of Naples five years later. Because his long career began during golf’s Golden Age of design, Naples possesses a look and feel that reads older than 1963. The holes move mostly north-south through an enclave east of Old Naples, mingling with several lakes and buffers of limbed up pines. In 2023, architect Drew Rogers updated the design, cleaning up the appearance, reimagining the green complexes and enlarging the shrunken putting surfaces, tees and bunkers. He also enhanced the classic Florida atmosphere by installing open sandscapes and transitions between the tees and fairways, creating essentially a new course in the old footprint.