TAMPA, Fla. – Over the last six months, 156 women have submitted playing resumes to the Florida State Golf Association, all with the same goal—to compete in the Florida Women’s Open & Senior Open. Forty-three women were exempt and 113 of those who submitted resumes gained acceptance into the championship, which will take center stage at Riomar Country Club in August.
Riomar Country Club was established in 1919. W.H. Humiston, E.E. Strong, and J.P. Sawyer, three Cleveland businessmen, all sought to establish a golf community off Florida’s East Coast. They settled on a 160-acre plot of land in Vero Beach, sandwiched between the Indian River and the Atlantic Ocean. The purchase was made using $5,000 worth of gold coins—a drastic difference in both price and payment method one century later.
“Riomar” is a Spanish term, literally meaning “river to sea”. The term, created by Winchester Fitch, was a perfect title for the three Clevelanders’ new club.
With land and a name, they now had to build an actual golf course. Without electricity, or even a bridge to access the land, the founders were faced with quite the predicament. To build this new community, they used barges and mule trains to transport the necessary materials to the site.
Herbert Strong was the architect tasked with designing the course, and soon enough, the original 9-hole course opened in 1920. Construction was successful of course, and word began to spread. Riomar quickly became a popular winter escape for those looking to get away from those brisk northern winters—popular enough to make its way into American Literature. Dorothy Fitch Peniston, in her 1985 memoir An Island in Time, chronicled the growth of Vero Beach in the Roaring Twenties, where Riomar Country Club took a prominent place in the story.
In 1920, if you were on the East Coast of the Sunshine State looking for a tee time, Riomar was your only option. It was the lone golf course from Daytona to Palm Beach. The 29th President of the United States learned this as well.
Before taking office, Warren G. Harding famously played Riomar during a houseboat tour of the Indian River in January 1921. Harding passed the course between river and sea, and just had to get a quick round in. The President-Elect’s emergency nine adds to the insurmountable evidence that you should keep your golf clubs with you at all times.
Things have changed in the last 100 years or so. Now, it’s hard not to find a golf course between Daytona and Palm Beach. Things have changed at Riomar as well.
In 1961, the club expanded the course, doubling the number of holes. The back nine, which opened in 1962, is built on an old swamp adjacent to the Intracoastal Waterway. It was an entirely different course to anyone familiar with the front nine. Seven of Riomar’s holes are right on the Atlantic Ocean, while another five are just off the Indian River. In addition to this, players on the driving range will have stunning views of the Atlantic.
Riomar is a premier golf club on Florida’s Treasure Coast—and has been since its founding just over a century ago. A 2014 renovation by Tom Fazio drastically improved the back nine’s drainage—the inward nine now drains better than the outward, which certainly wasn’t the case when the mangrove swamp was cleared out for the new nine 60 years ago.
The pristine par-70 course is set to host its third FSGA championship on August 6-8. In 2017, it hosted the Senior and Super-Senior Match Play Championships, won by Owen Joyner and Jerry Young, respectively.
The Florida Women’s Open is entering its fifth year of existence. The field of 156 players will compete at both Riomar Country Club and Pointe West Country Club, with the final round at Riomar, following a cut to the low 60 and ties after completion of the second round. Previous winners of the Florida Women’s Open are Katie Yoo, Jessica Porvasnik, Sandra Angulo Minarro, and Sandra Changkija. In the Senior Division, past champions are Tammie Green, Cheryl Fox, Mary Jane Hiestand (a), and Barb Bunkowsky.
