Pelican Golf Club

Pelican Golf Club occupies a storied place in Florida golf history. The Belleair property traces its roots to the early 20th century, when the Belleview Biltmore hotel — one of the great wooden resort hotels of its era — drew wealthy Northern visitors to the Gulf Coast and golf was central to the experience. The course has been reshaped over the decades, but its bones reflect that golden age of resort golf, and the sense of a well-used, well-loved layout runs through every round.

Belleair sits just south of Clearwater on the Pinellas peninsula, where the land is flat, the air carries salt off Tampa Bay, and mature palms and oaks give Florida golf its most classically subtropical character. The tight, tree-lined corridors here demand placement and patience rather than raw power — which the par 70 format underscores. Length is rarely the point; shot-making is.

As a private club, Pelican rewards members with a course that feels genuinely rooted in its community rather than manufactured for a resort brochure. It is old Florida in the best sense: unhurried, shaded, and quietly proud of where it comes from.