MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -- It's one of those places where you can get away from it all without being too far away from it all.
About one mile north of this city's famed South Beach area -- one of the world's great tourist destinations -- is The Alexander, an all-suite resort hotel that sits squarely on Miami Beach and across the road from Millionaire's Row, another "must-see" stop for watching the rich of the famous in South Florida.
Unlike many of its art deco neighbors, The Alexander doesn't put style above substance. Each plays an integral part in the resort's ambience, from its West Indies Caribbean decor in the lobby to the private balconies that overlook the Atlantic Ocean and on to the Shula's Steakhouse on the second floor, the latter of which is a favorite for locals and guests alike. The Alexander's two lagoon pools offer access to the beach and all the water activities that go with surf and sand.
The resort's suites, meanwhile, range in size from 1,000 square feet to 1,250 square feet, making The Alexander a fine fit for families looking for the South Beach/Miami experience, whether it's dinner at Joe's Stone Crab (thankfully now open in the summer) or a walking tour of the Art Deco District, resplendent day or night in its colors of turquoise, beige, purple and a color the locals refer to as "periwinkle."
A sister property of the famed Biltmore Resort in Coral Gables, about 30 minutes away, The Alexander offers guests playing privileges at the Biltmore Golf Course. The Alexander also has a golf package that includes play on the Miami Beach Golf Club about 10 minutes away from its front door.
Either course is a "can’t miss" for golfers. The Biltmore Golf Course (6,700 yards, par 71) has been restored to much of its original Donald Ross design, with nearly every hole playing under the imposing shadow of the Biltmore, which first opened in 1926 and today is registered as a National Historic Landmark.
Meanwhile, the Miami Beach Golf Club, located on the edge of one of Miami Beach's oldest and most expensive neighborhoods (not far from Bee Gee Barry Gibb's mansion), the Miami Beach Golf Club is a prime example of a municipality's commitment to golf. The Miami Beach City Commission had been asked for years to upgrade the course, originally developed (as Bayshore Golf Club) by Carl Fisher in 1923 and a couple years ago completed the task under the direction of golf course architect Arthur Hills.
Fisher, who founded the Indianapolis 500, was one of the original developers of what is now Miami Beach. His vision, however, wasn't shared by many. In fact, he had trouble convincing people that land on Miami Beach had any value.
Undaunted, Fisher, who made his fortune in 1909 after he sold his Prest-O-Lite automobile headlamp business to Union Carbide, built the Dixie Highway that ran from Montauk on Long Island to the Alton Beach area of Miami Beach.
The land that most people considered worthless 90 years is now, of course, priceless, and Fisher is hailed as Florida visionary alongside the likes of Henry Flagler and Addison Mizner. In addition to Miami Beach, Fisher also developed posh Fisher Island in Biscayne Bay, a private residential enclave accessible only by ferry.
Along with its million-dollar homes and unparalleled views of the Miami skyline, Fisher Island also boasts one of the nation's better nine-hole courses, designed by P.B. Dye.
Part of Fisher's original vision was golf. In 1923, Fisher and his partners built three golf courses to help attract visitors to Miami Beach. One of those -- Bayshore Golf Course -- is now Miami Beach Golf Club. Bayshore went through many incarnations the past 80 years, but other than being used as a U.S. Amy training depot in World War II, it's always been a landmark golf course on this city's south side.
Various management companies, including the City of Miami Beach, operated Bayshore as it went through various stages of repair and disrepair, much to the chagrin of the city's famed beach hotels that were losing business to Miami's full-service golf resorts to the west. Some of those hotels urged the city to upgrade Bayshore in order to attract individual and corporate golf clients.
The city passed a bond issue to pay for the work, and in October of 2001 the Bayshore Golf Course was closed. Hills, who designed several courses across Alligator Alley in the Naples area of Southwest Florida, was hired to completely renovate the 128-acre property.
Starting basically from scratch, Hills took a relatively flat, enjoyable public course and re-shaped it into one of South Florida's better -- if not best -- public facility.
Essentially, the old Bayshore course no longer exists. Hills, however, kept Bayshore's original routing but redesigned all 18 holes, many with his signature large bunkering, lots of collection areas and undulating greens. He also expanded the lakes on the 16th and 17th holes and used the dirt to build up the mounding around the course, giving the holes a more secluded feel than one would think when he or she first sees the course.
Miami Beach Golf Club (6,813 yards, par 72) is carpeted with Seashore Paspalum grass -- a grass that is extremely salt tolerant. In fact, it's touted as the only course on the East Coast to use Seashore Paspalum on its tee boxes, greens, fairways and rough.
Seashore Paspalum was developed by Dr. Ron Duncan at the University of Georgia turf center in the mid-1990s, and over the past few years it's caught on with golf courses, including the Ocean Club on Paradise Island in the Bahamas, Turtle Bay in Kahuka, Hawaii and P.B. Dye's La Cana Golf Club at the Puntacana Resort in the Dominican Republic.
The Miami Beach Golf Club and South Beach: There's not a better mix of golf and glitter on the East Coast.
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