Florida and the world lost one of its top golf course designers just a few months ago. Ed Seay, from Ponte Vedra Beach, was in business for 35 years with his friend and golf legend Arnold Palmer. During Ed’s long career he designed over 300 layouts. He was also the president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects (ASGCA) from 1976-1977.

A few years ago, while attending Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Classic PGA Tour event in Orlando I was introduced to Ed Seay by some friends in a nearby restaurant on International Drive. I was very familiar with his design work and we chatted about golf for a while. He shared with us that he had not been feeling quite up to par (his long battle with cancer was underway), but he was as pleasant as you would hope anyone would be during our visit.

I have always loved Palmer/Seay courses, having played them from coast to coast. A few of his tracks in Florida are Sawgrass CC in Ponte Vedra Beach, Adios GC in Coconut Creek and the renovation of Bay Hill in Orlando. Ed Seay has courses scattered around the world from Florida to China and they are a fitting legacy to his skill of creating challenging yet enjoyable courses for us all to play.