Winter Park’s highly-regarded municipal golf course has fallen victim to “an inadvertent chemical application” that killed the grass on many of its verdant greens, and the nine-hole historic venue now faces months of repairs, Mayor Sheila DeCiccio announced in her weekly newsletter Friday.
DeCiccio expects the public course, known as WP9 and running prominently through the tony city, to be completely closed until May 18, when temporary greens will allow limited play.
A full re-opening is pegged for mid-July.
Neal Thompson, 23, who tries to play golf once a week and at least monthly at WP9, noticed a problem about a month ago.
“The greens, when they’re in good condition, can be a little tricky, and that makes it a fun, challenging, little course to play,” he said. “But they went from pretty nice to pretty bad in a pretty short time…I wouldn’t even call them greens. It was more like browns.”
He described himself as “definitely disappointed” in the April 27 closure of the course which is comparatively affordable — $20 most weekdays, $26 Fridays and weekends for Winter Park residents — and quick paced. Most players can finish a round of nine in less than two hours.
The narrow layout imposes a special challenge on golfers with a hook or slice: the 2,480-yard course is nestled in an idyllic neighborhood with some tight fairways no farther than an errant chip shot from houses, two churches and a cemetery.
“It’s a little scary sometimes teeing off when you’ve got $3 million houses to your right and left, and all these cars driving by,” said Thompson, adding he’s hit a house or two but never a motorist. “I feel like they know what they’re getting into when they buy a golf-course property.”
A worker tills the greens at the Winter Park Golf Course (WP9), on Friday, May 1, 2026. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/ Orlando Sentinel)
City Manager Randy Knight estimated the golf course repairs will cost $70,000.
He said an employee who was tasked with fertilizing the greens used equipment that had been used the day before to kill weeds at another city property. The employee failed to clean the equipment and sprayed a mixture of herbicide and the fertilizer on the greens.
He likened the herbicide to Round-Up, a systemic herbicide that is effective on most grasses and kills from the root up.
Knight said the employee, whom he did not identify, was fired because he didn’t alert a supervisor and tried to fix his goof himself.
“What he tried to do didn’t work,” Knight said.
He said the closure has teed off some area golfers who enjoy playing and walking the course.
“We’ve definitely heard complaints,” Knight said.
The course, which dates back to 1914, is listed on the Florida Historic Golf Trail as the state’s second-oldest. It underwent a $1.2 million renovation a decade ago that included new sod, a state-of-the-art irrigation system and a layout designed by Integrative Golf.
Winter Park Golf Course gets makeover after over 100 years
Knight said the course attracts a variety of skill level players — from top-flight golfers to duffers.
“There’s a wide range of golf talent that plays there,” he said. “So a lot of balls end up in the street and in the cemetery.”
The course has earned great ratings online, often for the now damaged putting surfaces.
“This was the best time I’ve ever had playing bad golf,” read a five-star review, posted under the name “Flatstick Foley.”
Another five-star review wrote, “This golf course was a most pleasant surprise. . . I did manage to slice a drive out of bounds over some trees next to a parking lot. (I think it’s still rolling!) The challenge comes around the greens. This is what sets this course apart. Undulating and surrounded by sand traps! Well defined and placed, they are well maintained. I was in a couple and managed to get out without too many cusswords.
Ben Wageman, 32, a former Orlando resident now living in Mount Dora, echoed the enthusiasm.
“The rates are not terribly expensive. The course is not really long but it gets you on the greens if you’re not careful and the course was almost always in good condition,” Wageman said in a phone interview. “It was pretty much the only place I played when we lived in Orlando.”
Winter Park’s mayor promised people with WP9 golf memberships could use the city’s other course, Winter Park Pines.
“While this is certainly not the outcome we had hoped for, this plan ensures that WP-9 will return stronger, healthier, and better prepared for the future,” she said in her newsletter.
shudak@orlandosentinel.com