South at Sawgrass Country Club

The South Course at Sawgrass Country Club in Ponte Vedra Beach represents one of Arnold Palmer and Ed Seay's Florida residential designs from the early 1970s. The course sits within a private country club community that predates the more famous TPC Sawgrass facility nearby, occupying land characterized by the coastal flatness and natural wetlands typical of northeast Florida's barrier island region.

Palmer and Seay routed the course through pine and palmetto vegetation with strategic use of water hazards and bunkers to define playing corridors and create shot values on relatively level terrain. The design reflects Palmer's playing philosophy of rewarding aggressive, well-executed shots while offering recovery options for members playing regular recreational rounds. The layout incorporates the natural drainage patterns and marsh areas common to this coastal zone, with several holes playing alongside or across wetland margins.

As a private club facility, Sawgrass Country Club serves a residential membership and maintains a traditional country club atmosphere with golf as the central amenity. The South Course operates alongside the club's North Course, providing members with variety in their regular play. The course has been updated over the decades to address agronomic improvements and evolving maintenance practices while preserving the essential Palmer-Seay routing and design intent.

The club's location in Ponte Vedra Beach places it within one of Florida's concentrated golf communities, where the proximity to Jacksonville and the Atlantic coast has supported a cluster of private and resort courses since the mid-twentieth century.