# Sandhill Crane Golf Club vs. BallenIsles Country Club East Course: The Palm Beach Gardens Choice

Source: https://thecourserankings.com/blog/sandhill-crane-golf-club-vs-ballenisles-country-club-east-course/

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Course Comparisons / Florida


A golfer walking a fairway. Photo: PattayaPatrol, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Palm Beach Gardens runs on golf history, and these two courses split that history cleanly in half. On one side, BallenIsles East, a private course that hosted the PGA Championship in 1971 back when this ground was the original PGA National. On the other, Sandhill Crane, the municipal course the city itself runs, routed through nature preserve land, where anyone can book a tee time. A golfer in Palm Beach Gardens does not really choose between them on quality alone. He chooses on access, and then on what kind of past he wants to walk through.

## BallenIsles East: the championship side of town

The East Course opened in 1964, designed by Dick Wilson and Joe Lee, with Keith Foster leading a major renovation in 2020. Its resume is the strongest in this comparison and it is not close. The PGA Championship came here in 1971, in the era when BallenIsles was PGA National's home. The World Cup and PGA seniors history followed through the 1960s and 1970s. That pedigree is baked into the place. Wilson and Lee built Florida golf for the championship era, bold bunkering, raised greens, water as a constant negotiating partner, and the East Course was their stage when the PGA of America lived in this neighborhood.

Foster's 2020 renovation matters because old Florida championship courses can turn into museums, honored and unplayed at their original intent. The East was refreshed as one of three courses at a serious private club in Palm Beach County, not preserved under glass. Members get a Wilson and Lee test with a major championship on its record, updated by a strong modern hand. If you have the invitation, this is the round with the story attached.

## Sandhill Crane: the city's own answer

Sandhill Crane is the municipal course, Roy Case's 1992 design on a site that earlier carried Palm Beach Gardens' Eastpointe West identity. The city put real money into it, a 2.5 million dollar redesign by Dusenberry Design in 2013, and then added The Nest in 2023, an 18 hole par 54 course by Nicklaus Design on the same site. The main course plays par 72 at 6,504 yards from the longest tees, routed through nature preserve land. That routing is its character. Where BallenIsles is manicured club golf, Sandhill Crane is Florida scrub and preserve, public golf with room to breathe.

Public golfers in Palm Beach Gardens live in the shadow of famous private clubs and resort courses with resort prices. Sandhill Crane is the local counterargument, and [our Palm Beach Gardens town ranking](/blog/the-best-golf-courses-in-palm-beach-gardens-fl/) treats it that way. A city owned course with a real redesign budget and a Nicklaus Design par 3 course attached is not a token muni. It is a facility a city decided to take seriously.

On the golf alone, BallenIsles East wins. Championship bones, a 1971 PGA, Wilson and Lee at their most confident, Foster's renovation keeping it current. Concede that fully. Sandhill Crane's best point is different and worth conceding in return. It delivers a legitimate Florida golf day, preserve routing, 6,504 honest yards, to any golfer with a tee time, in a town where most famous golf sits behind gates. In [the Florida state ranking](/blog/the-5-best-golf-courses-in-florida/), that openness is rare enough to be a category of its own.

The day splits the same way. BallenIsles is a club day, three courses, a membership culture, the full private apparatus. Sandhill Crane plus The Nest is a public double, 18 holes of the main course and a par 54 lap afterward, walkable in spirit and priced for residents. If a member invites you to BallenIsles, go, and do not think twice. That is the verdict for a single round offered both ways. But the golfer who lives in Palm Beach Gardens and plays every week should pick Sandhill Crane as his home base without apology. The 1971 PGA Championship belongs to history. The preserve course belongs to the city, every morning it opens.

**Reader responses are open.** Please cite a specific hole, a price, or a round you have played.