Hilaman Park Golf Course in Tallahassee, Florida

Hilaman Golf Course, which most Tallahassee golfers simply call Hilaman, is the city's 18-hole public course at 2737 Blair Stone Road. The City of Tallahassee calls it the city's premier municipal 18-hole course: a par 72 layout with wide fairways and four sets of tees, measuring 6,324 yards from the Black tees, 5,941 from the Blue, 5,398 from the Green and 4,551 from the Orange. Play runs from 7 a.m. to sunset, seven days a week, and the course closes only on Christmas Day.

The site is more than a course. Visit Tallahassee, the Leon County tourism office, lists tennis courts, a driving range, the 19th Hole snack bar and a golf pro shop at Hilaman, and notes that tee times are taken up to seven days in advance through the pro shop. Pro shop hours follow the season, according to the city: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. from March through August, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. in September and October, and 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. from November through February.

Hilaman came to the city as an existing course. The City of Tallahassee states that Hilaman was acquired by the city in 1981 and re-opened for play in 1982, and that it has been the city's favorite public golf facility for over three generations. Public records consulted for this page do not document the course's history before the 1981 purchase or the origin of the Hilaman name; that gap is noted rather than filled.

The 1982 opening changed public golf in Tallahassee. According to WFSU News, Jake Gaither Golf Course, the nine-hole course on Bragg Drive that the city built in 1956 for Black golfers, existed as the city's only municipal course until the 18-hole Hilaman Park Municipal Golf Course on Blair Stone Road opened in 1982. The traffic since has been heavy: in a February 2015 Tallahassee Democrat story, the city's director of golf said that 1.25 million people had played Hilaman since the city took it over in 1981.

Hilaman is the third chapter of city golf. WFSU News traced the first: by the early 1900s local hotels advertised golf links, including grounds at Monroe Park behind the Call-Collins house, and in November 1915 the Hill City Golf and Country Club was organized on the land where Capital City Country Club sits today. The Tallahassee Country Club bought the Hill City course in 1924 and gave it to the City of Tallahassee in 1935, and from then until early 1956 it served as the municipal course, with Black caddies allowed to play only one day a week. In February 1956, after a federal ruling against segregated public recreation, the City Commission voted 4 to 1 to lease it back to the private club for 99 years at $1 a year.

The second chapter was Jake Gaither. The city opened that nine-hole course on the southwest side in 1956, and the Department of State credits it with serving for years as the primary course for the Florida A&M golf team. WFSU reports that runoff from Indianhead Acres and high water from Lake Munson and Lake Henrietta repeatedly flooded it, closing it again as late as November 1972. For 26 years after the Hill City lease, that small, flood-prone course was the only golf the city itself offered, which is the gap Hilaman's 18 holes on Blair Stone Road filled when the course reopened under city ownership in 1982.

The course record is a 60. The Tallahassee Democrat reported that Aaron Battle posted his Hilaman record on April 5, 1988, with 29 on the front and 31 on the back from the tips of what was then a 6,364-yard course. His round included 10 birdies and an eagle, the eagle coming on the uphill, dogleg, par-5 No. 6 hole. The paper noted that the all-time PGA Tour low in competition is 59, and that no other golfer is believed to have shot better than 63 at Hilaman.

The record waited 27 years for a plaque. On February 27, 2015, near the end of Black History Month, about 75 family members, friends and city officials gathered at the Blair Stone Road clubhouse to unveil a plaque with Battle's photo, a 2002 Tallahassee Democrat story about the round and his scorecard. Battle had spent 44 years as a physical education teacher in Gadsden County schools and took up golf as a caddie in segregated St. Petersburg in the 1950s. Then Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum said at the ceremony that Battle had honed his game in a time of limited access to golf courses for Black players, which made his career all the more remarkable. The city's director of golf, who was a cart attendant at Hilaman in 1988, told the Democrat the record will never be broken.

Hilaman is the home of the city's open amateur and professional tournament. In July 2018, the Tallahassee Democrat local golf column reported that Hilaman would host another Tallahassee Open on August 18 and 19, 2018, with seven divisions: a Pro Division, a Championship Division for players with handicaps of 0 to 2, flights for 3 to 5, 6 to 8, 9 to 11 and 12 and up, and a Ladies Division. Entry fees were $125 for amateurs and $200 for professionals, with checks payable to Hilaman Golf Course at 2737 Blair Stone Road. The column framed the event as another Tallahassee Open at the city course, and the same edition covered tournaments at private clubs in Leon County and Gadsden County, setting the public Blair Stone Road course apart as the Open's venue.

The city posts its fees online. The City of Tallahassee Hilaman rate sheet lists weekday play at $30 with a cart or $20 walking, for 9 or 18 holes. Seniors 55 and older, ladies, students and military golfers pay $25 with a cart or $16 walking on weekdays, as do weekday twilight players after 4 p.m. Weekend rates are $45 with a cart or $25 walking, with a cart required until 11 a.m.; weekend twilight after noon is $35 or $20, and weekend super twilight after 5 p.m. is $25 or $20. Driving range buckets cost $9 for a large and $7 for a small, and all rates include tax.

The rates track the difference between Tallahassee's two city courses. At the nine-hole Jake Gaither Golf Course on Bragg Drive, a par 36 with a 69.8/127 rating, the city rate sheet lists $20 with a cart or $10 walking, weekdays and weekends, against Hilaman's $30 and $45 cart rates for its 18 holes.

The two city courses run as one operation. The Hilaman page recruits recreational aides for both Hilaman Golf Course and Jake Gaither Golf Course, and both report to the City of Tallahassee Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Affairs Department, whose offices are at 1201 Myers Park Drive. The Florida Department of State noted in 2022, when Jake Gaither was listed in the National Register of Historic Places, that Gaither is the oldest of the two municipally owned and operated golf courses in Tallahassee, which makes Hilaman the younger, larger partner. Both courses answer to the Tallahassee City Commission, which the Hilaman page lists as Mayor John E. Dailey and Commissioners Jeremy Matlow, Jacqueline Porter, Curtis Richardson and Dianne Williams-Cox. The Commission meets at City Hall, 300 South Adams Street, the address the city gives on every golf page. Last verified: October 9, 2026, on the City of Tallahassee website.