Lloyd Clifton, who capitalized on Florida’s residential boom of the late 1980s and 1990s like few other golf architects, died last week.
Clifton’s architectural legacy is arguably the work he did at the Villages, a gigantic retirement community near Leesburg. He and his partners in Clifton, Ezell & Clifton Golf Design Group – his son George and Ken Ezell – have so far produced or co-produced 11 “championship” venues at the community, along with 30 nine-hole, executive-length tracks. Others will follow. They’ve also designed more than 40 other courses in the state, among them Grey Oaks Golf & Country Club in Naples, Hunters Creek Golf Course in Orlando, Remington Golf & Country Club in Kissimmee and West Orange Country Club in Winter Garden.
“The only day he didn’t get up out of bed was the day he died,” his son George told the Daytona Beach News-Journal. “His body just wore out.”
Clifton was 89.