After decades of service to the golf industry, Lloyd Clifton Sr. might best be remembered for his footprint felt throughout Florida.
A founding member of the golf course design firm Clifton, Ezell, Clifton Golf Design Group, Ezell died Dec. 10. He was 89.
Clifton designed nearly two-dozen courses throughout the Southeast, most of which are in Florida, and the Deland, Fla. firm that bears his name has its stamp on more than 600 golf holes at The Villages, making the retirement community north of Orlando the world's largest golf community.
A former golf course superintendent, Clifton played football and baseball at Stetson University in Deland before enrolling in the horticulture program at the University of Florida.
According to the firm's Web site, his first superintendent's position was at Daytona Beach Country Club, and he was the construction superintendent at Rio Pinar Golf Club in 1957, a role that whetted his appetite for golf course design.
Clifton's first design, West Orange Country Club in Winter Garden near Orlando opened in 1964, and he designed nearly two-dozen other layouts until expanding his firm in 1987. Other layouts he has designed include Grey Oaks in Naples, Hunters Creek in Orlando, Debary Plantation near Orlando, Plantation Bay in Ormond Beach and Highland Creek in Charlotte, N.C.
Survivors include his wife, Bonnie Jean; sons Lloyd Jr., George and Craig; six grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.