Under bright sun at the end of March, players gathered at the Clearwater Lawn Bowls Club for a morning full of competition.
They formed teams, stood on the green and took aim at a small, white ball on the far side of the rink. Cheers of “good job,” “well-played” and “what a shot” interrupted the silence.
Although the mood was high, they knew that more than 100 years of lawn bowling with the Clearwater Lawn Bowls Club was about to end.
The club was housed on city-owned property in north Clearwater, tucked away on a residential street near the water. It hosted regional tournaments and was at one point the largest lawn bowls organization in the country.
But membership has dwindled in recent years, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the club’s members were Canadian snowbirds who stopped coming to Florida. And during the 2024 hurricane season, the clubhouse flooded with 6 inches of water.
The club was largely self-sufficient and maintained the grounds. But as costs rose to fix hurricane damages, the city said it didn’t see a viable way to keep the club going. In February, the city’s director of parks and recreation alerted the club it was removing the lawn bowl courts and converting the area into a passive park.
The club had to leave by April 1.
“The city just pulled the rug out from under us,“ said club secretary David Cooper.
Lawn bowling is a sport little known in the United States. The outdoor game is one of skill and restraint, defense and offense. Players take turns rolling a large, resin ball called a bowl toward the jack, which is a white ball across the green. The bowls aren’t circular — they have “biases” and roll on a curved path.
Players try to get their bowls closer to the jack than their opponent.
“It’s an amazingly strategic sport,” Cooper said.
Canadian expatriates created the Clearwater Lawn Bowls Club in 1924. It has the record for the most members of a local club to be inducted into the Lawn Bowling National Hall of Fame.
Before the hurricane damage, it hosted tournaments for the Southeast Division of Bowls USA.
The game is more popular in British Commonwealth countries, like Australia and the United Kingdom, and it’s largely a retiree sport in America.
On March 28, the club invited players from around the state to play at the property one last time. More than a dozen people joined.
A 94-year-old Scottish man. A daughter with her parents.
English and Australian accents were abuzz. Players were lively but serious, with towels hung at their waist and tape measures at the ready to accurately judge the distance between bowls.
Bruce Miller, 87, has lawn bowled for 60 years off and on. His father won a gold medal in the world championship for lawn bowls in 1972.
Miller said he’s been a member of the club for 25 years. St. Petersburg has its own lawn bowling club. But Miller said he probably won’t make the drive down, saying he has too many health problems.
“It’s been my whole life,” he said. “It’s a sad shame.”
Two years ago, former Clearwater Mayor Brian Aungst Sr. declared Feb. 17, 2024, Clearwater Lawn Bowling Day in celebration of the club’s centennial.
But following the 2024 hurricane season, the city and club had multiple discussions about the organization’s future on the city property, which it shared with a shuffleboard club.
Last summer, the city suggested a plan to demolish both of the groups’ clubhouses and provide a portable building until a public-private partnership could be negotiated.
The lawn bowling club asked the city for financial assistance for the property. But in January, the city said it was unable to “provide any financial or material support to keep the courts open.”
Clearwater Parks and Recreation Director Art Kader wrote in an email that the costs of trying to save the club would be too expensive. The initial investment, he said, would be upward of $22,000 to $30,000.
In February, he invoked the 30-day termination clause in the club’s contract with the city. Kader said the city would remove all the lawn bowl courts and half of the shuffleboard courts to turn the property into a passive park, “which will be beneficial to more city residents.”
“You and the other board members have invested a lot of your time and money to try and keep the club open and I respect that,” Kader wrote in an email. “However, it has been a struggle for far too long and it is not fair to you or other club members to continue to try and make this work.”
The Clearwater Historical Society is planning to store artifacts and memorabilia from the club. And starting this month, the Clearwater Main Library downtown will display the club’s memorabilia through August.
Lawn bowls provides camaraderie and exercise, Clearwater Lawn Bowls president Dave Beck said. And it’s a game accessible to retirees in Clearwater. Now, one more option for connection is gone.
“Many members have nothing to replace it with,” Beck said.
