It was the early 1980s and the demand in the Palm Beach area for private golf country clubs exceeded the supply. With wait lists at private clubs running two and three years, most people simply put their names on the list and sat back in frustration. However, five friends and neighbors at Sloan’s Curve, who had their names on a club list, were more proactive and solution-oriented than most and one day, while sitting around the pool, they decided to start a new country club. An auspicious undertaking that most would have proclaimed from a lounge chair one afternoon and forgotten the next day, Marvin Dekelboum, Bernard Rittenberg, Moe Rosenblatt, Irving Suknow and Bernard Winter were dedicated to their commitment of building a private golf country club that would fill an identified demand as well as their dream. On that day, The Falls Country Club was founded.

The first and keystone task was to identify a piece of property that would accommodate an 18-hole golf course as well as all the amenities of a full service country club. Farmland on the northwest corner of Hypoluxo and Jog Roads housing 174 cattle-grazing acres was chosen by the founders who knew it would be perfect for the country club they were planning. In 1985, they signed the purchase agreement and put up the money to secure a loan that would allow them to close on a parcel of Smith Farm that would one day be a golf course and country club.

Dekelboum, Rittenberg, Rosenblatt, Suknow and Winter began the arduous task of building a club: Renting suite 200 at 2875 S. Ocean Boulevard to house the first administrative offices of the Club, running ads and hosting meetings to find the future club members. They selected Joe Lee as the golf course designer and, using their own money as a deposit, got him started designing the course they had in mind…challenging to good golfers but not so difficult as to discourage beginners.

As the members signed up and the land was cleared, the name The Falls was selected and a waterfall planned for the 16th signature hole. A clubhouse was designed incorporating a state of the art club offering tennis, aquatics and eventually a fitness center. Construction on the clubhouse began April 1987. September that same year, the golf course was opened with players gathering for coffee and putting their shoes on in a trailer. The founders commuted every week from their northern cities in those early years to hone and hammer out the plans and setbacks that were part of creating a fine country club. Thanks to the hard work and tenacity of those five men, The Falls Country Club opened its doors for dinner on December 17th, 1988.