Fox Meadow CC (Medina, OH)

Fox Meadow was designed by Steve Burns in 1996 a few years after he did Hawks Nest. I guess it's easy to compare the two, since both are only an hour apart from each other. Many would say the hawk got the better of the fox. Fox Meadow is basically a housing development with the holes on the perimeter of the property. With the best pieces of land being used for housing, Burns had to come up with a solid design. 

I think the course has a lot of nice holes. Typically the fairways are wide, and the greens are open in front. The first hole that stands out is the fifth, a par five that demands a solid drive to reach the dogleg. The par three seventh is a nice hole. I like how the right pin positions are tucked behind the bunker. 

I think the toughest stretch of golf begins at eight and lasts thru thirteen. 

Nine is 412 yards from back tees. The player who favors the left is rewarded with a preferred angle into the green. Ten is 474 but I'm not a big fan of it. The green has a gulley protecting the left side so if you can't hit a short enough iron to hold the green then you're running the ball up on the right. Eleven is straightaway and uphill. (Eh) Twelve has a great greensite down by the water, but I'm not sure the dogleg is strong enough to dissuade players from just bombing it towards the green, as opposed to hitting it in the fairway. Thirteen is a strong par three. 

Note the texture and framing that Steve Burns used. This is the best feature of Fox Meadow! And the reason for the course's popularity. 

The course ends with some good birdie opportunities. Sixteen is a short par three. Seventeen follows with a driveable par four. It's one of my favorite holes on the course. The long hitter can take a rip, while the shorter player has plenty of fairway to setup the shot he likes best. Then eighteen is a buttonhook par five that makes this one of the most exciting ending holes in the city. 

Long hitters who cheat towards the right half of the fairway can possibly have only a mid to long iron in. The view above is where a shorter player layup. With sand and water guarding the entire right side, any score is possible on this last hole. 

While Fox Meadow won't blow your socks off architecturally, it is a beautiful playable golf course that is a fun to play. I've played here several times including a four man scramble where we started on the fourteenth hole and birdied our first ten holes, including an eagle on eighteen. I give it a 5 (good) rating. 

Windmill Lakes (Ravenna, OH)

Windmill Lakes is the home of the Kent State University golf team.

On the walls of the clubhouse are some of the university's best players including British Open winner Ben Curtis, the only major winner of Herb Page's program so far. Having played Lonnie Poole (NC State) and the Warren Course (ND), I can say that Windmill is probably one of the toughest college courses in the country. 

Windmill challenges the two most difficult aspects of golf, the driver and the putter. The first hole, 450 yard par four, illustrates this perfectly. Not only does it require a long drive, but the green has a buried elephant on the left side that wrecks havoc on any pin near it. 

This is the fifth green. Note the pin which is on a little ledge. Once the ball hits past it, the green dips down to a shallow swale, and then it goes back up to create back ledge. In the middle right half of green, a couple ridges are visible. All this movement creates some great pinning locations. 

This is the fifteenth.  Besides great length and undulating greens, the pins are fiercely defended by bunkers. Several times during a round, the player will come across a flag that is literally mere feet behind the sand. 

Here are a couple holes of note. 

The sixth is a tough uphill par four.  The green is one of the best. Not only is it bunkered on both sides, but a low area in the middle makes the higher sections by the traps difficult pin positions. 

The ninth is one of the few holes that doglegs, this one slightly left. The right trap is the key feature. Besides guarding that side, the shoulder that comes off it leaves those bailing out a mighty difficult two putt. The tenth basically has the same feature, except the right side is higher. 

Twelve is not only a long par three, but possesses a wicked green. 

(Not sure if you can tell, but the pin is actually off the right edge of that right bunker!) A pimple type feature is in center of green. Putting over it requires deft touch. Nine times out of ten, it's best just to hit it to front edge, and two putt from there. 

Sixteen is the only par five on the back. With a trap fronting nearly the entire green, which btw is only twenty paces deep, not many can reach and hold this green in two. It requires three well thought out shots. 

Seventeen is a great par four!

Length, sand, and water all make an appearance. A back left pin position is a real challenge. 

Finally eighteen. 

It's treelined and plays uphill on second shot. Like most of the holes here, a trap guards the front right side of the green, so it's a challenge to go pin hunting if you need that last birdie. 

Windmill Lakes is a challenging golf course, a good golf course, but it is not a fun golf course. The longer hitter may hit mid or short irons, but everyone else will wear out their fairway metals and hybrids. And when those clubs are being used, the interesting contours in the greens are not of much use. The player is basically trying to survive, happy to just hit the green in regulation. It s a great course for the college players. I give it a 5 (good). However it's a course I'm not interested in playing too often. 

Warren Golf Course (South Bend, IN)

I was really excited to play the Warren Course at Notre Dame. Crenshaw and Coore have long been on my list of architects whose work I've wanted to play, and being so close to home, it was a no brainer to go play it. The course is just south of the Indiana toll, and it's literally right off the turnpike. 

Pulling into the parking lot, the logistics is a little confusing. For whatever reason, the clubhouse is back aways, so whether your riding or walking, you take a cart to go pay for the round. The course is routed so the first six holes on each nine play back to the clubhouse, and the last three holes of each nine play behind it. The driving range, practice green, and short game facilities are next to the parking lot by the road coming in. 

The golf course is absolutely beautiful! 

Its got a great traditional look, and you d swear it's been there for years. Crenshaw and Coore took a page out of Perry Maxwell's book, and gave it clean lines off the tee, and put rolls into the greens to separate the pinning areas. The greens seem to ramp from the fairway, open in the front to run the ball, tilted from back to front, false fronts, and bunkers cut into the sides. 

The first hole is short to mid par four. 

In this pic you'll notice a few things. First, open front to hit a low shot if desired. Second, the bunkers guarding the right side give a false sense that the left is safe, but the green slopes towards the sand, so missing on that side leaves a difficult up n down. Third, this is one of two holes with a bunker in middle of the fairway. Originally it wasn't there, but the college kids hit it so far that they wanted to make them think about it. 

Both two and three are good par fours. 

This is the third hole. Look how clean the driving line is! 

The fourth is an excellent short par three.

Rarely is this type of hole designed anymore. It's just a wedge or nine iron shot, but the green is surrounded by deep bunkers, and several rolls setup some great pin placements. Then the fifth is a reachable par five. 

But look at this little beauty eating into the putting surface, almost making it a horseshoe green. Any pin in the front, either left or right, is so difficult to get close. This is classic old architecture at it's best! 

I love the look off the tees here at the Warren course. 

The native grasses, the walk path thru to the fairway, the width...does it get any better than this? And at 473 yards from the tips, the drive better be busted. 

The seventh is the second hole with a trap in center of the fairway. The big green puts a premium on hitting from the short grass. 

As you can notice in pic, there's not much room to fit the ball tween the sand and rough. Anything too far left is in deep trouble. 

The eighth is a fine par four, then the ninth takes you by the entrance road coming in. 

It's a solid par three with a foreshorten bunker making the hole look shorter than it is. You really don't want to putt over the "Maxwell rolls" in middle of the green, so club selection is vital to be on same side as the flag. 

Ten is a 495 yards par five with a creek cutting diagonally across the fairway. There is a decided advantage in carrying the hazard in two, while laying back leaves a shot that comes in at an awkward angle. For the college kids, this is basically just a long par four, but Coore was fine with that because the next four holes are the toughest stretch on the course. 

Eleven is a long par three. (Its 245 from the tips) It's slightly uphill with bunkers left and right both twenty yards short of the green and guarding the green. It throws off depth perception. The tee shot can come in low or high, both ways are playable. A shallow swale divides the putting surface in half, making for some interesting putts and chips. 

Then twelve and thirteen are both good strong par fours. Twelve is straightaway but thirteen bends at the green, forcing a high shot that carries the bunkers. 

Notice how there's plenty of fairway right of the green, so a high draw is the preferred shot. But also shorter hitters have a specific target to setup a high percentage up n down. 

Fourteen follows with a par three that I read people call a Redan. Well I hit a low fade to a back pin and stopped it fifteen feet away for birdie. When I stepped to the tee, it looked like the green was slightly offset, so yes a draw is probably the choice shot, but fade is fine too. It's a nice par three, but not even close to being a Redan. 

Fifteen is beautiful par four that plays back to the clubhouse. 

I loved hitting the approach shot. It is presented wonderfully. Plenty of room to hit a low runner or a high shot, bunkers on both sides if you hit it offline, and framed by a some great looking trees. It's a very good hole! 

The last three holes play behind the clubhouse, and these are three pretty darn good holes. There's so much that can happen, birdies, eagles, just exciting holes! 

The sixteenth is a short par four. 

Your eye is drawn to the traps on the left, but the real trouble is Juday Creek that crosses the fairway and zigzags up the right side. The hole doglegs left uphill to the green. A nasty little bunker eats into the front center of the putting surface, and a couple rolls separates the front from the back.  It such a precise pitch to get close to the pin, any mishit will find trouble quickly. Next is the par five seventeenth. 

It goes uphil while doglegging left with wetlands n high grass in the valley it's curving around. This par five can be reached in two with a big drive. The small green is slightly elevated, and the bunker guarding the left is the deepest on the course. Club selection is so important in getting close for birdie. 

Eighteen finishes the round with an excellent par four. Juday Creek cuts across the fairway and then guards the entire left side to the green. 

Players really have to decide what line they're driving the ball over. If the tees are moved up, then the rough hewn mound comes more in play. It's definitely one place high on the avoid list. 

Notice how there's not one bunker guarding the green. If a player can successfully negotiate the tee shot, then Crenshaw leaves a very acceptable second shot into the green. Overlooking the action is the clubhouse set to the right of the green. 

The Warren Course is a place I could happily play on a daily basis. This is a compliment I don't easily give. I love the traditional look, the classic design, and the playability this course offers. And being close to chicago, this is a steal!! It definitely has me looking forward to more Crenshaw/Coore designs. I give it a 7 (great) rating! 

Skyland Pines (Canton, OH)

It caught me by surprise to learn Skyland Pines is a Stanley Thompson design, especially since he focus' quite a bit on par three holes, of which there's only three here! In fact, the first par three isn't encountered until the ninth!  

It also only has three par fives, so there's a lot of par fours! 

Seven of the first eight holes are par fours. They basically play parallel to each other, each one fundamentally solid. One is a short uphill par four with a very difficult green. 

Then two plays downhill to a green that easier. The third is next, a short par four with a very narrow fairway to hit a driver in

Four and five are midlength par fours lined with trees on both sides. A large tree on five narrows the fairway considerably. 

The sixth is the first par five. It's a slight dogleg that plays along the boundary. It's important to challenge the OB if reaching this in two is the goal. Otherwise three well played shots should easily get a five.

Seven is a good par four that plays from a different angle. The drive is over the brow of the hill to a blind landing area. The ball is below your feet for the approach shot. After the short par four eighth, the golfer arrives at nine, the only par three, and best hole on the front. 

The bunker on the front left is obvious trouble, but being in the rough on the right is trouble too. The green slopes to the left so it's difficult to up n down from there. 

The back nine starts with five good holes, and coupled with the ninth, is a good stretch of golf. I've always liked ten tee and the drive over the hill. 

It's tree lined on both sides and it demands a good drive. The green is backdropped by a little hill, and a small bunker guards the front. It's just a solid hole. 

Eleven is a strong par four. Length and a forward pitched green keeps par at bay. Then twelve is a fine par three that plays uphill. Thirteen is one of the more memorable holes at Skyland. It goes downhill, the last eighty yards dropping to the point the green cannot be seen from the fairway. A shot that carries just over the hill can run down onto the putting surface. Fourteen is in the corner of the property, OB long and left. A bunker short right makes this small green even smaller. It's not very long, but a three is much appreciated. 

The next three holes are the weakness of Skyland Pines, back to back short par fives, and a very bland short par four. I've wondered if the original green for fifteen was another fifty yards down the hill by the road. With sixteen tee just a few yards away, wow!, maybe these were at one point strong holes. 

The eighteenth saves the ending with the best hole on the course, a dogleg left that bends around the trees, and drops down the hill to green backdropped by sand traps. (And the road) 

Only a good drive will have a view of the green. It rivals any eighteenth hole in Akron/Canton, and there's some beauties! 

Skyland Pines will never be confused as an upscale golf course. Most people in northeast Ohio probably never even heard of it. But it's a solid golf course! It's fun, it's well designed, and it's in great shape. The regulars rather keep it a secret I'm sure. I give it a 5 (good). I wish there were more little gems like it.