Pine Hills Golf Club (Hinckley, OH)

Pine Hills is the best public golf course on the west side of Cleveland. It rolls and tumbles over several hills, it's greens set on plateaus and ridges. Harold Paddock did an excellent job with the routing, and it's possibly his most well know design. 

(The eighteenth is arguably the best finishing hole in northeast Ohio. The player who challenges the left side off the tee will have a flat lie for the approach. Any ball that shies away will be below the golfers feet, a perfect recipe for a ball to come up short in the water. It's an excellent hole!) 

The course is laid out over three ridges, and Paddock attacks them in every way possible. There are so many excellent shots to be hit. Even the average holes require thought and strategy to score well. 

(I love the third hole! It's a great short par four bout 310 yards. The fairway is laid out over a spine, and it's a challenge to carry the valley and still keep it in the fairway. 

...then the second shot is to a pushed up green with no place to bail out. Missing it is big trouble. Several great pin placements make for an exciting wedge shot.) 

(What an exciting par three!! It's downhill with water and sand guarding the green. 210 from the back tees but downhill quite a bit. It's a tough club selection. Many people feel it's the highlight of the round.)

(My favorite par five!! The seventh is such a fun hole. The pressure on the drive stems from wanting to hit my three wood across the valley to the green. Where the pin is in pic is where you want to land the ball. Fairway runs into green so the ball will bounce up. Option to layup down in valley but very difficult to gauge elevation change and yardage.) 

Pine Hills follows many of Paddocks design philosophy. The par fives are reachable, the par threes transverse the severe parts of the property, and the par fours vary in length and challenge. 

(The par five tenth is a great birdie opportunity. It's reachable in two but the green is high above the fairway and is difficult to hold. Don't be short! The slope will scuttle the ball into the rough resulting in a difficult lie.) 

(The par three twelfth is 190 yards across the valley to a green that is well defended. It's not as picturesque as four, but plays more difficult. Balls coming up short will roll downhill, leaving a tricky pitch.) 

(Thirteen demands a long straight drive to view the green from atop the hill.) 

Management felt the course needed some extra length so holes 2,14, and 17 were changed. Are they better holes? 

Probably. However the old greens were pretty severe which made them tough pars. 

(The new fourteenth takes advantage of the lake and doglegs left around it. It also added 140 yards to the course. It went from 310 to 450!, a big improvement in my opinion even if the old potato chip green was cool.) 

(The 183 yard sixteenth is a lovely par three across the pond to an elevated green. A Harold Paddock classic)

Pine Hills is in a great location, basically in the heart of the western suburbs off 130th street. It's also a strong club with good players. I played in the men's tues golf association for two years, twice making it to the championship match where I won once and lost in a playoff. Like I mentioned before, there are a lot of great shots to be played here. I also like the fact that both nines have holes which have you thinking bout them before you tee it up. That's not always the case on most courses. It's one of the top five public courses in Cleveland, and top twenty five in the state. I really enjoy playing here. I give it a 6 (very good).