Medina Country Club (Medina, OH)

The next course I want to discuss from the past is near and dear to my heart. Medina Country Club was the home course for Cleveland State University when I was on the golf team. We were required to break 80 from the tips, something that I was never able to do. The coach gave me a yardage book, and I studied it intently thinking I could plot my way around, but 81 was the best I could do. 

(The 220/180 yard par three fifth is a demanding hole. The left half of the green was always my target as a miss to the right brought  double bogey into play. The hole itself is in a beautiful setting, and is first class.) 

Medina Country Club has 27 holes with the Blue and Green nines making up the championship course. It has 5 par fives, 5 par threes, and 8 par fours. The par threes are arguably the best set of one shotters in the northeast Ohio. They have a wide range of yardages, each one is memorable, and each has its own particular challenge.

(The 185/160 yard par three eighth plays to a two tiered green. It’s imperative to find the proper level in order to have a stress free par. That tree on the left ruined many a round knocking good shots into the water.) 

The key to my strategy was to par all the par fives. As a group, they’re pretty innocuous. At the very least, the shorter ones are good birdie opportunities. The fourth was my favorite playing between 475-505 yards with a pond fronting the green. There was always an outside chance of reaching it since the water was well short. The fifteenth on the other hand  flat out sucked. From the very tips, it played 605 yards with a lake cutting across the fairway. You had to cover 410 yards in two blows to get across the hazard. Any type of bad drive meant laying up and taking an extra stroke to get to the green. Thankfully the tees were usually pushed forward.  

(The 175/160 yard par three fourteenth has a narrow hazard crossing short of the green. It wasn’t really in play, but often times you’d find yourself above the hole because of it. It was never an easy two putt.)

If I accomplished my goal on the par fives, then I only needed six more pars to break 80. With short par fours at ten and eighteen plus the short par three eleventh, that left just three more. Unfortunately, the other nine holes were plenty tough, and bogey sometimes seemed like a good score. The 250 yard par three third rarely was reached in regulation. A good short game was a must to make three there.  

(The 465/450 yard par four sixth is one of the most demanding on the course. The tee shot plays downhill but the approach is uphill to this square shaped green.  Note how the edges of the green are rounded off. Any shot hit slightly offline will likely shed to the side.) 

The par fours were solid with the long sixth the toughest. One hole I always liked was the sixteenth. It’s a 395/365 yards par four with an uphill drive that I found interesting. The short par four eighteenth with its green in front of the clubhouse was a classic finisher. I birdied it a few times. 

(The ninth is a solid 410/400 yard par four. The tee shot is uphill before leveling out at the green. A good drive is the key shot otherwise an awkward stance will test your ability.) 

I don’t know who designed Medina. Several of my sources for such information, including “The Architects of Golf” by Geoffrey Cornish and Ron Whitten, were no help. The course is well routed and rolls effortlessly across the terrain. I like how long holes absorb much of the mundane topography. The greens are slightly raised with the edges sliding away or falling off. This puts a premium on iron play. If there’s one shortcoming, then it would be the bunkering. A low key style that is flat and shallow. Several are at the base of the green below the slope. Getting out is not difficult and a good player should be able to get reasonably close. 

The Red nine is considered the relief nine but it has several holes that would be right at home on the big course. The most memorable that I recall is the ninth, a 240 yard uphill par three played below the side of the clubhouse. I’m not sure who in their right mind thought such a length was a good idea but it fits in perfectly with Medina’s collection of one shotters. I give Medina Country Club a 5 (good)(worth driving an hour to play). 

[Medina was bought this offseason. It’ll be interesting to see if it becomes open to the public, or will remain a private club. Back in the old days, this place was known more for its poker games in the clubhouse than the golf itself.]

Cumberland Trail Golf Club (Pataskala, OH)

Moving on in my courses of past golf trips... Cumberland Trails is a 1999 Hurdzan and Frye design in Pataskala, a little suburb east of Columbus. Like most new courses of this time period, it is the cornerstone of a residential community. 
(The 227/213 yard par three seventeenth is not short on challenges. While it’s overall length maybe hard to cover in one blow, there’s plenty of ways to play the hole.)

Central Ohio is well represented with Hurdzan Frye courses. All of them are very well liked, and Cumberland Trail is no exception. It’s in impeccable condition with greens that roll as good as most private clubs and has plenty of length that can stretch over 7200 yards. 

The above picture epitomizes central Ohio’s biggest drawback. The flat terrain has always been my biggest complaint towards courses from this region. Granted there’s enough water and wetlands to give it flavor but they tend to lack that excitement rolling terrains provides. 

Visually, Cumberland Trails reminds me of Royal American, another Hurdzan Frye course  in Columbus. The bunkering is low key and reminiscent of his work with Kidwell. 

Reading my notes, which go back to 2002, Cumberland Trails is the type of course that can be attacked and a good score attained. There’s a few tough holes that have to be played, but limit the damage, maybe secure a par or two, and birdies are possible on others. The water is not as much in play as it could be. It’s a very playable golf course. 

Cumberland Trails is a good course. I like it’s sister course, Delaware Country Club, a lot too. It’s one of the few places I still hear about up here in Cleveland. I give it a 5 (good)(worth driving an hour to play). 

 

Aston Oaks Golf Club (North Bend, OH)

Continuing the blog with courses I’ve played on past Ohio golf trips, Aston Oaks down near Cincinnati was once nominated as one of the best courses in the state. This was probably attributed more for being a Nicklaus Group Design than it’s architectural merit. Nonetheless, any course that found its way into any golf publication invariably found its way onto my “to play” list. 

(The 560/534 yard par five eighth plays across a sloping hill to a green fronted by a pond. Two solid shots are needed to have a reasonable approach.) 

Aston Oaks was designed in 1999 by Nicklaus associate Tom Pearson. It plays atop rolling hills on land that once belonged to president William Harrison. [Harrison served only 31 days in office before dying from pneumonia]  

This hilly piece of property has nice views of the Ohio River which can be seen from holes 10-12.  

(The 345/325 yard par four ninth hole curls below the brow of the hill. Players must decide how aggressive they want to play it since a drive that carries the inside bunkers leaves a wedge approach. Kudos to Pearson for keeping the hole at grade and not positioning the green atop the hill. This is possibly the best hole on the course.) 

(The 350/330 yard par four tenth plays a little tougher than its meager yardage suggests. Players must carry the bunkers while keeping in mind the trees on the opposite side of the fairway. It’s uphill topography adds a couple clubs to the challenge.) 

Aston Oaks is part of a residential community, and Pearson did a nice job routing the course in a way that maximizes the most course front views. Walking is not a realistic option as the course tries to find the high points, going from hill to hill, giving the developer the best land to build houses. In fact, in the early days, golfers had an unrestricted view of the Ohio River, but nowadays, residences break it up. 

(The 470/420 yard par four fourteenth plays at the edge of a steep drop off. Keeping down the left side will at least give one a chance to save par.) 

(The 214/188 yard par three fifteenth demands a long iron to an unbunkered green. Note the tree on the right. A high fade is the preferred shot shape.) 

While Pearson kept most of the holes on the high ground, the last three drop into the valley. This proved to be something of a mistake. It doesn’t drain very well, and also doesn’t grow grass very well either. He also tried to put three holes into a space where he should’ve put two. The par three seventeenth is just a throwaway. And the eighteenth is a fine hole but could’ve been really good if it had the extra yardage lost making seventeen. 

(The 556/501 yard par five sixteenth crosses the creek three times on its way to this green. It doglegs twice with the green tucked against the hillside. It’s a true three shot hole.) 

While this is a nice course, it’s not even close to being in the top ten. There’s several courses alone in Cincinnati that are better. Still, it does a good deal of business and the Nicklaus name  continues to be a draw. I give it a 4 (above average)(worth driving 30-40 minutes). 

Foxfire - Players Club Course (Lockbourne, OH)

My interest in playing here back in the early 2000s was based solely on its name Players Club. It invoked images of a TPC course, Sawgrass in particular. The scorecard stretched over 7000, and all the water holes looked damn interesting on the diagrams. Unfortunately, it didn’t match the hype I imagined.  

The Players Club underlying problem is simply the mishmash collection of two very different nine holes. The original Foxfire course was designed by Jack Kidwell who added a third nine to give the club 27 holes. Each was named a different color of a fox, thus Red nine, Grey nine and Silver nine. When they decided to expand to 36 holes, the Silver nine was split up. [1-4 and 14-18] The new nine which would be the 5th-13th was designed by Barry Serafin. The two nines are so completely different that the course struggles as a whole to make sense. 

Serafin dug out huge lakes and routed his nine holes to play over them. With Kidwell’s heavily treelined parkland holes starting the round and then finishing the round, the Serafin holes look out of place. The Serafin holes have no trees with big mounds outlining the far side and water guarding the inside lines of play. It’s completely artificial looking. (The new housing nowadays doesn’t add any beauty either) 

The Kidwell nine from 14-16 is my favorite stretch of holes with rolling topography and treelined fairways. They have a classic look to them that fits in well to what Midwest golfers are used to seeing. If the whole course looked like this, the Players Club would firmly be established as one of Columbus’ best courses.  

Surprisingly, the Players Club is not well known outside of Columbus. Instead, Bent Tree, Cook’s Creek, Albany Links, and a few others come to mind for players from northeast Ohio. The hodgepodge of holes and design styles leaves it off of most radars. Nonetheless, it’s a fine course. I give it a 4 (above average)(worth driving 30-40 minutes).