Maplecrest Golf Club (Tallmadge, OH)

I would love to find out who designed Maplecrest. It does something that many courses can't seem to do...it plays longer than it's listed yardage. Better yet, it plays tougher than it's listed yardage! And that is high praise indeed!!

Turkeyfoot accomplished this by giving the shortest par fours the toughest greens. Maplecrest forewent that philosophy, and routed the holes up and down the hills. The result was many blind and semiblind shots. This creates confusion, uncertainty, and ultimately, mistakes by the golfer. I counted twelve shots that encountered this feature, and it's on drives, approach shots, and even layup shots on par fives. 

The other feature is quite simple, and Turkeyfoot employed it too. Make the par threes long and difficult. I think that's the first thing people think about when one mentions Maplecrest. The eighth for instance is a 240 yard uphill par three. Most players can't reach it, and there's probably more threes on the 260 yard downhill par four fifth! 

Maplecrest also has small sloped greens and tight tree lined fairways to keep the challenge strong. I've seen some very good players tee it up here, and the frustration they show when they can't break par here makes me smile. I think attacking the course is a mistake. I have great success hitting hybrids and fairway metals off the tee. This puts me in the fairway and hitting a control shot into the green. 

Maplecrest is a fun old style golf course designed in 1928. It has a great price, beautiful greens, and is a wonderfully landscaped around the tee boxes as each hole as a different motif. (It's okay to steal some of their ideas to do in your yard;)) For many years in the CGA, this was the most popular course on the schedule. It also had the potential to produce the low round of year. It's an above average golf course, a 4 rating, and I enjoy playing it. I wish there were more courses like it. Golf needs it.