Spring Hills Golf and Swim Club (Clinton, OH)

I saw one of those old Cleveland golf road maps and couldn’t believe the amount of courses I never knew existed. Spring Hills is only a few miles east of Chippewa off Cleveland Massillon road. and much to my surprise when I googled it, it is a Harold Paddock design. Paddock is my favorite local architect who designed both Pine Hills and Sugarbush, two terrific courses that find themselves on every top course in northeast Ohio list. With my appetite whetted, I knew I had to see this place for myself. 

(The 234/180 yard par three seventeenth is a heck of a penultimate hole. From the blue tees, just carrying the creek to the fairway short left is a good shot. Thankfully it is much more playable from the white tees. Length alone makes three a good score.) 

Paddock is really good at routing golf courses and his par threes have always been the lynchpin. At Ironwood, the par threes connect the lower holes to the higher ones while at Pine Hills, three of the four play over the same valley, connecting the two ridge lines. Spring Hills is similar with two hills separated by a creek filled valley. Three of the four here play over that valley. The difference here however is the sheer length of them. I haven’t seen yardage like this since Maplecrest. They are all terrific holes!  

(The 219/188 yard uphill par three fourth is a semi blind shot. There’s fairway short for those trying to bounce it in. This is a tricky green with central high point and runoffs on the side.) 

(The 211/187 yard par three twelth is similar to Sugarbush’ par three tenth. It’s uphill over a pond and plays longer than it’s listed yardage. Like the other two long par threes, there is plenty of fairway short.) 

My biggest concern with courses like this is the conditioning. Spring Hills had nice greens. They had a good thick texture, and nice roll to them. They weren’t fast although I feel they could be since they were pretty healthy. (The back of #1 green was the only one chewed up) The fairways were just okay. It looked like they were putting drainage in. Some were thin in spots and some were good. The starter was telling me that they were putting money into it so I expect in a year or two that there will be more consistency throughout. You’ll notice in many pictures that there are no bunkers. A couple holes have them and honestly they could be filled in. Spring Hills has good topography and the routing hits on multiple levels. It stays away from the creek but there’s several drives over it. 

(The 397/375 opening hole goes out before climbing up the hill. The green actually slopes away which makes the semi blind approach a difficult one to judge.) 

From the blue tees, the course is anything but easy. Besides the par threes being incredibly long, there’s four par fours that play 418 yards or longer. There are several shorter holes that offer birdie chances that one can hopefully take advantage. I’ve always had a soft spot for courses that play much harder than their listed yardage. Now the white tees are more playable but still pack a solid challenge even though the yardage is just over 5700 yards. 

Spring Hills was a good start to the unknown courses I’d like to check out this year. There are five bridges to take you over the creek six times during your round. It has a pleasant feel to it and gives you the sense of place. The course solidified my opinion on Paddock as it showed off his ability to route the course in a cohesive, energetic way. I hope they keep making improvements because Spring Hills has a lot of potential. I give it a 4 (above average)(worth driving 30-45 minutes to play). [I think a five rating is definitely in reach.]

(The 276 yard par four third features a drive over this patriotically colored boulder. It looks like the Pepsi logo to me. It’s driveable and a good birdie opportunity.)

(This is the greenside view of the 429/389 yard par four fourteenth. One of the few bunkers guards the front left side of it. Note how that front left side pitches balls to the rear. I thought I pulled my approach but it carried the sand a finished pin high.)

[we played the white tees at 5,739 yards. I personally wanted no part of those par threes from the blues. Obviously a 71 with three birdies is a great score but you’d be surprised to find that my differential when I entered it into my ghin was 5.4. This is why a golfer playing from the senior tees can shoot a low round but never see their handicap go down. It should be noted that from the whites, Spring Hills sports a 65.9 course rating and a 105 slope rating.]