One of the great underestimated areas of golf in this country has to be the eastern suburbs of Cleveland. In fact, I wonder if Cleveland may be deeper than Columbus for great examples from the Golden Age? Tillinghast, Flynn, Thompson, Strong, and Alison all were afforded excellent opportunities and better yet, some of their work here hasn’t been butchered like some Golden Age work outside of other major cities.
In the case of Alison, just one look at the Kirtland profile
will tell you that this was no ordinary piece of property. Folks like Dan Belden from this site have long sung the praises of KCC. With Forse Design’s work now in the home stretch, the course is back to playing as great as it did when golfers like Jones and Palmer once roamed its fairways. Like Alison, I don’t think Kirtland gets the recognition that it deserves. See if you don’t agree based on its course profile, which is laced with comments from Ron Forse and his associate Jim Nagle.
As a much added bonus, Green Keeper Chad Mark details the Kirtland green expansion process that saw the greens go from 120,000 to 152,000 sq. ft.. For those math challenged, that's a 25% plus (!) reclamation project and it brings KCC's total putting surface size to now just under 3.5 acres. Chad ’s standalone piece can be viewed by clicking on the link under the seventh hole or by going to the In My Opinion section. There are a few courses like Yeamans Hall, Beverly, Eastward Ho!, Sleepy Hollow, Holston Hills, etc. where the putting surfaces have been properly restored to edges of the green pads but I hazard a guess that 90% plus of the Gold Age courses could still reclaim 15% plus of putting surface (and as we all know, the best hole locations are often those that are recovered by pushing the putting surfaces back out to pad’s edges). How Chad and his crew, working closely with Forse Design, accomplished this is a MUST READ for anyone on a green committee.
In sum, Forse Design did a top rate job in bringing back Alison’s sense of scale and lack of clutter. The ‘quiet elegance’ (as Forse puts it) of Alison’s design is there once again for all of us to appreciate. Coupled with the excellent fast and firm playing conditions that maximize some of Alison’s subtle playing features, the course/club has returned to its peak. Indeed, some people now consider this to be right at top in the golf rich state of Ohio with such courses as Camargo and The Golf Club. See if you think they might just be right...
Cheers,