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I would love to hear Joe's thoughts but it seems the course has lost significant fairway width over time and would benefit greatly from reclaiming original mowing lines - this would recreate lost strategy by offering differing angles of approach and bring those fairway bunkers back into play. Looks like the course has great character and potential for even more.Cheers and thanks for the tour!
Will - The fairways are much narrower now, but still fair. For instance, #12 (600 yards from the tips) used to have an EXTREMELY large fairway years ago...now it's only Large. Most of the holes (not fairways) have lost width due to tree planting and growth (my super keeps the chainsaws under lock & key as every time we talk I tell him to leave one out for me overnight). My biggest issue is the lack of shape in the fairways rather than size. I believe it was been discussed in green's committee meeting, but is not top priority. Unfortunately, Chris didn't get to experience one of the BEST parts at Fairlawn. The homemade pies at the halfway house. I always gauge what kind of round I'm having by how early I start thinking about pie.
Chris,Thanks! My favorite non-big-name GCAs. Can't get enough of 'em...Bit of a Shoreacres look to some of those ravine holes...
That tee shot on #5 would look so much better if you could remove all the trees on the right side and highlight the steep hillside. Also, it should be noted that EVERY fairway looks narrow to Joe, the way he drives the ball. The truth hurts my friend.
About 20 yrs ago the large amount of storm water being discharged by the shopping mall parking lot no the ravine was causing such erosion that the bottom of the ravine was being eaten away. Consequently, the ravine side slopes were, well, sliding down. To halt this, the check dams you see adjacent to #4 green/5 tee. The idea was to slow the velocity of the water and by raising the spillway elevation several feet above the current water elevation, we would create a small settling pool behind each spillway and overtime, hopefully those pools would silt in and create a new, higher ravine bottom, thus halting and to an extent, reversing the effects of the erosion and halting the side slope slide.From the pictures, it appears that it worked.
Boy, does this bring back memories -- a course I never had the chance to play, but probably drove by a thousand times in my youth. I grew up about a half-hour from this course, and we'd usually drive right past Fairlawn CC -- it sits hard by busy Market Street -- on our way to the old downtown Akron Civic Center theater, or some of the great old dives downtown where bands like Devo got their start. Fairlawn may not be nearly as well-known as nearby Firestone, but it's THE old-money club in Akron, and is located in what is still one of the nicer neighborhoods of the city. The father of one of my best friends in high school belonged here, and I recall once playing on the club's very fine clay tennis courts.I have to say, I don't see a lot of what usually characterizes a Langford course, save for the built-up green of the 17th. But, pre-Moreau, maybe that was more in keeping with his design style back then. Always has been a well-regarded course in these parts -- not on par with the best of Cleveland, of course, but a solid club course nonetheless.
Chris,Thanks! My favorite non-big-name GCA. Can't get enough of him...Bit of a Shoreacres look to some of those ravine holes...
According to Cornish and Whitten, Fairlawn Country Club was renovated by Larry Packard in 1960 . . . I wonder if Langford's bunkering was softened then?Chris
Quote from: Chris_Blakely on November 24, 2011, 11:55:43 AMAccording to Cornish and Whitten, Fairlawn Country Club was renovated by Larry Packard in 1960 . . . I wonder if Langford's bunkering was softened then?ChrisEither that or Moreau didn't build the originals.