Tilly’s Lakewood Country Club comes to Golf Channel

[Michael Marzec]

Starting today, GCA’ers in the U.S. have a great opportunity to see A.W. Tillinghast’s Lakewood Country Club in all its HD glory. Lakewood — in the Cleveland (OH) suburb of Westlake — is certainly one of Tilly’s lesser known tracks, but one worthy of analysis.

The course is a par 71 (36-35) with only one par 5 on the back nine. The course features an extremely tight front nine (a little more on that later) and aggressively sloped greens. It should play at around 7,000 yards for the tournament, so I expect it to be a good test
 
In the mid-2000s, a planned redesign and an unplanned storm resulted in some substantial improvements to the course. Architect Steven Kay restored a number of key course features, including the Great Hazard on the par-5 sixth hole; the storm took out more than a few of the trees that have unfortunately encroached on the course over the past 90 years.

Despite the changes, Lakewood remains uncomfortably tight, especially for a long and sometimes wild driver of the ball like myself. (One of the caddies for the upcoming Web.com event told his player to sleep with his 2 iron: http://bit.ly/1tKREbD). I rarely pull driver from the bag until I get to the aforementioned sixth, only to put it back again at the short, dogleg seventh. On the back nine, the fair ays are more forgiving, allowing for more of the strategic play that I am sure Tilly had in mind when he designed the course.

Once the tournament has passed and the course has a chance to return to normalcy, I will post a photo tour. In the meantime, watch the coverage (6:30 p.m. Thu/Fri and 7 p.m. Sat/Sun on Golf Channel) and post any questions, which I ultimately will answer with first-hand research and images.

Now if I just had my GCA shirt to wear so you could look for me on TV…

[BCowan]

Michael,

    Thanks for the post.  I didn't know Tilly did a course in Ohio. 

[BHoover]

I think Lakewood is his only design, or at least the only remaining design, in Ohio.  A buddy of mine Monday qualified for the Cleveland Open, so I'll be following to see how he plays.

[Michael Marzec]

Yes, according to the Tillinghast Society, Lakewood is his only original design in Ohio.

Interestingly, it was originally designed with 27 holes, though only 18 were built. The club has slowly sold off much of the extra property for development, so there will be no extra 9.

[Mark McKeever]

The Hells Half acre looks like it's right in the ideal layup area looking at the aerial.  Is that the case?

MM

[Michael Herrmann]

Played Lakewood roughly 4-5 years ago and lunched there numerous times with a wonderfully nice former business associate who sadly passed away a couple years ago much too early.  Do recall the tightness of the course, particularly on the front nine, which wasn't too much of an issue for me as I'm normally a short and straight off the tee kind of guy.  But there were some intimidating drives.

There's a par 3 on the back where they built a new green but also left the old one, correct?  Or perhaps built a new green and were slowly phasing out the original?  Can't seem to correctly recall.  Looking forward to jogging my memory a bit with GC's coverage this weekend.

And yes, my member friend also confirmed it being the only original Tilly design in Ohio.

[Ben Hollerbach]

There's a par 3 on the back where they built a new green but also left the old one, correct?  Or perhaps built a new green and were slowly phasing out the original?  Can't seem to correctly recall. 

It does appear there are two 12th holes. Parallel par 3's of similar length with the one to the north looking like it was built recently.

[Michael Marzec]

Mark -

Playing mostly from the blue tees, I have never found the Great Hazard (or the grassy mounds that preceded it) to be much of an issue. At 527 yards, a decent drive of 250-260 will leave you only 160 or so to carry the bunkers, leaving a sand or gap wedge into the green. But the sight of all that sand can make you question your commitment and lead to all sorts of bad swing thoughts and even worse results.

Now, miss the fairway or hit a short drive, and you are almost certainly laying up short of the hazard, which leaves a long iron into a small, well-bunkered, severely slanted green. No picnic that.

If you walk back 40+ yards to the tips, the hazard is much more in play. Even with a 275-yard drive, you are looking at 190 yards to clear the hazard.

Michael -

Both No. 12s remain on the course. The newer hole, which has been around at least 20 years and perhaps quite a bit longer, does an admirable job of replicating the sloping greens and bunkering of the rest of the course. Even the pond is not completely out of place, as there is water on 2 of the other one-shoters. It is quite picturesque. I am not sure why the hole was built. They alternate the pair throughout the year, though I am not sure on what basis. I will ask when I am there.


Here's a link to a nice aerial using Google http://course.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/course/course/lakewoodcc2/aerial.htm#.