A Ross About To Bite The Dust

[DFarron]

How sad 

https://www.crainscleveland.com/sports-business/hawthorne-valley-golf-club-solon-will-be-closed-2019-and-its-future-again-question

[Joe Leenheer]

Was supposed to shut down a year or so ago and I believe Davey Tree came in to manage the property...


Meant to play it after the first scare and I may once again be too late.  Was supposed to be a fun/difficult track.

[Sven Nilsen]

We sure it was a Ross?

[Craig Disher]

We sure it was a Ross?

I don't think it's Ross. I believe it's been confused with the NLE Hawthorne Valley CC in Michigan. It was opened in 1926, same year that the Ohio club claims it was opened.

[Joe Zucker]

That interesting about the course in Michigan with the same name.  I know the Ohio Hawthorne Valley did claim to be a Ross course.  It was a nice course, maybe a Doak 4 or so.  The routing was tight and choked by trees in a lot of places, particularly on the front nine, and the greens did not really feel like push up Ross greens.  Some of the dog legs are so severe that you're forced to hit less than driver on many holes (2, 4, 7, 11, and 18 are all very sharp).  That being said, I really liked the 16th hole, which was a long downhill par 4 with a fairway canting left.  Certainly a loss for golfers in the area as it was a fun play when it opened to the public ~10 years ago.

[Sven Nilsen]

Designed by Frank Pelton and F. T. Stafford.


May 2, 1928 Cleveland Plain Dealer -

[Dean DiBerardino]

I hope this course can keep it going somehow. It is a fine layout over a wonderful piece of property that sits mostly in a creek valley. I’ve always thought that the course could be a lot more playable and enjoyable with the removal of about 500-1000 trees (to start), which would bring some width back to the claustrophobic corridors as well a simple green expansion. I was hoping the tree company that took the place over would have begun to address the tree issues, but I’m guessing they haven’t. The 12^th hole is a wonderful uphill par three of about 160 to 180 yards and the green sits in a natural area between a ridge on the right and a hillside on the left. The only problem is that there are two trees short and right blocking about two-thirds of the green!

I’ve always known it to be a Ross course. It’s even listed as a Ross course on the Donald Ross Society page, but Sven’s research seems to prove otherwise. At least it seems to have had an indirect Ross pedigree.

The worst part of courses like these closing is “losing” the land they were built on. Hawthorne Valley, much like others that are NLE in the Cleveland area like Acacia, Aurora and Oakwood, were all built partially or mostly at the bottom of a creek valley and the natural land formations & ridges that surround the creek valleys seem to be a perfect scale for golf. Also, the creeks make for wonderful hazards that are challenging but very negotiable. Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but if someone found a piece of land like Hawthorne’s today, they would have a really challenging time building a golf course on it for environmental reasons. Once it’s gone I’m thinking that it’s not coming back……

Click HERE to go to the GolfClevelandOhio.com page where there are a few photos of Hawthorne.

[Tom_Doak]

I hope this course can keep it going somehow. It is a fine layout over a wonderful piece of property that sits mostly in a creek valley. I’ve always thought that the course could be a lot more playable and enjoyable with the removal of about 500-1000 trees (to start),

I had thought it was incongruous that Davey Tree wanted to manage the course.  Was it because they wanted first crack at the trees for transplant??  That's an interesting business model.

[Craig Disher]

I’ve always known it to be a Ross course. It’s even listed as a Ross course on the Donald Ross Society page, but Sven’s research seems to prove otherwise. At least it seems to have had an indirect Ross pedigree.

Click HERE to go to the GolfClevelandOhio.com page where there are a few photos of Hawthorne.

The DRS list is known to have a few errors - e.g. Sewell's Point in VA is a confirmed Wm Flynn design (his drawings match the course) but the club still claims a Ross pedigree. A sign that a DRS attribution might be speculative is the absence of confirmation from the Tufts Archives or the Ross listing from 1930. But putting that aside, what a shame to lose the course. It obviously cries out for tree removal but even without it, the property looks like a very inviting place to play golf.

[Dave Maberry]

I’ve always known it to be a Ross course. It’s even listed as a Ross course on the Donald Ross Society page, but Sven’s research seems to prove otherwise. At least it seems to have had an indirect Ross pedigree.

Click HERE to go to the GolfClevelandOhio.com page where there are a few photos of Hawthorne.

The DRS list is known to have a few errors - e.g. Sewell's Point in VA is a confirmed Wm Flynn design (his drawings match the course) but the club still claims a Ross pedigree. A sign that a DRS attribution might be speculative is the absence of confirmation from the Tufts Archives or the Ross listing from 1930. But putting that aside, what a shame to lose the course. It obviously cries out for tree removal but even without it, the property looks like a very inviting place to play golf.

The tale of Hawthorne Valley is certainly confusing. "The Architects of Golf" in 1995 identify a HVCC in Cleveland Ohio built in 1926 designed by Ross. In 2001 in Brad Klein's Ross book two 1926/7 Ross HVCCs are identified in Dearborn MI and Solon OH. This is consistent with the latest Dec 2018 Ross list on DRS website although it lists Westland MI.


Tuft's Archives has 18 hole and green diagrams from 1926 with Dearborn MI identified on one page. The 1930 Ross book does not identify either course.


Sven's newspaper article appears to talk of HVCC west of Cleveland while the existing course appears to be east of Cleveland.


And finally a New HVGC can be found in Westland MI but it is only 9 holes.


Not sure if this clarifies anything but if anyone can offer any more information I would appreciate it.

[Sven Nilsen]

Sven's newspaper article appears to talk of HVCC west of Cleveland while the existing course appears to be east of Cleveland.

The article notes the course was on South Miles Road (which runs to out of Cleveland to the Southeast).  I don't see anything in the article discussing HV being West of Cleveland.


Sven

[Craig Disher]

Dave,Westland is a suburb of Dearborn so I think you can consider them the same as far as HV is concerned. The HV in Westland/Dearbon course was designed by Donald Ross as an 18 hole course. At some point it was reduced to 9 before closing a few years ago. The article Sven posted puts the Ohio HV on South Miles Rd which is SE of Cleveland, between Solon and Bedford Heights. As the article points out, it's was not designed by Donald Ross. The confusion comes from the DRS list and the Architects of Golf both attributing the Ohio HV to Ross. Both are wrong - which happens occasionally when dealing with sparse data.

[Sean_A]

Dave,Westland is a suburb of Dearborn...

Henry Ford just coughed in his grave 

The two communities are entirely independent and yes Hawthorne Valley was in Westland.  I wonder if there isn't any confusion with Warren Valley in Dearborn Heights?  The original 18 was chopped up to make two 18 courses and been seriously dumbed down. 

Ciao

[Erik Mosley]

Wow - not being a Ross is news to me.  I could have sworn the course advertised itself as such.  Anyway, there were some really neat holes out there that just don't get built anymore. 


#2 was a short par 4 with an angled fairway that fell away from the tee. It almost required a hook off the tee (or a very short iron) and I thought it was the only place on the course where the trees added to the quality of the hole. 


Number 8 was a par 4 with a cliff-top tee and little trouble, but the real challenge was the green that had a nasty little tier in it.  The options on the second shot were limitless on the few times it was playing firm and fast (right after they went public). 


And #16 was one of my favorite holes in Cleveland.  Long par 4, dogleg left that just opened up beautifully on your 2nd shot over a valley.  I normally don't like hitting woods into par 4's, but that was just a fun shot for reasons I can't quite put my finger on. 


Besides losing an architecturally interesting course (Ross or not), the other bad part of closing courses like this is the added strain it puts on the good public courses like Sleepy Hollow and Manakiki - add some more people to those courses and the already 5-hour round gets another 30 minutes tacked on to it.

[Dave Maberry]

Sven's newspaper article appears to talk of HVCC west of Cleveland while the existing course appears to be east of Cleveland.

The article notes the course was on South Miles Road (which runs to out of Cleveland to the Southeast).  I don't see anything in the article discussing HV being West of Cleveland.


Sven

Sven,


I was looking at current map and South Miles Road is west of Route 271, HVCC is on Aurora Road east of Route 271. Aurora Road may be continuation of South Miles Road.

[Dave Maberry]

Dave,Westland is a suburb of Dearborn so I think you can consider them the same as far as HV is concerned. The HV in Westland/Dearbon course was designed by Donald Ross as an 18 hole course. At some point it was reduced to 9 before closing a few years ago. The article Sven posted puts the Ohio HV on South Miles Rd which is SE of Cleveland, between Solon and Bedford Heights. As the article points out, it's was not designed by Donald Ross. The confusion comes from the DRS list and the Architects of Golf both attributing the Ohio HV to Ross. Both are wrong - which happens occasionally when dealing with sparse data.

Craig,


That explanation makes sense. I wonder if anyone compared Tufts Archives drawings to NLE HVCC in Michigan.

[Craig Disher]

Dave,The Hawthorne drawings at the Tufts are extremely detailed showing this wasn't a mail-in effort. The original 18 was cut up in the 1950s leaving 9, the rest of the holes turned over to real estate. Someone would have to find an aerial from the 30s or 40s, or photos from the club's archives if they still exist, to confirm that his drawings were implemented. I found an article noting a player who scored 1 on Hawthorne's 150-yd 15th hole. Ross's drawing of the 15th at Hawthorne is a 150 yard hole. That's good enough evidence for me.

[Dave Maberry]

Craig,


The 15th holes do appear to be same course. The drawings do not resemble any holes from scorecard of HVCC in Solon.


Looking a little further today I saw that the W. Pete Jones and Ron Whitten lists from 1998/1996 show HVCC in Dearborn as a 27 hole course from 1925 originally known as Brightmoor Country Club

[Craig Disher]

Craig,


The 15th holes do appear to be same course. The drawings do not resemble any holes from scorecard of HVCC in Solon.


Looking a little further today I saw that the W. Pete Jones and Ron Whitten lists from 1998/1996 show HVCC in Dearborn as a 27 hole course from 1925 originally known as Brightmoor Country Club

Dave,The Tufts drawings are of the HV course in Westland/Dearborn, MI, not the one near Solon, OH which I believe we've established was not a Ross design in spite of the club's claim.
It's a stretch to say that HV was in Dearborn. It was 8 miles or so to the west in Westland. It's also not near Brightmoor which has a 1920s-era public course just to the south - Rouge Park. I'm suspicious about the Brightmoor/HV connection.

[Dave Maberry]

Craig,


The 15th holes do appear to be same course. The drawings do not resemble any holes from scorecard of HVCC in Solon.


Looking a little further today I saw that the W. Pete Jones and Ron Whitten lists from 1998/1996 show HVCC in Dearborn as a 27 hole course from 1925 originally known as Brightmoor Country Club

Dave,The Tufts drawings are of the HV course in Westland/Dearborn, MI, not the one near Solon, OH which I believe we've established was not a Ross design in spite of the club's claim.
It's a stretch to say that HV was in Dearborn. It was 8 miles or so to the west in Westland. It's also not near Brightmoor which has a 1920s-era public course just to the south - Rouge Park. I'm suspicious about the Brightmoor/HV connection.

Craig,

I agree we've established HV in Solon, OH is not a Ross design in spite of the club's claim.

HV in Westland 8 miles west of Dearborn makes sense.

Any thoughts on

Brightmoor CC being a 1925 Ross course in Dearborn? This shows up in "The Golf Course" and "The Architects of Golf"

[Craig Disher]

Craig,

I agree we've established HV in Solon, OH is not a Ross design in spite of the club's claim.

HV in Westland 8 miles west of Dearborn makes sense.

Any thoughts on

Brightmoor CC being a 1925 Ross course in Dearborn? This shows up in "The Golf Course" and "The Architects of Golf"[/l]

Dave,

I don't think Brightmoor CC ever existed. It's not listed in the Annual Guides - I checked from 1923-1930. Hawthorne is listed evey year beginning in 1927 as located in Dearborn. The only reference I could find fo Brightmoor was that it was the location of River Rouge GC, a new 9-hole public course built by the city of Detroit in 1928. It still exists.  It's possible River Rouge was cited somewhere as Brightmoor CC but really, with almost no exceptions any course built in the 1920s appears somewhere in the early golf magazines or local newspapers. Brightmoor CC doesn't - at least as far as I can find.

[Sven Nilsen]

Brightmoor was the original name for Western G&CC.

[Craig Disher]

Great find, Sven. The Tufts is a wonderful source. The name change must have been fairly sudden and I wonder if it was driven by the founders' wish to distinguish the club from the Brightmoor housing development under construction nearby.

[Sean_A]

Craig, you are correct. I don't believe Western opened as Brightmoor. The course opened with a name to do with district... I forget exactly. Nobody then or now would use Brightmoor if trying to recruit Detroit area members. It must have been some sort of operating name at first. The odd thing about that name is Western is not in Brightmoor...which is a part of Detroit....maybe even when Western was built.  It could also be the case that Brightmoor was originally part of Redford...where Western G&CC is located.  I know Redford was at one time much larger, but I don't know what became what.  Being an area developed for auto industry housing, Brightmoor could well be a splinter of Redford.


PS...Rouge Park GC is not in Brightmoor either!

Ciao

[Dave Maberry]

Sven, nice catch on Brightmoor!

From Western website it appears Western G&CC was Golf & Country Club District initially. Brightmoor is not mentioned. The Western G&CC name came after the membership bought club from developer in 1945.