Kirtland - a photo tour

[John Mayhugh]

A couple of weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to join Bill Steele and his buddy Brian for a round at Kirtland Country Club up in a Cleveland suburb.  Kirtland is a great example of how much one can learn from GCA, because I doubt I never would have heard of the club without Ran's profile.  Thanks to a charity auction and Bill's thoughtfulness, I got to experience my first Allison course.

I should start by saying that everything about Kirtland was wonderful.  The club was founded in 1921 and is situated on really great property.  Allison routed the course very well to take advantage of the natural features of the land, and combined with his bold, aggressive bunkering and green complexes the end result is a excellent course.

The first hole is a 412 yard par 4.  The tee is right beside the clubhouse and is located between the range and putting green.  A very sociable start.  The first hole doglegs a little left, with a bunker on the inside of the dogleg.


The green slopes quite a bit from front to back and left to right so avoiding the bunker with your approach may make for a tough putt. And you definitely don't want to miss left.




Check out the slope of the green and an example of the bunkering.



The second hole is a long par 4, 467 yds.  You need to keep your tee shot to the left to make sure the approach isn't blocked by trees on the inside of a dogleg right.






This green is surrounded by two huge bunkers.  I really liked the transitiion from fairway to green that is present on most holes.





The third hole is a 164 yd par 3.  A lot of back to front tilt on this green makes club selection important.


More later...

[Bill_McBride]

John, were all the fairway cut lines that straight?

[John Mayhugh]

John, were all the fairway cut lines that straight?

I didn't really think about it at the time, but mostly they were.

[John Mayhugh]

The fourth hole is 415 yds, with OB right and some trees right.


The approach is not very attractive due to some tree removal required by the local power company.


The fifth hole is a 385 yd par 4 that moves just slightly to the left.  Fairway bunker on the right side.


The green is guarded by bunkers just short on both the left & right sides. 


The sixth hole is a 175 yd par 3 that is surrounded by bunkers.  Both it and the third green share the same small pond. 

[Bill_McBride]

John, were all the fairway cut lines that straight?

I didn't really think about it at the time, but mostly they were.

I'm not a big fan of that bowling alley look.

[John Mayhugh]

John, were all the fairway cut lines that straight?

I didn't really think about it at the time, but mostly they were.

I'm not a big fan of that bowling alley look.

Looks much better in person.  Until you asked, I had never noticed it.

[John Mayhugh]

Due to some event going on, we actually started our round on the 7th hole.  It's a 382 yard par 4 with OOB down the right side.  The large fairway bunker on the left side is a bit out of reach for people like me, but it still serves to encourage a tee shot up the right side which is the better angle. 


The green is more visible from the right side approach and with the significant slope and bunker left, it's best approached from the right side.




Also note the drop off long.




The eighth hole is a 534 yard par 5. You cannot easily see it from the tee, but the fairway slopes steeply downhill.


There is a lone bunker on the left side to make you consider the second shot distance and line.  Again, the hole is bordered by OOB on the right.  The further you get down the hill with your tee shot, the less visible the bunker is.




The view from behind the green shows Allison's great use of the hilly land.


The ninth hole is a 425 yd par 4 to a somewhat crowned fairway.  The green is diagonal to the line of play.




The green slopes left to right and front to back, so it's a lot of fun to run the approach to a back hole location.  I think hole location here would make a big difference on ideal placement of the tee shot.


Nine entertaining holes on hilly ground.  Coming up.......dramatic change of terrain.

[George Freeman]

The 9th looks really interesting! 

How are the 10-20 yards of fairway short of the greens maintained?  It appears that many would be ideal for running shots onto the greens if they were firm and fast...

Enjoying the thread John, keep 'em coming!

Cheers,

George

[RJ_Daley]

I imagine Allison didn't quite envision the number of trees clogging up the overall presentation in his day.  It looks like a fine round of golf as is, but bold de-treeing would be an interesting masterplan going forward, it seems to me.

[John Mayhugh]

I imagine Allison didn't quite envision the number of trees clogging up the overall presentation in his day.  It looks like a fine round of golf as is, but bold de-treeing would be an interesting masterplan going forward, it seems to me.

Fairways were 35-40 yards wide and the rough was negotiable for the most part.  I would say the tightest corridor between trees was nearer 50 or 60 yards, so they really did not impinge on play.  The photos may make the course look tighter, but other than one well-placed tree on the second, trees seemed more of an aesthetic concern. 

Thanks for your comment.  I'm disappointed at the lack of interest on Kirtland so far.  Maybe if Fluff was a member.....

[RJ_Daley]

John, I was thinking of detreeing as much in the backdrops to the green sites as the narrowing aspects of the FWs.  When they got rid of many trees in the backdrops of Lawsonia greens, you'd be amazed at the difference in the visual cues or lack or vagueness of the approach shots, which is more what I think the old dead guys were aiming at (no pun intended). 

[Phil McDade]

John:

I'm awaiting your shots from the back nine!

I grew up not far from Kirtland, and it always seemed to have a much lower profile than some of the other major Cleveland-area privates, notably Canterbury, PPike, and the next-door Country Club. But folks who played it raved about it, esp. the back nine cut through the woods and around the river.

I spent a lot of time this past fall at Milwaukee CC, another Alison that utilizes a river and some good terrain, and am interested in contrasting the two courses.

[Brad Swanson]

I imagine Allison didn't quite envision the number of trees clogging up the overall presentation in his day.  It looks like a fine round of golf as is, but bold de-treeing would be an interesting masterplan going forward, it seems to me.

Thanks for your comment.  I'm disappointed at the lack of interest on Kirtland so far.  Maybe if Fluff was a member.....

John,
   Frankly, what you've shown so far make the course look like a Firestone clone, with ramrod straight fairways and not many angles from which to derive shotmaking interest.  After seeing your pictures I checked Ran's course profile, and the back 9 appears more interesting, and I'm looking forward to those pictures and hopefully further discussion.

Cheers,
Brad

[Wyatt Halliday]

John,

You stated that pictures make the course appear tighter than it actually is. Can you say the same for the movement of the terrain? Speaking of Lawsonia, are the greens at Kirtland built up on certain sides in a similar fashion? It appears that way in a few pics (#'s 1 & 7).

Wyatt

Also:     Was this your first Alison course? Do you think that Kirtland shares the kinship that Ran describes in his review?--

"Alison has a very interesting design style – quite different from his mentor Colt. In some ways it more closely resembles the style of Macdonald, Raynor and Langford. Steeply elevated pushed-up greens and bold bunkering – bold in both their scale and severity."

[John Mayhugh]

Dick,
Agreed there would be some major visual impact by getting rid of trees behind greens, but so many of the backdrops were property lines that it's not as practical as we would like.

Phil,
I've not seen Milwaukee CC, so we're even!  The second nine looks much different at Kirtland.

Brad,
A Firestone clone?  Yikes, the photos really aren't doing the course justice then.  Trust me when I say that the routing uses the movement of the land quite effectively and there is plenty of interest, even on the lesser known front.  If you haven't already, take a look at Ran's profile.  His photos do a far better job of being three dimensional than mine do.  Like Lawsonia, I'm glad to offer a money back guarantee on Kirtland as well.   

Wyatt,
There is lots of land movement, both obvious and more subtle.  It's tough to get a lot of level lies there and the shot requirements vary hole to hole.  The Kirtland greens aren't built up nearly as much as Lawsonia's, but definitely some deep spots.

[Brian Laurent]

John-

Thanks for posting pictures of Kirtland...I have been spending quite a bit of time in the Cleveland area recently and am amazed at the amount of quality golf courses.  Kirtland was a course I had never heard of before reading about it on this site.  I was fortunate enough to get a tour of the facility by the superintendent (Chad Mark, fantastic guy and fellow Buckeye!) a few weeks ago and was blown away by the site.  Pictures can not do this course justice.  The view standing on 10 tee is absolutely amazing.  Chad and his team have done and continue to do a great job.

Brian