Columbus Country Club (w/ Pics)

[Brian Laurent]

I had the opportunity to play Columbus Country Club yesterday and was able to snap a few shots here and there.  The course was originally built in 1907, redesigned around 1914 and then once more around 1934.  From what I've read, each time Donald Ross was the architect (please correct me if that's wrong). 

It's an interesting course with some nice elevation change on the first few holes and then once again in the middle of the round.  Here are some shots...

1st hole - downhill tee shot and back up the hill on your approach. 



2nd hole - another downhill tee shot with the landing area pinched by fairway bunkers.  Driver is not necessary for the first few holes.



3rd hole - medium length par four up the hill


5th hole - downhill tee shot with fairway bunkers hugging the outside of the dogleg


7 - one shotter...about 175 yards


11 - yet another downhill dogleg right



12 - a good short par 4...requires a shot of about 220 off the tee, sharp dogleg right



13 - great par three of about 180 yards


17 - 220+ par 3


18 - one of 3 par 5s on the back nine, this one about 580 with OB tight on the left hand side

[Billsteele]

Brian-Thanks for posting the pictures of CCC. I have had the opportunity to play there a number of times and feel it gets lost in the shuffle of the other quality courses in Central Ohio. I think it is a very good golf course but suffers whenever the routing returns to the plateau area near the clubhouse...the holes (4, 8, 9, 17 and 18 come to mind) are just not that interesting. However, generally, the holes in the river/creek valley are very good (although I am not a big fan of #7 which I view as a pretty average par three). I think #1 is one of the best openers in Ohio: a great look off the tee (spoiled by the relatively recent addition of the golf dome across the street which is evident in your picture), and a great uphill approach to an interesting, well-bunkered green. I know that there were trying to get a Champions Tour major for 2014 (to celebrate the 50th anniversary of CCC hosting the 1964 PGA), but I have heard nothing recently about this.

[Richard Boult]

added to our gca photo tour directory at:

http://delicious.com/golfclubatlas/Ohio

[SBendelow]

Brian,
Very nice pictures of the Columbus Country Club course.
According to Bradlley Klein (Discovering Donald Ross) and the listing posted by the Donald Ross Society, Ross did a remodel job on the existing 9 holes and added 9 holes in 1914.  Ross returned to do a second remodel job in 1920.
CCC's original 9 was done in 1905 by Tom Bendelow.
S. Bendelow

[Thomas MacWood]

Stuart
I'm pretty sure Tom Bendelow did both nines, at different times. I don't think Ross had anything to do with this course. Alison redesigned it in the early 20s and then Dick Wilson in the early 60s prior to the PGA.

[SBendelow]

Tom,
Would very much like to document Bendelow's involvement in the second nine if it can be found.
Stuart

[David Stamm]

 

 

This must be an experimental convex fw bunker that Ross put in that is no longer in play due to tree growth!

[David Whitmer]

Columbus CC is a good, very solid track that often gets overlooked in the Columbus area due to the other great courses.

Stuart, if you are a part of Tom's lineage, please know I am a member in Cincinnati of a Tom Bendelow-designed golf course (Western Hills CC) built in 1912. We have a short bio of his posted in the pro shop and in the men's locker room, as we are trying to educate our members about the man who designed their course!

[SBendelow]

Brian,
Any chance the photos you have posted depict the hole layouts that were done in 1905 or 1907?  Or were they all completely changed by those in 1914 or thereafter?   I detect some similarity with photos of other holes which were TB designs.  Although many of TB's original layouts are gone or have been significantly worked over, I continue to be impressed by the number that remain essentially with his original routing.   Knowing the history of the course adds to its character, at least I think so.
Stuart Bendelow

[Sean_A]

Do other folks think this doesn't look much like a Ross Course or is it just me?

Ciao

[Thomas MacWood]

Stuart
The April 1915 issue of Golf magazine has an article on the New Walnut Cliffs golf course at Columbus CC. The artcle says that Tom Bendelow has laid out the new course. Some of the existing nine would be used but it sounded like it was pretty much an all new 18. There is a map of the course too. I haven't studied it closely but looks to me like the course today. The magazine can be found at the USGA website.

[Sven Nilsen]

Here is the article MacWood referred to in the last post in this thread, along with a modern day aerial of the course.  Is there any doubt this was a Bendelow and not a Ross?

[BHoover]

Sven, what is the date of the article? I don't think many people doubt the role that Tom Bendelow played in laying out the course. But what seems to be less certain is what remains of the original Bendelow layout and what is Ross. When I was a member, I recall that Bendelow laid out the original (I think) layout and then Ross came in around 1909 and/or 1916 to revise the routing and to re-work many of the holes. For example, there used to be a par 3 where the 4th tee and 8th tees now sit. The original routing also started on what is now the 4th hole, and the current 1st, 2nd and 3rd holes were originally 16-18.

I think one of the problems with documenting the precise history is that the clubhouse burned down in the early 1960s and I'm not sure whether any of the original plans, maps, etc. survived the fire.

[Sven Nilsen]

Brian:

See MacWood's last post for the date.

Sven

[Terry Lavin]

Heaven help them if the trees ever caught on fire.  Half the state could be lost; that's a lot of fuel.

[BHoover]

Heaven help them if the trees ever caught on fire.  Half the state could be lost; that's a lot of fuel.

There are lots of trees.  They have removed some, but there are plenty more to go.  Keith Foster has a master plan that calls for tree removal, bunker work and drainage.  I hope the membership eventually approves the work.

I was there over the weekend, and another feature I'd like to see restored are the original green pads. There are a few that are very good (14-16), but many have shrunk over time.

[BHoover]

Brian:

See MacWood's last post for the date.

Sven

Thanks. It's been some time since I looked at this thread. But regardless of dates, Ross was involved. Maybe just not to the extent that the club likes to point out.

[Sven Nilsen]

Brian:

See MacWood's last post for the date.

Sven

Thanks. It's been some time since I looked at this thread. But regardless of dates, Ross was involved.

That may be so, but it is Bendelow's routing.  Ross may have changed a few holes around, but you can't look at the image from the article and the modern day aerial and tell me it wasn't Tom's design.

[Terry Lavin]

Heaven help them if the trees ever caught on fire.  Half the state could be lost; that's a lot of fuel.

There are lots of trees.  They have removed some, but there are plenty more to go.  Keith Foster has a master plan that calls for tree removal, bunker work and drainage.  I hope the membership eventually approves the work.

I was there over the weekend, and another feature I'd like to see restored are the original green pads. There are a few that are very good (14-16), but many have shrunk over time.

Hiring Keith would be a smart move, based on these photos.

[BHoover]

That may be so, but it is Bendelow's routing.  Ross may have changed a few holes around, but you can't look at the image from the article and the modern day aerial and tell me it wasn't Tom's design.

I'm not saying that it's not Benedelow's routing. But there are original holes from the Bendelow routing that no longer exist.

[BHoover]

Hiring Keith would be a smart move, based on these photos.

It was a smart move, and his plan looks fantastic. But unfortunately, the membership did not support implementing the plan. That was one of my primary reasons for leaving the club a couple years ago.

[Sven Nilsen]

Ross may have changed a few holes, but I doubt he did it in 1915.

From the club's website:

"Developed originally by Orlando A. Miller in 1903 as a horseman’s club with bridle paths throughout the estate, the land eventually gave way to the sport of golf. Over the years, some of golf’s greatest architects have laid hands on Columbus Country Club. Originally designed by Tom Bendelow in 1903, Columbus Country Club has seen the likes of HS Colt, course designer of Pine Valley, Dick Wilson, designer of Bay Hill in Florida, and Geoffrey Cornish of Olympia Hills’ fame. But, it was the work of Donald Ross – a designer who renovated Columbus Country Club several times between 1915 and 1940 – who has had the most influence on the course’s character and overall design."

I'm also interested in hearing exactly what Harry Colt did to the course, and when he did it.

Sven

[BHoover]

Ross may have changed a few holes, but I doubt he did it in 1915.

From the club's website:

"Developed originally by Orlando A. Miller in 1903 as a horseman’s club with bridle paths throughout the estate, the land eventually gave way to the sport of golf. Over the years, some of golf’s greatest architects have laid hands on Columbus Country Club. Originally designed by Tom Bendelow in 1903, Columbus Country Club has seen the likes of HS Colt, course designer of Pine Valley, Dick Wilson, designer of Bay Hill in Florida, and Geoffrey Cornish of Olympia Hills’ fame. But, it was the work of Donald Ross – a designer who renovated Columbus Country Club several times between 1915 and 1940 – who has had the most influence on the course’s character and overall design."

I'm also interested in hearing exactly what Harry Colt did to the course, and when he did it.

Sven

I obviously am not an expert on the history of the course. I don't know who all has touched the course since the original layout by Bendelow. Unfortunately, I don't know that we ever will have a complete history because I don't think the club's original archives survived the clubhouse fire in the early 60s.

I too would like to know what work, if any, Colt did to the course. I do know that Wilson and Cornish were the most recent ones to touch the course. Unfortunately, when Cornish worked on the greens in the early 90s, a few know-it-all members later tweaked a few of the greens to their own liking.