Niall,
I'd go with an Ohio city as the best golf city in the United States, but not Columbus. It would have to be Cleveland.
Niall:
As a native of Ohio, I appreciate your enthusiasm about the quality of golf here. I have got to believe that Ohio would be near the top of most lists of the best state for golf. However, based on your criteria for the “best golf city”, I do not think that Columbus is the best because, in my opinion, there is better in Ohio. Your criteria, which is stated in the second sentence of your original post is:
“It has the best, most varied (both by style and design), collection of high quality golf courses and clubs in the closest geographic proximity of any major city in America.”
Golf in Columbus is varied and of extremely high quality. Geographic proximity of the golf facilities in Columbus is good, even with all the orange construction barrels that seem to plague the roads on a constant basis.
In my opinion, the greater Cleveland area is best in the state of Ohio based on your criteria.
Starting with your top five in Columbus, while all are great golf courses, I have the following thoughts about them:
The top five courses you mentioned are balanced more towards modern rather than classical. As for the rest of the courses in Columbus, most are modern. Even the two classical courses in your top five can be viewed as modern even given their original pedigree.
Scioto – As a big admirer of this course, Scioto has to be one of the best Ross courses to be reworked by another architect (Wilson in 1963 and most recent changes by Hurdzan and Nicklaus). There is a wonderful piece of land there with a very intact Ross routing, but that is where the Ross ends. The rest is Wilson, Hurdzan and Nicklaus (which is great stuff!).
Scarlet – You state that this golf course was designed by Mackenzie and Maxwell. From Tom MacWood’s essay, it seems that the golf course routing was based on MacKenzie’s plans and that Maxwell was bullied off the job by some guy named McClure before having the chance to make any significant input to the design. The course today seems to be more of Nicklaus’ interpretation of what MacKenzie might have designed.
All of your top five courses are superb, but seem to be more modern than classical. Again, a majority of the remaining notable courses in Columbus are modern. While this is not a bad thing, to me it does not equate to variety.
As for Cleveland, a majority of the courses are classic but more balanced with the modern compared to Columbus.
Most lists of the top tier courses in Cleveland would have the following (in alphabetical order):
Canterbury: Hebert Strong (1922)
Kirtland: C. H. Alison and H. S. Colt (1921)
Mayfield: Herbert H. Barker and Bert Way (1911)
Sand Ridge: Tom Fazio (1994)
The Country Club of Pepper Pike: William S. Flynn (1931)
The Pepper Pike Club: William S. Flynn (1924)
As for the rest, I’ll list them by architect….
Alison and Colt: Westwood
Pete Dye: Fowler’s Mill
William S. Flynn: Elyria
Michael Hurdzan: Little Mountain, Stonewater
Jack Nicklaus: Barrington
Donald Ross: Acacia, Hawthorne Valley, Oakwood, Manakiki, Shaker Heights
Herbert Strong: Lake Forest
Stanley Thompson: Beechmont, Chagrin Valley, Sleepy Hollow
A.W. Tillinghast: Lakewood
Bert Way: Aurora
Weiskopf and Morrish: Quail Hollow
Many of the courses above have either been positively profiled or discussed on this site. To me, there is much more variety in the greater Cleveland area. Also, any of the courses above can be reached within 45 minutes from the east suburbs of Cleveland.
You mentioned Granville (which is great and I would have loved to see it before it was changed!) in one of your posts, I think, jokingly. If you are including it, then I would like to add some courses to the list from Akron and Canton which include Ross, Trent Jones, Sr. and Langford.
Again, I am a big fan of Columbus golf and would welcome the opportunity to play any of your top five in this post. To me, based on your criteria, Cleveland is the better of the two. Lastly, golf in the state of Ohio is great no matter how you look at it!