Central Ohio Golf Course Scene

The ascension of Dublin from tiny, quaint central Ohio village to its standing as a bustling suburban city begins and ends with one man. Jack Nicklaus led Dublin’s renaissance, transforming the Columbus suburb into an active community of over 32,000 and making it “Ohio’s Most Famous Golf Address” in the process.

Nicklaus was born in nearby Columbus, home to The Ohio State University he would later attend, and was raised in the suburb of Upper Arlington. Together with Arnold Palmer and Gary Player (collectively known as the “Big Three”), he is credited with turning golf into the major spectator sport it has become. The project that launched him into the stratosphere of golf course design, Muirfield Village Golf Club and its corresponding residential area, became the cornerstone of the Dublin area.

Entering just their third season as owners of Ashville’s Upper Lansdowne Golf Course, Bryan and Tamie Wallake have drastically improved every aspect surrounding the venerable old course. Changes for the better abound at Upper Lansdowne Golf Course and people are noticing.

Since the change in ownership significant improvements have been made that include remodeling of the clubhouse, completion of an irrigation system, addition of extra cart paths and an aesthetic upgrade to the bunkers, which are now filled with white sand.

A few minimal changes are also planned for the routing of the course which will make for a more efficient round, allowing golfers to more rapidly progress from point A to point B and quicken their pace of play. 

The clubhouse restaurant, Oasis Café, was also remodeled and now features an expanded menu that includes weekly home cooked specials. Additionally, a breakfast buffet is now served every Saturday morning from 7:30 a.m. until 10 a.m.

In two weeks Dublin will take its yearly turn in the spotlight as The Memorial, Jack Nicklaus’ vision and annual PGA TOUR event rolls into town. While the tournament is being contested Muirfield Village Golf Club will be preoccupied so Memorial patrons will have to look elsewhere if they’d like to tee it up themselves.

There is no better spot than the Golf Club of Dublin, which is making a name for itself as one of the best public golf facilities in the region. 

Shortly following the course’s opening awards would follow. Numerous publications and media outlets, including Great Lakes Golf, Golf Magazine, ESPN and Golfstyles, dubbed the design one of the best new golf courses in the country.

The four-man scramble is one of the most enjoyable formats for team competition in golf. After all, finding one decent shot out of four is a welcome proposition to many golfers. Beginning this spring, golf clubs across the country will be able to compete in The Great American Scramble and vie for the coveted title of National Champions in Las Vegas.

After the longstanding Buick/Oldsmobile Scramble shut down in 2005, golfers were left without a national scramble competition. PGA Professional Wayne Stone decided to change that. Stone created an event aimed at bringing excitement, camaraderie and team-building experiences back to golfers through the scramble format.

Stone, who is the director of Golf at Windermere Country Club in Windermere, Fla., decided there was enough interest to create a national scramble just by gauging the response of his members to the loss of the Buick event. Encouraged by the feedback, Stone set out to create the national tournament that was currently missing from the golf world.

There is something very important to be said about “been there, done that,” especially when it comes to creating a great golf experience. The new owners of Cumberland Trail Golf Club in Pataskala bring the background of building the ONLY Golf Digest Places-to-Play 5-Star club in Ohio, Little Mountain up on Lake Erie, to the fabulous farmland setting just east of Columbus.

Cumberland Trail Golf Course and Little Mountain already share a past, created by the Columbus-based, but internationally recognized designers Michael Hurdzan and Dana Fry. Now they share a future, under the umbrella of Little Mountain’s awardwinning management and as part of the growing Hurdzan/Fry Trail.

If you’ve been to Cumberland Trail before, the spectacular bentgrass greens that were kept at 10-1/2 on the Stimpmeter before they’re ever double-cut or rolled are still there, but are now joined by bunkers restored to the Hurdzan/Fry original specs, even though it involves much more maintenance. 

The Village of Groveport likes to think of itself as “Central Ohio’s hometown,” which would make the Links at Groveport the hometown’s hometown course. The formerly private Willows Golf Club was obtained by the village in January of 2005 and word’s still getting out that this private club-style gem located just 15 minutes southeast of downtown Columbus and 5 minutes outside I-270 on US 33 is open for everyone to enjoy.

You don’t have to imagine a privatequality course carrying a top weekend greens fee of $40 (with cart) and many opportunities to play for much less. It is very real at this historic layout, begun with 9 holes from Frank Waugh back in 1929 and complemented with nine “new” ones from Dr. Michael Hurdzan and Jack Kidwell, a pair of Ohio design legends, back in 1971. 

Its former name, the Willows, tells you a lot about the landscape at this classic tract. Woods and water and immaculately-kept fairways and roughs, greens and tees, welcome you to an original golf experience. Four sets of tees that range from 5,500 to 6,600 yards assure you’ll get all the challenge you’ll want, but an experience that’ll keep you coming back to The Links at Groveport for more.

We all love “new,” especially when it’s new and improved. The newest jewel in the great golf gallery of the Columbus area is the “new” Tartan East Golf Club.

This New Albany getaway that’s located just seven miles outside the I-270 loop off Rt. 161 has been reconditioned from the formerly private Winding Hollow Golf Club with thousands of hours of TLC by the same Tartan Management people who’ve built quite a reputation for excellence at Tartan Fields and the Golf Club of Dublin.

The best news is that we can now all play this Arthur Hills masterpiece that just re-opened late last summer.

Hills is an Ohio native who already has a Hall of Fame list of classics on his resume across the Buckeye State, from Longaberger and Red Hawk Run to Shaker Run and Turnberry. Tartan East Golf Club East is now ready to take its place among that group of Hills gems. 

We’ve all heard the line "you’re known by the company you keep"? How’s this for a short list of names that includes Little Mountain Country Club in Concord, less than an hour up I-90 from Cleveland — Bandon Dunes, Pacific Dunes, Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill, Pinehurst #2, Bethpage Black, The Ocean Course at Kiawah, Whistling Straits and Arcadia Bluffs?

Those are some of the OTHER 16 public-access courses, only 16, in the entire country given 5-Stars the last two years in Golf Digest’s Places to Play ratings.

If it is possible for a 5-Star course within 3 hours’ drive of 4 major metropolitan areas to still be considered a hidden gem, this stunningly gorgeous, yet still reasonably-priced Hurdzan/Fry design is that glittering diamond in the not-so-rough. What nearly all those other 5-Star classics have that Little Mountain Country Club doesn’t is either an ocean or mountain view, though you can see Lake Erie on a good day from the top of the 17th tee.

A World-Class Resort Experience Right Here at Home

Imagine the picturesque landscapes of Arizona, the lakes and marshes of South Carolina, the wispy fescues of the Great Lakes and stunning elevation changes of the Appalachians. All brough together within the city limits of the home of Pro Football’s Hall of Fame?

You don’t have to just imagine, you can play it, right now! The Quarry Golf Club is only just crossing its first birthday this spring, yet already feels like it has fit into its old Stark Ceramics clay quarry for decades. Its hundred-foot cliffs, rock outcroppings, natural waste areas, deep water lakes and streams and mature stands of native trees have created arguably northeast Ohio’s most unique golf venue, and proven once again the old real estate axiom that it’s all about location, location, location. The course’s location in a more friendly climate just off I-77 and SR 30, away from the Great Lakes and mountains, yet easily accessible from the Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Columbus metro areas has made it, and Canton’s other fine courses, a new destination for golf lovers who crave a new challenge.

There is nothing in sport quite like the risk/reward decision, and no sport where that decision is so common than golf, except maybe horse racing. The two sports of kings come together in that passion for challenge nowhere quite like Windy Knoll Golf Club , just on the north side of Springfield. The former world class thoroughbred horse farm that was home to Avatar, Native Uproar and other Derby-quality horses has matured into its fifth season as the home to a Scottish links-quality layout that dares you to seize the roses if you’re willing to risk the thorns of failure.

Ances on the rolling, heather-covered pastureland with considerable mounding and undulating greens. And the name Windy Knoll? It’s as much a tribute to the most important element you’ll face than it is to any reference to horses. As with any true links course, the breezes are always a factor at Windy Knoll, making, for example, the par-5 18th a possible driver/6-iron with the wind at your back, and a three-shot monster into a stiff northeast breeze, with out of bounds right off the tee and water left at the green to add a little more risk to a decision that could be rewarded with eagle, or double-bogey.