Columbus, Ohio just may be the best golf city in the United States. 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. With all due respect to San Francisco (and the Monterey area) and the New York Metropolitan area as well as Long Island, Chicago and Philadelphia all of which have spectacular collections of their own, Columbus has a more varied and better representative group than each of these titans. None of these cities or areas has the variety of top end golf courses in the same close vicinity. Donald Ross, Alister MacKenzie, Pete Dye, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Weiskopf & Jay Morrish as well as many others all have excellent work in the area.
Scioto Country Club (1916) by Donald Ross is as rich in design and layout as it has in history of great competition. It is not only a top notch Ross design but is one of only four courses that has hosted the PGA, Ryder Cup, US Amateur and the US Open. Scioto not only was the childhood home of Jack Nicklaus but also where Bobby Jones won his second US Open in 1926.
The Golf Club (1967) by Pete Dye in New Albany is an early Dye at his best and the layout represents one of the few bright spots in a decade that didn’t produce many classics. He produced a course that not only is an awesome test for the player of all levels, but was less manufactured appearing and may even represent the start of a change in the was golf courses were designed, maintained and viewed aesthetically. In short the course is awesome.
Muirfield Village Golf Club (1974) by Jack Nicklaus (and Desmond Muirhead) is his tribute to golf and his own take on Augusta a la Bobby Jones. It represents one of his very best, if not his best, and the conditions, facilities, atmosphere and ability to be tournament ready daily is second to none. It is not only host to the Memorial every year (another Tiger Woods favorite) but it also hosted the Ryder Cup in 1987 and the US Amateur in 1992.
Ohio State Golf Club - Scarlet (1938) by Alister MacKenzie (and Perry Maxwell) is arguably the best collegiate golf course in the country. In an interesting twist of fate, is there any other course in the country that had the site selected and walked over by Donald Ross and the designed by MacKenzie and finished up by Maxwell? It is a brutally difficult course in line with Winged Foot and Oakland Hills for severity, length and overall penal play. Although a bear, it is a wonderful golf course and a great complement to the rest of the areas courses.
Double Eagle Club (1992) by Tom Weiskopf & Jay Morrish is a top 100 golf course and another where the conditions are in the very top of the country. It is extremely private and like the Golf Club in New Albany many locals in the Columbus area are not even aware of the gem in Galena.
Beyond the “Big 5” in town there are a great number of wonderful “second tier” clubs like Columbus Country Club by Donald Ross in 1903 and hosted the PGA in 1964, Wedgewood Golf & Country Club by RTJ II in 1991, and Tartan Fields in Dublin by Arnold Palmer to name a few.
With 5 Top 100 quality courses all within 30 minutes, Ross, Mackenzie, Dye, Nicklaus, Weiskopf, mix of old and new style designs, the Bobby Jones history combined with being the cradle for Jack Nicklaus under the tutelage of Jack Grout- it is this authors opinion that Columbus is unmatched by any city in the US. Add to that the fact that Ohio is landlocked, has no real physical features that would make it appealing for potential golf architects and that the weather gives it a limited season it really is amazing that Columbus is as well represented as it is. Its mixture of different architectural styles, eras and even technologies is unique. The only thing it is missing is a Tillinghast or coastline, but with what it has is something very special. Of course this is an opinion and is my first post and the hope it to create a debate and some healthy intelligent dialogue.