Inverness Club

Favorite Hole

No. 18, par 4, 358 yards

Inverness has several world-class par 4s (such as Nos. 6, 7, and 10), but I’d like to highlight No. 18 partly because of how unusual it is as a finishing hole. While most closers on American championship courses are long and intimidating, the 18th at Inverness is short, quirky, strategically intricate short par 4.

Pin position is critical. When the hole is cut left of center on this tiny, right-to-left-sloping green, players are incentivized to favor the right side of the fairway, which is guarded by four bunkers. When the pin is on the right, the left portion of the fairway is more appealing. Options on that side are more limited, however: players can lay up safely short of the first bunker on the left, leaving an approach of about 115 yards; or, if they have the requisite power, they can try to reach the left-hand surrounds of the green.

This is a gettable hole, one that will yield a lot of birdies and the occasional eagle to elite fields. But because of the smallness and severity of the green, those who miss the fairway or find themselves short-sided are well advised to play for par. Otherwise, the 18th at Inverness can produce a scorecard-wrecking (or championship-swinging) disaster.

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Overall Thoughts

There is a great deal to admire about Inverness Club.

It’s a credit to Donald Ross’s design—as well as to Andrew Green’s well-crafted additions—that the course’s 12 par 4s seem so distinct from one another. Although 10 of these holes sit roughly along a north-south axis, they use the property’s glacier-carved gullies and plateaus in so many different ways that every shot feels unique and memorable.

Also, Inverness boasts some of Ross’s best feature work. The gnarled bunker edges and mounds enliven the central plateau of the property, introducing some verticality to terrain that had once been flat farmland. The greens are similarly appealing, with surprising, angular exterior drop-offs and interior ripples. Green’s efforts to restore and refine these shapes have been strikingly successful. In future decades, his renovation will no doubt be regarded as one of the most important golf course projects of the 2010s.

(A side note, placed in parentheses because it’s based on limited, entirely subjective evidence: I have found Inverness to be a notably welcoming and friendly club. Like Prairie Dunes, it feels like a local family gathering spot that happens to operate a top-100 golf course and an active national membership. It also boasts a gold-standard caddie program that churns out a remarkable number of Evans scholars.)

In a couple of key respects, however, Inverness exemplifies the difficulty of balancing architectural stewardship with championship readiness:

1. Fairway widths and rough. Green did a fine job widening the course’s fairways where most amateurs will land their shots. For the most part, though, Inverness’s fairways remain quite narrow. Even their widest portions are not much more than 35 yards across. This gives players little reason to consider maneuvering for advantageous angles into Ross’s cleverly contoured greens. Furthermore, many of the landing zones for elite golfers are so narrow that hitting the fairway with a driver will be more or less a crapshoot, deemphasizing the skill of long and accurate driving in tournaments.

Fairways of this size, combined with omnipresent irrigated rough, have one purpose: to inflate scores at championships. They don’t create a better examination of golfing ability, and they certainly don’t make the course more compelling or fun to play.

2. Routing changes. As I indicated above, a weakness of Donald Ross’s initial Inverness routing was its prevalence of north-south holes. In 1918, only six of 18 holes moved significantly east or west.

Unfortunately, the club has exacerbated this problem over the past 50 years by rerouting the course to find length for championship-caliber players and room for galleries. George and Tom Fazio’s work in 1978 eliminated three east-west holes and created two additional north-south holes. Forty years later, Green contemplated restoring some of the lost holes, giving particular consideration to the old par-3 13th, which ran along the bluff above No. 18. Ultimately, though, he and Inverness’s green committee concluded that the restored hole would create safety and logistical issues during large-scale tournaments. A telling anecdote.

Now, to suggest that Inverness relinquish its U.S. Open and PGA Championship aspirations is a bit naive. Bringing the greater world of golf to Toledo has been part of the club’s raison d’etre for more than a century. Speaking purely in architectural terms, however, Inverness’s pursuit of the championship limelight has likely prevented the course from reaching its full potential.

1 Egg

Inverness Club earns an Egg for its smart, subtle Donald Ross design, recently burnished to a shine by Andrew Green. The course’s land, while eventful in spots, is not exceptional, and its presentation, while the definition of “pure,” is slightly over-refined for my tastes, but I do think Inverness could get another Egg from me if it were to free itself from major-championship requirements and just try to be an excellent member course.

Course Tour

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