A Trail through the Woods - Lakewood Country Club
By Ken Stofer

When the golfer of today rolls up to his country club in a fine motor car, it is improbable that he give a single thought to the condition of that same road before the course was built. It must be remembered that usually the courses are located back from public roads, often miles away from main thoroughfares. Sometimes in getting back to a prospective site for a golf course the way is little more than a trail through the woods, where even a Ford cannot go, and then it is a case of riding shank’s mare. One year ago at Lakewood, near Cleveland, Ohio, there was a country dirt road, which ran for probably a half-mile back from the main thoroughfare. After a storm it was absolutely impassable for any sort of car. In December I rode over this same road, paved entirely for a distance of two miles, I should say, until it connected two roads. There was no reason in the world for paving but for the fact that a new country club (Lakewood) opened there during the past summer.

May 1924

Early aerial view of Lakewood Country Club.

Beautiful and challenging Lakewood Country Club in Westlake Ohio opened in 1923. Although, Tillie is known to have done redesign work at several-noted Ohio course such as Inverness, Canterbury, Mayfield, Kirtland, Manakiki, and Firestone, Lakewood is the only known original Tillie design in Ohio.

In March 1922 Lakewood Country club contracted with the highly regarded local landscape architect, A.D. Taylor, and the noted golf course architect, A.W. Tillinghast, to design and build a new golf course for this fledgling country club. Tillie designed the course and Taylor constructed it in close consultation with Tillie.

16th Hole looking back toward tee.

At Lakewood, the Tillie design flows with the rolling wooded landscape and presents natural green sites with bold and varying bunkering. Taylor constructed a lake and dam in the center of the property to store 5 million gallons of water. Using the lake, Tillie designed a short “all or nothing carry” par 3 over the lake — this is the sixteenth hole. The Lakewood members immediately dubbed this lovely lake “Hazard Lake.” Tillie’s trademark design features are seen throughout the Lakewood design — twisting fairways, oblique lines of play, deceptive approaches and most of all beauty. The home hole may be one of the best — a 421-yard par-4 slight dogleg left with a natural green site perched on a shelf deceptively beyond a crossing fairway stream.

Although not a regular U.S.G.A tournament venue, Lakewood is a challenging test of golf. In 1968 Lakewood was the PGA tour stop for the Cleveland Open. Dave Stockton won and has become a great champion. Jack Tuthill the PGA tournament’s supervisor and many of the pros that participated hailed Lakewood as one of the finest and well-kept golf courses in America.

Return to The Life & Times of A.W. Tillinghast