Avalon Lakes

Pete Dye shifted his center of operations to Indiana during his lifetime, but he left a number of designs in his native Ohio as well. The one located farthest from Indiana is Avalon Lakes, by the Pennsylvania border near Youngstown.

It is also both one of Dye’s oldest and youngest courses in Ohio. The original was constructed during 1969 and was acquired by new ownership nearly 30 years later. That group brought Dye in to give his original greens a facelift, but instead they allowed the master to paint over his previous work. Dye had been busy in the decades since he first laid out the course, and the new model reflects the mind of a man who introduced TPC Sawgrass to the golfing world. The current layout is rife with both water and sand hazards for a player’s viewing pleasure (and playing pain). The tips at the Avalon course can be stretched to nearly 7,600 yards, if the hazards weren’t enough of a pain.

Although the course is part of a private country club, it’s also accessible to members of the general public...and not at an unreasonable rate, considering the greens fees at other Dye public-access options.