Ohio, United States
One of two courses owned by the Mayfield Sand Ridge Club, Sand Ridge is an elegant course located in the western foothills of the Appalachian Mountains around 30 miles from Cleveland.
Mayfield Sand Ridge (Sand Ridge)
One of two courses owned by the Mayfield Sand Ridge Club, Sand Ridge is an elegant course located in the western foothills of the Appalachian Mountains around 30 miles from Cleveland.
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Oakmont, Pebble Beach, Oakland Hills. All currently ranked within this platform’s World Top 100. Chardon’s Sand Ridge is named for the landscape that provides the dust that decorates courses like these. If you’ve splashed out of a high-end club’s high-faced bunker, there is a reasonable chance that you’ve used Covia Corp’s key product. A hundred years from now, when Ohio finally pursues a Streamsong-type attraction — a multi-course resort built across a recycled mining wasteland — it will be here, the company’s sprawling campus on the far east of Cleveland. For now, despite the trend toward minimalist, naturalized sandscapes, Covia maintains a brisk business. Current golfers will need to settle for Sand Ridge, a representative from golf’s previous era of design, located immediately south of Covia’s sarlacc sanctuary.
It’s a worthwhile exercise, even if you’ve been spoiled rotten by the clutch of Golden Age designs that dot the northern Ohio landscape; although fondness for Ol’ Tom has risen slightly after a rough decade of groupthink-driven social media output, it can still be difficult to get the spirits revved up for a Fazio in an area code sporting Flynn, Ross, Alison, Tillinghast and more. Even clubs of that age that lack a name architect — such as Sand Ridge’s sister course, Mayfield — generate a higher dopamine hit on mention for this snobbish millennial.
As I once argued for Forest Dunes in the face of The Loop, however, there is great value in a Fazio complement; a purely parkland affair from an architect celebrated/pilloried for identifying/creating scenery if not the scope of accompanying strategy to round out any given Golden Age-blessed region. Some would argue that the several Nicklaus clubs in the region fit the bill but I’m not so sure; when defining the top shelf for the era’s demand for sleek, nü-Augusta, Fazio is a level above his colleagues.
No question that this is the nearest Ohio has to the full Fazio experience touted at venues such as Wade Hampton (another Covia customer), even more so than the West course at mid-tony Firestone, and what a location to host such a thing. Your snobbish correspondent might be a stick-in-the-mud who pushes for native sand in local bunkers the world over but the splashy powder fake to Oakmont is very real to Sand Ridge’s region so Fazio can’t be blamed for tossing it around like Tony Montana. Fifteen hazards from head to tail on No. 3, an uphill par five sold as the signature. Massive Sahara-scapes, dividing the dual-greened No. 5 or lining the eagle-hunter’s No. 14.
Fazio lets the land do the talking, both from a topographical and sedimentary perspective; rather than bail out for Floridian fare, the designer perches the bulk of par three greens on ridges, leaving long, high lofts the punishment for missing pins on the edge, rather than a missing ball. Though not one of his renowned Carolina mountain loops, Fazio takes advantage of well-tumbled topography to leave attractive downhill approaches into several greens and, in something especially distinct compared to said mountain courses — as referenced in my description of No. 3 — holes that travel uphill as well!
He may let the land do the talking but Fazio is loath to let golfers do the walking. To some degree, his hands were tied; a wide wetland separates the property’s back four holes from the rest. That the No. 10 tee begins some 600 yards from the No. 9 green is a simple reflection of the era’s cart cult-ure. Golfers of the ‘90s — and, more than I would care to admit, the modern era — do not care for walking and Fazio is happy to take advantage of the benefits that come with obliging such whims.
As stated above, I rebut claims that a course such as Forest Dunes should be rejected in the era of courses such as The Loop. I offer a corollary, however, that while I would not change the essential design of Dunes, I endorse aesthetic-based renovations to make that project fit the land better, as well as course management updates to open up more ground-based options. The minimal strategic complaints I have to make regarding the actual layout of Sand Ridge reflect that, of all the four-ball reviews I’ve given to clubs in my day, this one’s ceiling is considerably higher.
The benefits to improving both style and play were obvious whilst looking back on the final hole from beyond its green. One item that you’ll be frequently reminded of during a round is that most fairway bunkers are out in front of you from the tee and then completely invisible looking back. Here, at No. 18, instead of seeing an admirably placed faux-Lion’s Mouth, I looked back to a large mound of second cut backing into the green, where a close-cut sandbelt bunker would have shone from both front and back. Perhaps I was bitter because I attempted to play a sand belt-style shot upon approach, theoretically riding down the ridge at the right, rather than risking the wetland at the left, I was disappointed that the well-watered fairway wasn’t eager to accommodate my desires.
Granted, an Ohio course can’t fake a sandbelt identity nearly as well as an erstwhile national course can fake having Ohio sand. Nonetheless, a club such as Sand Ridge, not relying egregiously on unnatural hazards, can successfully update its style of play; its Golden Age neighbors prove the feasibility. Furthermore, one mustn’t be a minimalist to be a naturalist, and encouraging a naturalization of Sand Ridge’s sometimes overly neat hazards to better embrace their surrounds would be worthwhile.
They have a leg up, however; when it comes to sand, it is difficult to get more authenticity on a parkland property than what Sand Ridge can offer.
The latest ranking of the Top 100 Golf Courses in the World serves as the ultimate global golf bucket list. Most members of our World Top 100 Panel are seasoned golfers, each playing 20-30 of these courses annually while travelling extensively over decades to form their opinions on others. We recognise that opinions vary—even among our panel members. Rankings are subjective, and there are undoubtedly 50 or more courses in the UK and USA alone that could easily fit onto this list. Links Golf Pilgrimages The rankings
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