Oakland Hills (South) - Michigan - USA

First of all my review was written some time ago, in fact, around 2 years ago and I just found it, one important point is that the club revoted and is going to completely renovate everything.

After a couple failed chances I finally had the opportunity to see this Donald Ross gem. A state that is both true and perhaps slight off base because Oakland Hills is in all probability only remotely similar to the course that Ross originally designed having been changed a fair bit over the years. Currently it is set up like a US Open championship course. Narrow fairways with 6 inch rough. Miss the short grass and you often have to almost step on your ball to find it. This is naturally very common in the US and characteristic of the classic championship courses, think Oak Hill for example. Ironically Oak Hill will now be totally renovated while Oakland Hills South voted down their initial chance to restore everything that Ross had initially intended. I bet they will revisit this if Oak Hill turns out a huge success. Mark my words.

A day at Oakland Hills starts with breakfast or lunch in the amazing stately clubhouse. Which is both iconic and spectacular and once you step foot inside you know you have arrived at a club that really cherishes and respects the history of golf. It’s as perfect a place as you will find.

The course is very much as you would expect. Perfect maintenance as in not blade of grass out of place, perfect greens rolling very fast, and tough. In fact, for a player of my level, it’s tough when you hit the fairway and when you miss it, well pull out a wedge and make sure you get it on the short grass. As many times as I told myself that I still was tempted into making mistakes out of the rough on the day and not sticking to my plan. The though process works like this, oh that does look too bad, I should be able to cut a hybrid out of there (from 210 yds out). Nope, bad to worse position then trying to stop a ball that I can’t get spin on from the wrong angle. It’s so easy to compound your mistakes at a course like Oakland Hills. Then again that’s the genius of Ross and naturally of utilizing the correct angles of approach.

When you get it right it’s a blast. It’s also tough to play a course like this, that takes years to learn, once and not make stupid mistakes or miss in the wrong spots even with members guiding you.

As cliché as it sounds my favorite hole is 18 which is a truly spectacular finisher, as a long par 4 with a dogleg right which plays to an elevated green right in front of the clubhouse. A true visual spectacle.

It’s a special day out and a chance to have the experience should never be passed up.

It was a privilege to play this great course last weekend. Our host was a distinguished member of the club, a recent past President (in UK parlance club Captain), and someone also very closely involved with the proposed course refurbishment plan – and therefore a great guide.

We played on a bright afternoon, in lush early summer conditions, after a wet spring, but in a distinctly British Isles two club wind. Even having wisely decided to play off the members tees, which are 6550 yds, this was still an exceptionally tough, if fair test. Our visiting threesome had an average handicap of 10, and we were tested to our limits. One is reminded of the notice at Bethpage Black, “this course is for skilled golfers only”.

I believe it was Jack Nicklaus who described Oakland Hills as having the best set of green complexes of any course he had played, and it is hard to disagree. Many of them are raised, they are all slopey, and if you find your ball on the wrong part of the green, a two putt is an achievement. If you miss, any recovery from typical US Open school rough collars, is going to be challenging. The biggest problem as a first time visitor is that you cannot fully understand the greens, where to try to land it, where not to miss. They would repay significant study. Worth noting though that Ross left a run on entrance for all of them (although some of these entrances are very slender), and the size of the green surfaces is varied to suit the length of the expected approach shot. It’s a great design.

It seems almost superfluous to pick out the best holes, 10 and 11 are rightly praised as a great but contrasting pair of par four, but my favourite was the 15th - a shortish par 4 with a central fairway bunker, and a lovely uphill skyline green. You have a variety of choices off the tee, but if you succeed in playing your tee shot up to the bunker area, but finding the narrow fairway either side, your reward is a pitch to tough green, rather than a mid iron from a lay up. Still a difficult 4, even with a 9 iron in your hand for the approach.

I have been lucky enough to play at five classic US Open venues, and in the conditions we played under last week, this was the toughest. I hope the refurbishment proceeds as planned, it would be great to see the US Open return here.

Amazing course and as long as you want it. The rough is a 1/2 shot penalty and the Rees Jones fairways bunkers can be a full shot penalty. The subtle breaks on the greens are confounding, especially when they roll them to 12 feet. It is surprising how difficult the course is when it is all right in front of you. You really feel the history of the club with the giant clubhouse in view on many holes, especially on 9 and 18. Looking forward to the renovation which should make the fairway bunkers more playable create new pin positions on the new greens. Downside - the greens will likely not hold for a few years. Lately, I prefer the underrated North Course which underwent a modest renovation a few years back. For me, plenty challenging and quicker rounds.

In all of American golf, Oakland Hills and its rightly revered South Course deserve a special place of recognition. The history has been previously mentioned so I will not repeat it. The collective quality of the putting surfaces is among the 2-3 best I have ever played among the Donald Ross courses I have personally experienced. In order to putt well one needs to be totally precise with your approaches. Failure to be in the proper areas -- means a quick three-putt and often more for those with a faulty stroke.

My main issue with the South is the overkill and redundant fairway bunkering that Robert Trent Jones, Sr. did for the '51 US Open Championship. Jones simply bracketed many of the holes and the need for shotmaking becomes a test of hitting archer-like drives with little variety. Those holes which don't feature this dimension are among the best with such examples being the 10th, 11th and 14th holes.

The par-4 16th is a good hole but gets plenty of mileage from the approach made by Gary Player in winning the '72 PGA Championship. The par-3 17th shows what a superior green can mean. The putting surface is brilliantly separated by a spine that features a left and right side. Land on the wrong side and it's highly unlikely a two putt will take place.

The ending hole on the South has issues of fairness. The dog-leg right holes features a reverse camber landing area and with bunkers prominently in play the wherewithal to find the fairway becomes a monumental task. The green is especially well done but it's the nature in how difficulty has been ramped up to extreme levels.

I'd love to see a quality architect revamp the fairway bunkers so that the role they play would be in closer alignment to what Ross originally intended. There's little doubt the South is a quality venue worthy of even more acclaim with just a bit more attention to compelling architecture and not just sheer difficulty.

by M. James Ward

Quite generous off the tees but the greens are absolute hell for a first timer. 3 putts will be the order of the day. Good variety of holes with 6 and 11 standing out as memorable. The facilities are incredible except for the range which is too short to hit driver on. The food and service are top notch and then some.

Originally a Donald Ross classic, Oakland Hills hired Robert Trent Jones to toughen it up for the 1950 US Open. The USGA agreed and while Jones left Ross’s heavily contoured greens (I used to think Aronimink had the most fabulously contoured Ross greens, but this course just might outdo it.) in place, he changed a lot. Fairways were narrowed, and scores of bunkers added. Overseeding around the new bunkers with rye grass to hold everything in place created additional challenges as the rye grew in fast and thick and stubbornly and resists letting go of golf balls. In the process of all this work, Jones invented the modern championship golf courseWhile Oakland Hills South is a great experience, for many golfers, playing here every day would be a bit much. On all of the driving holes, Jones narrowed the fairways considerably and on most (1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, and 18), placed multiple hazards—in all but one case bunkers—directly opposite each other. I played with a 3 handicap who eventually left his driver in the bag because of the tightness of the fairway landing areas. The greenside bunkers Jones added left either a tiny opening for a running approach or none at all. The result is much less variety in shotmaking than Ross envisioned.The club is still focused on championships, hosting the 2016 US Amateur as an audition for a possible sixth US Open. And the members make no excuses for the difficulty of their course: most play it at 6566 yards with a slope of 137. The course rivals Seminole in terms of difficulty for average golfers.I must admit that I played the course on a day when the 1996 U.S. Open Sunday hole locations were replicated—a special treat for a visit from the Donald Ross Society (www.donaldross.org). So that may have influenced my view of the course’s difficulty.While many clubs are fortunate to have one historian, Oakland Hills has an entire committee of them—in the form of its Heritage Committee. The clubhouse, as impressive in its own way as the South course, shows off the Committee’s work with its Hagen Grille, Hall of Champions and Heritage Room. The latter houses replicas of the six trophies that have been contested over its grounds—US Open, PGA Championship, US Senior Open, US Women’s Amateur, Ryder Cup, and Western Open. No other club boasts that array of championships.

Ben Hogan called it the “Monster” and the name stuck. Oakland Hills, located in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan, has two courses, North and South. That’s probably about as much as you need to know about the North course. In fact, that is all I know about the North course – it exists. The South course exudes tradition and history. The club was founded by a former Ford Motor Company executive and designed in 1918 by Donald Ross, who never saw many of the courses he designed. But Ross must have spent some time at Oakland Hills, because it’s a masterpiece that regularly rates in the Top 10, and it clearly deserves the honor…

I sure loved this golf course. It was in fantastic condition, and the holes were as beautiful as those on a parkland course could be. Number 16, for example, is a 400-yard par 4 with a pond at the front right of the green. It’s a shallow green with a ridge running from front left to back right. An approach shot hit long to avoid the water will risk catching the back of that ridge and finding one of the four bunkers behind the green. I shot an 88 that day and felt like I had brought the Monster to at least one knee. My 88 was the best of the foursome… This course is definitely in my Top 10. Larry Berle.

Simply the best. The whole set up is something that you may never see back here in Scotland. Having a great tradition and magnificent course designer does not really set you up for what you might expect out there. I played with two local members in Glenn Diegel and Greg Buss as well as Mark Switalski on the day and scoring +3 over this course was something I was more than happy with for a first time experience which included a double bogey on the 11th when I only had an 8 iron to the green for my second so it just showed me that if you miss the greens in the wrong areas, it can be costly. We all had great caddies on the day and the course is so stunning with greens which again were magnificent with so many twists and turns. Having hit the 18th green in two shots in the wrong place I came off with a 5 because the 3rd shot was one which was so difficult to get close due to the speed and slopes on the greens. A great experience and the Clubhouse is unbelievable! We were also given a Heritage Tour of the Club afterwards and if any of you happen to eat there, try the white bean chilli!

Simply put, Oakland Hills is fabulous. I played the course for the second time last week (my first since the Rees Jones renovation) and the experience was just amazing. Just driving-into the grounds and seeing the beautiful clubhouse got my blood flowing. Once you walk out on the terrace and see that gorgeous piece of land, one really get's a sense of the grand scale of the course - it is a true brute, especially with the new look. Oakland Hills is pure golf. The traditions and the ambiance all pay tribute to the game, and specifically the club's role in it's history. The course itself is gorgeous. I don't think there was a blade of grass out of place, but beyond simple beauty, the course is a perfect blend of risk and reward. That said, it is VERY difficult. the greens are just amazing. I have never played Augusta, but I have played Oakmont, and I found Oakland Hills' greens to be just as, if not more difficult. The bunkering was also very penal. Take my word for it - if you ever get the honor of playing, stay out of those bunkers. The service was perfect, the locker room just beautiful and the Men's Grille Room was the best I have experienced. I am proud to have played many great courses, but I can easily say that Oakland Hills was my finest experience.