Springfield

Springfield Country Club was formed in 1898, but the course in play today is a 1922 Donald Ross design where a number of important events have been staged down the years including, on a number of occasions, U.S. Open Qualifying.

Author Daniel Wexler had this to say in his book The American Private Golf Club Guide: “Located on a compact tract on the city’s north side, the Springfield Country Club is a typically solid – and, apparently largely unaltered – Donald Ross layout, short on flash but long on natural, lay-of-the-land holes.

The 422-yard 1st quickly sets the tone (its tumbling fairway climbing to the first of six bunkerless greens) before a series of largely back-and-forth holes make regular use of a small brook, most notably the 433-yard 4th (the club’s toughest) and the 412-yard 6th, which plays to a squarish green fronted by the hazard.

The 160-yard 9th (a familiar, bunker-ringed Ross favourite) and the 401-yard 10th (with creek right of the fairway and a left-to-right sloping green) are also noteworthy, as is the 406-yard 18th, which passes a small right-side lake before climbing to one more unbunkered putting surface. Though entirely unspectacular, this is a pleasant (and sneakily demanding) test, offering more genuine Ross than most.”