Twin Hills

Located close to downtown Oklahoma City, the course at Twin Hills Golf & Country Club is an early Perry Maxwell design from the mid-1920s, brought into play shortly after the club was founded by five local oilmen and just before the architect embarked on a productive partnership with Dr Alister MacKenzie.

Twin Hills hosted the PGA Championships in 1935, when Johnny Revolta beat Tommy Armour (the winner in 1930) by a margin of 5&4 in the final match. The course was also used for the US Junior Amateur Championships in 1967, which saw John T. Crooks defeat Andy North in the final with a 2&1 scoreline.

Unfortunately, it’s reckoned that few, if any, of Maxwell’s original greens remain intact here, though the routing is largely the same. The 143-yard 4th (known as “The Cliff”) is a fabulous short par three that drops substantially in elevation from tee to green and the tough 450-yard 18th is one of the most demanding closing holes in the Sooner State.

This is an edited extract from the Christopher Clouser book The Midwest Associate: The Life and Times of Perry Duke Maxwell :

“There has been only one major alteration to the course, the levelling of the 8th fairway took place during the late 1960s renovation. Since then, only minor modifications had been done to the layout. It is believed that shortly after the PGA Championship in 1935 at the course, Maxwell came back and made some slight adjustments.

The course still has the feel of an open course with a lack of trees that directly impact the line of play. Ironically, the course was laid out by Maxwell on a densely forested piece of land. Over the years, care has been taken to keep the trees in line with the design intent. The layout of the course is within a small rectangle, exemplifying the mastery of routing that Maxwell demonstrated early in his career.

The property was blessed with an abundant amount of rolling land, which was one of the components that Maxwell saw as a necessary ingredient to a good course. The holes constantly switch direction so that wind will impact shots differently throughout the round. The course also makes use of the natural water and large elevation changes (and it) features a core routing much like most of Maxwell’s work: with many tees and greens close to the clubhouse.

The routing could almost be divided between the back and front nines by a diagonal line being drawn from the northeast corner to the southwest corner of the plot. Maxwell brought the player back to the ‘axis’ of the course three times in the first nine holes and provides that again in the round two more times. The course radiates out from the clubhouse much like the spokes of a bicycle wheel radiating out from the centre.”