Number 17: Oakland Hills

Ceiling: 93

Rating: 89.5

Trend over Time: 6

Oakland Hills is one of the first courses in my 25 course countdown that will start to shed light on my affinity for big, tournament venues, IF they still exhibit great architecture. Oakland Hills definitely satisfies that desire. Donald Ross did so much great stuff in the states and I personally believe his legacy is overshadowed and mildly underappreciated. I have 3 of his courses firmly in my top 25, Oakland Hills being one of them. Gil Hanse come in to restore the South course a few years back and the product is really wonderful. The course is set on a wonderful, undulating piece of land for golf with many features and green sites that can yield nothing other than greatness. Gil’s typical work on trees, mowing lines, and returning greens to their original size, shape, and surrounds was plenty to get OHCC back to top status.

Culture:

This is the only course that will make it’s way into my current top 25 from the great state of (pure) Michigan, which certainly gives the course something to separate itself on. I played the 2016 US Amateur here and certainly got the sense that the course has an air of superiority to it in Detroit. The course is situated in the nicest part of the city, the course, clubhouse, and grounds are all big and bold and you can feel when you are there that you are winning the day when it comes to Detroit golf. The club and course are steeped in history, particularly surrounding the many championships it has held. 6 Opens, 3 PGA’s, and 2 US Amateurs, with more on the way. You can feel the club’s pride in their championship DNA which directly correlates with the Hanse renovation to get the course back on the USGA’s radar for more big ones. The goal was the US Open, and OHCC is now on the docket for 2034 and 2051.

Competition:

In this section, we’ll go a bit deeper on what the course’s competitive merits are and what it looks like to compete on it. While many of the courses that have made my top 25 so far are good for competition for different groups of golfers be it Mid Ams, Women, Seniors, or what have you. Well, Oakland Hills is meant for top Amateurs and pros. It’s long (7500+), it’s hard, and it is not a course that lets up at any point in any way. From the first tee shot, it brings it, and the final hole of the day is a 500+ yard par 4 with a medium sized picnic blanket for a landing area and bunkers all over. OHCC is not a course where you’ll take a ton of penalty shots and make big numbers, it’s just a course where you’ll get to know Mr. Bogey very, very well. All that said, it’s the kind of course I love to compete on. Nothing about it is unfair, you just have to flat golf your ball. Off the tee, into the greens, and certainly on them, it’s just a flat stern test where every par is earned, but again, I love that kind of golf.

Architecture:

The three hallmarks to Oakland Hills in my mind are bunkers, greens, and fairway movement. I don’t think of Detroit is being super interesting golf land, but Oakland Hills is certainly on quite the parcel. Many of the fairways and greens have enough topography to make them interesting even in the absence of the many large bunkers that inform strategy and when those two elements are complimented by large undulating greens that must be attacked from the right angles and treated with the proper respect, you very quickly have one hell of a golf course. I don’t think of Oakland Hills as a “split the bunkers” type of course, rather you must decide based on length, shot shape, and hole location which bunkers to take on and play away from. The approach play is similar. Based on the lie you have in the aforementioned rumpled fairways and the hole location; you must decide what is the aggressive yet prudent play to try to score. Finally, the greens. No one ever said Donny Ross was scared to make a wild green or two, or a dozen in the case of Oakland Hills. The greens are a sheer joy to putt as their difficulty is complimented by the creativity it takes to be successful, which is a microcosm of the course at large.