Golf began at Inverness Club in 1903 on a nine-hole course in a rural area outside of Toledo, Ohio. After adding a second nine in the mid-1910s, the club hired Donald Ross to make the course championship-worthy. Ross completed his work in 1918, and just two years later Inverness hosted its first U.S. Open, won in memorable fashion by big-hitting British pro Ted Ray. Championship golf has been a major influence on the club’s decision-making ever since.

In preparation for the 1979 U.S. Open, Inverness brough on George and Tom Fazio to reroute portions of the course and build three holes of their own design on a newly purchased piece of land. The changes were controversial from the beginning and never quite blended in with what remained of Ross’s work. In 2018, Andrew Green replaced the Fazio holes with two par 3s (Nos. 3 and 5) and a par 4 (No. 4) inspired by Ross originals. Green also rebuilt Inverness’s bunkers and greens in a vintage style, restored chocolate-drop mounding on several holes, removed a tremendous amount of trees, and created new back tees that will allow the course to stretch to about 7,800 yards in future championships. The renovation was well received, reestablishing Inverness’s bona fides as a top championship venue and making Green one of the most in-demand architects in the game.

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Take Note…

The Hinkle Tree. You’ve probably heard this story before, but it’s too delicious not to retell. In the first round of the 1979 U.S. Open, American pro Lon Hinkle took a shortcut on No. 8, a long, sharply doglegging par 5 and one of the holes wholly created by the Fazios. Hinkle hit a 1-iron up the adjacent 17th fairway and reached the green in two with a 2-iron. Instead of declaring the 17th fairway internal out-of-bounds (as today’s PGA Tour surely would have), USGA officials came up with a simple, albeit slightly absurd, solution: they planted a 20-foot-tall spruce in the gap Hinkle had exploited. In the second round, Hinkle simply hit his tee shot over the sickly-looking tree. Nonetheless, the Hinkle Tree stood until 2020, when it was cut down after being battered by a storm. “I was somewhat surprised it lasted that long,” former USGA chief David Fay told Golf Digest. “It didn’t look like it would survive the week.” (Several other trees, survivors of Andrew Green’s deforestation, still block the path from the eighth tee to the 17th fairway.)

Bridesmaid. Inverness has robust credentials as a major-championship venue, having staged four U.S. Opens and two PGA Championships. However, the club has not hosted a men’s major since the 1993 PGA Championship. After Andrew Green’s renovation, Inverness reasserted itself as a top site for amateur and women’s tournaments (see: the 2019 U.S. Junior Amateur, the 2021 Solheim Cup, the 2027 U.S. Women’s Open, and the 2029 U.S. Amateur), but it has not yet secured a U.S. Open or PGA Championship. With the USGA and PGA of America booking venues multiple decades in advance, Inverness is in danger of falling almost completely out of the men’s major rota—and for no specific reason I can see. It’s an odd state of affairs.