Scioto Country Club

The verdict

Scioto is one of the most historically important golf courses in the United States, and its story runs through the two greatest amateurs the game has known. Donald Ross built it in 1916 on rolling ground in what is now Upper Arlington, and ten years later Bobby Jones won the 1926 US Open here, two-putting the last for the birdie he needed. A generation later a boy named Jack Nicklaus learned the game on these fairways under the club professional Jack Grout, and the course shaped the player who would win 18 professional majors and build Muirfield Village across the city.

For the traveling golfer, Scioto is a pilgrimage as much as a round. It is a private club, so access is the province of members and their guests rather than visitors, but its place in the game's history is unmatched in the Midwest: beyond Jones's Open it has hosted a Ryder Cup, a PGA Championship, a US Amateur and two US Senior Opens. The course itself is a fine, walkable Ross parkland, restored toward his original character, and for a golfer building a Columbus or Ohio trip it is the historic counterpart to admire alongside Nicklaus's own Muirfield Village.

The holes worth the trip

Scioto is Donald Ross at his most enduring: a walkable, tree framed parkland that defends itself with subtlety rather than length. The fairways move over gently rolling ground, and the test lies in the approach, because Ross set his greens with the crowned, falling away edges that are his signature, so a shot that misses the right portion of the putting surface trickles into a collection area and leaves a delicate recovery. The bunkering is placed to catch the slightly errant tee shot and to pinch the approach, and the player who controls trajectory and lands the ball in the right quarter of the green is the one who scores.

The greens are the heart of the round and the reason the course has tested champions across a century. They are firm, contoured and full of internal movement, demanding precise distance control and a sure touch from off the edge, and they reward the player who studies the slopes rather than fires at every flag. A stream and ponds come into play on a handful of holes, and the closing stretch, where Jones secured his Open, still asks for nerve and a committed swing when the round is on the line.

What stays with anyone fortunate enough to play it is the sense of history underfoot and the timeless quality of the design. This is not a modern brute that overwhelms with yardage; it is a thinking player's course that has been kept and restored with care, immaculately conditioned as befits a private club of its standing. For the golfer who values the roots of the game, walking the ground where Jones won and Nicklaus learned is reason enough to put Scioto at the center of an Ohio trip.

Where to stay nearby

The natural base is Columbus, where hotels run from business properties on the west side near the club to boutique rooms in the Short North and downtown. Staying in the city keeps Scioto, the wider Columbus golf scene and the restaurants and college sports culture all within a short drive, and it puts the rest of central Ohio in easy reach for a multi day trip.

Because Scioto is private, most golfers build a Columbus trip around what they can play and visit it for its history. Pair it with Jack Nicklaus's Muirfield Village, home of the Memorial across the city, then carry the trip north to the major championship pedigree of the Inverness Club in Toledo, or south to Nicklaus's Valhalla in Louisville.

Looking for a base? See our recommended hotels and resorts around Columbus.