Hope Valley emerged in the mid-1920s as a planned country-club community whose 18-hole course Donald Ross laid out in 1926–27, concurrent with Aymar Embury II’s clubhouse and Robert B. Cridland’s neighborhood landscape plan. The National Register nomination and local architectural histories identify Ross as course architect and describe an integrated plan in which curving residential streets frame—rather than intrude upon—the golf corridors.
Early play commenced with Ross’s double-circle, counterclockwise routing centered on the clubhouse. The nomination notes that the original front and back nines were later switched, so that the current 1st corresponds to Ross’s original 10th, with the direction of play unchanged. The nomination also records Ross’s earthwork along a natural gully that threads the property—deepened and, in places, rustically stone-lined—which shaped play at 1, 2, 12, and 17 and runs alongside 3. These design moves are specifically credited to Ross and remain legible in the course’s present form.
Perry Maxwell was engaged in the late 1930s/1940 for alterations—reported as bunker remodeling and work on roughly eight to ten greens—as demand and maintenance standards evolved. The National Register entry dates Maxwell’s activity to 1937–38; contemporary clippings compiled in the Perry Maxwell Archive place the work in 1940.
In the modern era, the club undertook periodic projects: Dan Maples (1982–83) and John LaFoy (1998) (irrigation/tees, hybrid Bermuda conversion), followed by a comprehensive Ross-based rehabilitation by Brian Silva (2002–03) using original drawings and notes—part of a broader effort to recover Ross’s bunker expressions and green-to-fairway relationships. More recently, Kris Spence prepared a bunker restoration master plan (≈55 bunkers) and performed limited putting-surface remediation on 17 and 18 to improve hole locations.
Unique Design Characteristics
Routing & landform strategy. The double-loop, counterclockwise routing compacts the walk and orients many holes to and from the clubhouse core. Ross’s shaping of the branching gully—notably at 1, 2, 12, 17 (and alongside 3)—creates diagonal hazards and visual frames without recourse to ponds or high-contrast features; the nomination explicitly notes the absence of lakes and tall-grass hazards in the period design.
Greens and fall-offs. Club hole notes describe elevated targets and subtle fall-offs tight to putting surfaces. For example, No. 1 starts with a downhill tee shot to an elevated green, while No. 4—the former starting hole—features four bunkers set short with no greenside bunkers, placing a premium on a precise aerial approach to a green that falls away on both sides. These details mirror Ross’s reliance here on short grass and contour rather than overt hazards at the target.
Finishing stretch and variety. The closing run is distinctive: No. 16 is a downhill par-4 that “legs hard left,” playing longer than the card if the drive isn’t shaped; No. 18 is an uphill par-3 playing toward the clubhouse with a pronounced false front that rejects timid shots—a rare and memorable finisher.
Corridor examples that read as most “Ross.” The 1–5 corridor (with its use of the natural gully, elevated green targets, and minimal forced carries) and the 12–17 sequence (where the gully again drives line/angle) best preserve the original strategic texture documented in the nomination. Because several greens were altered by Maxwell and rebuilt in 2002–03, the strongest survivals are in routing geometry and landform usage rather than untouched green contours; hole-by-hole survival requires plan overlays to state more precisely.
Historical Significance
Within Ross’s North Carolina portfolio, Hope Valley is notable as a purpose-built country-club community where the golf routing, road plan, and landscape were conceived together—a collaboration involving Ross (golf), Embury (clubhouse), and Cridland (landscape/roads). That level of integration, called out in both club history and preservation documents, gives Hope Valley unusual urbanistic coherence among Ross courses.
In competitive history, Hope Valley hosted the PGA Tour’s Durham Open three times (1944–45). Craig Wood won in 1944; Byron Nelson won on April 1, 1945—the fourth of his record eleven consecutive victories; Frank Stranahan won the third playing in November 1945. The club continues to stage regional/national qualifiers and, since 2018, the Hope Valley Junior Invitational.
Current Condition / Integrity
What remains of Ross. The routing, scale, and landform strategy documented in the National Register nomination remain intact: the double-loop circulation, the use of the branching gully to shape play, and the absence of water-feature intrusions. The nines remain reversed from Ross’s original numbering, but the direction of play is unchanged.
Major renovations and their impact.
• Maxwell (1937–38/1940): remodeled bunkers and ≈8–10 greens, softening/modernizing some targets while retaining the routing.
• Maples (1982–83) and LaFoy (1998): infrastructure-focused (irrigation; tee leveling/additions; hybrid Bermuda conversion), influencing turf performance and tee variety rather than the skeleton of Ross’s holes.
• Silva (2002–03): a comprehensive rehabilitation guided by Ross drawings/notes, rebuilding tees and greens and restoring bunkers to period forms/placements; this project re-established much of the course’s early-20th-century look within modern agronomy.
• Spence (c. late-2010s): bunker restoration master plan (≈55 bunkers) and localized work on greens 17–18 to expand usable pins; ongoing master-planning activity reported in 2018 further underscores the club’s long-term restoration posture.
Present-day setup. Public listings place the course at par 70 and ~6,720 yards, with a course rating around 72.9 and slope ~136 from the back tees. The club emphasizes walking and short green-to-tee connections; amenities include a driving range and practice greens.
Sources & Notes
National Register of Historic Places, Hope Valley Historic District (2009–10) — nomination identifying Ross as course architect; describes double-circle routing, gully earthworks and stone lining, absence of lakes/tall-grass hazards, nines reversed, and catalogs later work (Maxwell 1937–38; Maples 1982–83; LaFoy 1998; Silva 2002–03).
OpenDurham: “Hope Valley Country Club / Golf Course” — local architectural history drawing heavily on the NR nomination; summarizes Ross authorship, Maxwell’s period alterations, and Silva’s 2002 work using Ross drawings.
Perry Maxwell Archive (Hope Valley page) — compiles contemporary newspaper notes and secondary sources; reports Maxwell remodel in 1940 and work on ≈8–10 greens/bunkers.
Club site (Hope Valley CC): About/History & Course pages — current club narrative, facility overview, hole-by-hole notes (elevated greens, fall-offs; No. 1 and No. 4 examples), and event history (Durham Open).
Durham Open (PGA Tour) summaries — compiled results placing the 1944–45 Durham Open at Hope Valley; Craig Wood (1944), Byron Nelson (Apr 1, 1945), Frank Stranahan (Nov 1945).
HV Junior Invitational (official) — club-adjacent page noting nines reversed in late 1920s, Ross on-site involvement, and Silva’s 2003 “total renovation” based on Ross plans; also repeats Nelson’s 1945 win.
Kris Spence portfolio & reporting — bunker restoration master plan (~55 bunkers) at Hope Valley and limited putting-surface remediation (17 & 18); 2018 SI feature notes Spence master-planning/short-course concept.
Hole-specific corroborants — GolfClubAtlas discussions (No. 16 “blindly downhill… legs hard left”) and SI review identifying No. 18 as a false-front uphill par-3. (Forum/review sources used only to document widely recognized playing characteristics.)