Shaker Heights Country Club was organized in 1913 and commissioned Donald J. Ross soon thereafter to lay out its course on the upper Shaker Lakes property deeded by the Van Sweringens. Construction took roughly twenty-three months, with the first nine opening on May 31, 1915 and the second nine following on July 4 of the same year. Contemporary club accounts and local histories credit Ross as architect and note that Grange (“Sandy”) Alves—recommended to the club after impressing Ross on other work—supervised construction on site and later served as professional.
Primary documentation of Ross’s visits after opening is not publicly available online; there is no evidence on record of a formal Ross-era redesign at Shaker Heights. The most substantial modernization traced in archival architect records occurred in 1982, when Geoffrey Cornish is listed as having remodeled the course. Clubhouse improvements have been frequent, but those relate chiefly to facilities rather than the course architecture.
Unique Design Characteristics
Ross’s routing compressed 18 holes into a constrained suburban parcel by exploiting the South Branch of Doan Brook. Numerous holes use the brook either as a crossing hazard or boundary; modern descriptions consistently emphasize how the stream’s meanders shape play and strategy across the property. The back nine, in particular, extends down a narrow finger of land before returning toward the clubhouse, a hallmark of the site’s topographic limitation that Ross turned into a coherent sequence.
Early photographic evidence—preserved by members and discussed by researchers—shows more elaborate cross-bunkering in the course’s early decades, including a par-3 with flanking and frontal sand that forced aerial or precisely chased approaches. Much of that hazard expression was softened or lost mid-century as trees proliferated along corridors, a change echoing a well-documented, region-wide trend. While the forum material is secondary and interpretive, it is consistent with period Ross drawings elsewhere and with Shaker’s own record of aggressive tree planting in the 1910s and thereafter.
In present guise, the clearest surviving “Ross at Shaker” moments appear on holes that retain diagonal creek interactions and open-front greens that accept a range of trajectories—features visible in aerials and hole-map resources. The exact hole-by-hole numbering of creek crossings is best confirmed against the club’s course tour (access-restricted), but third-party map tools and narrative descriptions indicate that multiple one-shot and two-shot holes still require negotiating the brook on the tee shot or approach. These are the corridors where Ross’s original strategic angles are most legible today despite later alterations.
Historical Significance
Shaker Heights occupies an early spot in Ross’s Ohio chronology and helped catalyze the region’s “Golden Age” build-out that followed in the 1920s. It also intersects Cleveland civic development: the club and residential district grew together around the Shaker Lakes and Doan Brook parklands, a designed landscape now broadly documented in preservation literature. In competitive history, Shaker Heights hosted the LPGA’s elite-field World Championship of Women’s Golf four straight times (1981–84), with winners Beth Daniel (1981), JoAnne Carner (1982–83) and Nancy Lopez (1984)—an episode that keeps the venue in national records despite its private status.
Current Condition / Integrity
Assessing integrity at Shaker Heights requires separating routing, corridors, and green sites from features like bunkering and vegetation. The routing’s central moves—clubhouse hub, compact outward nine near the lakes, and the back-nine finger framed by the brook—remain in place. Stream influence remains integral to several holes, preserving the risk-reward choices Ross sought from the site’s hydrology. However, mid-century and late-century infill planting narrowed many playing corridors. A 1916 appointment of a “one-man club forester” led to thousands of trees being added; while intended to counter Dutch elm loss and beautify grounds, the long-term effect was to shade and screen original angles. Recent decades have brought more nuanced forestry and width recovery.
On the hazards front, multiple sources suggest that some of Ross’s more dramatic cross-bunkers and sand features did not survive the postwar period. By the early 1980s, the club undertook a remodel credited to Geoffrey Cornish (1982), which, in keeping with his broader portfolio, likely regularized bunker shapes and relocated or rebuilt certain complexes to contemporary standards; the extent at Shaker Heights is not detailed in public summaries and would benefit from plan-set verification. Later project mentions in trade and club communications emphasize facilities and clubhouse upgrades rather than course-wide restorations, though ongoing golf course refinement—tree work, selective tee additions, and drainage—has been part of club stewardship.
Sources & Notes
Shaker Heights Country Club, “History” page (club website). Includes construction duration and opening dates for front nine (May 31, 1915) and full 18 (July 4, 1915), and identifies Frank B. Meade as clubhouse architect.
Encyclopedia of Cleveland History (Case Western Reserve University), “Shaker Heights Country Club.” Attributes the golf course to Donald J. Ross and Grange (Sandy) Alves; documents the 1915 clubhouse opening and provides historical context.
Ridgewood Golf Course (Parma, OH) “Our Stories” page. Secondary note that Ross recommended Alves to Shaker Heights and that Alves supervised construction before serving as professional.
Geoffrey Cornish remodeled-courses list, Michigan State University Libraries (Gillespie/Cornish archive). Lists “Shaker Heights Country Club — 1982” among Cornish remodels. Scope not described; primary plans not digitized.
Top100GolfCourses.com, “Shaker Heights.” Describes Ross’s routing around a meandering creek and the narrow back-nine “finger” of property. (Secondary synthesis.)
Doan Brook Watershed Action Plan (Ohio EPA/DBWP). Confirms that Doan Brook traverses the Shaker Heights Country Club property.
GolfClubAtlas forum, “Donald Ross’ Cross-Bunkered Par-3s” thread. Member-supplied historic imagery and commentary indicating Shaker Heights lost some early cross-bunkering; use with caution pending plan verification.
GolfClubAtlas interview with Bill McKinley (2013). Regional context noting Shaker Heights (1915) as an early Ross work in Cleveland’s east-side build-out.
LPGA “Samsung/World Championship” historical lists (Wikipedia; corroborated by independent compilations). Confirms Shaker Heights as host venue 1981–84; winners Beth Daniel (1981), JoAnne Carner (1982–83), Nancy Lopez (1984).
Club homepage and facilities pages for current amenities (range, short-game areas, racquets, fitness, aquatics).
Disputed/uncertain points.
• Architect of record: The club credits Ross; the Case Western history attributes the course to “Donald J. Ross and Grange Alves.” Alves’s role is clear in construction and as professional; whether he shared design authorship requires primary plan credits or contracts.
• 1982 work scope: Cornish’s remodel is listed in his archive index without details; some bunkering and green-line changes commonly associated with his 1970s–80s updates are plausible but unproven here without drawings or committee minutes.