The Country Club of Columbus organized in 1909 and began competitive play on a partial course—thirteen holes existed by 1922 when the inaugural Columbus Country Club Invitational (now the Southeastern Amateur) was staged. The full 18-hole course associated with Donald Ross was introduced between 1923 and 1925, with 1925 marking the first season in which the club and its tournament operated over a complete Ross layout. Club materials and the Southeastern Amateur’s historical record agree on this late-1923–1925 window, while acknowledging the pre-Ross, 13-hole phase.
In 2002, a member, Cecil Calhoun, secured copies of Ross’s original drawings; using those plans, architect J. Drew Rogers led a restoration/renovation that recaptured lost green perimeters, reinstated short-grass collection areas, and rebuilt bunkers in Ross’s idiom. Some sources describe the construction cresting into 2003, but member communications and the tournament’s history page identify 2002 as the renovation year, reflecting a project that bridged two seasons.
Ross’s specific written intent for CCC has not surfaced in publicly accessible archives; the club cites “original drawings” but has not published the full plan set or correspondence. Even so, the built work reveals his approach to a compact, member-centric property: varied par distribution to derive interest without excessive length; strategic bunkers set on diagonals rather than simply beside greens; perched targets shed to short-grass as a defense in lieu of water; and a routing that uses a central ravine to create exacting carries and blind or semi-blind approach demands. Secondary sources suggest Ross may have revisited the course in 1938, but no primary letter, plan revision, or invoice has yet been located to document the scope of that visit; this remains an open research item.
Unique Design Characteristics
The club’s own hole-by-hole descriptions, amplified by tournament reporting, allow the course’s Ross features to be pinned to specific holes:
No. 4—locally identified as the “postage stamp” green re-established during the 2002 restoration—concludes a long, narrowing approach to a compact, back-to-front surface. While “postage stamp” is most often associated with a short par-3 template elsewhere, at CCC the phrase refers to the minute target at the end of this par-5, emphasizing approach precision and delicate recovery from the tight rear fall-off. The club’s heritage and the Southeastern Amateur’s materials both reference this feature explicitly.
No. 5 is the longest par-3 on the course and a showcase for CCC’s macro-micro contouring: the tee shot is played over a natural dip to an expansive green with a thumbprint at the front and a steep back-left shelf. That internal movement creates effective “sections” and complicates two-putting when approaches fail to find the proper quadrant.
No. 6 is the course’s No. 1 handicap hole and demonstrates Ross’s use of cross-bunkers in the driving/lay-up zone. A straight tee ball that clears the hazards is mandatory to gain a stance for the mid-iron into a well-defended, contoured target.
No. 8, a downhill par-3 with fronting bunkers, compresses depth perception and punishes timid lines; it is a classic Ross visual trick here realized on falling terrain.
No. 11 drops steeply from the tee to a short approach over a pond to a tiny, perched green, one of the smallest on the course. In member play this is a wedge-control examination; in the Southeastern Amateur it often swings momentum because misses long or left to tight mow-offs are difficult to save.
Across the round, greens are compact and firm TifEagle surfaces with shaved run-offs restored in 2002, favoring the ground game and leaving recovery angles that vary by hole location. Bunkers, rebuilt in 2002 and technically upgraded again in 2022 with a modern liner/drainage system, sit either diagonally across lines of charm (Nos. 6–7) or close to green edges where a shallow miss becomes a guessing game from sand to short grass.
The clearest surviving ensemble of Ross-era ideas appears along the 4–6 stretch (postage-stamp finishing target; the long par-3 with internal contours; the cross-bunkered two-shotter) and at No. 11 (scale-shifted target across water with tight surrounds). These holes most vividly express the course’s present strategic identity and those elements that were deliberately recaptured from the Ross drawings.
Historical Significance
Within Ross’s Southern work, CCC sits in a cluster of 1920s projects where he refined member-club courses to yield tournament-worthy tests without resorting to extreme length. CCC’s importance owes as much to continuity of championship culture as to pure design pedigree: the Southeastern Amateur, founded in 1922 by longtime head professional Fred Haskins, has been contested at the club for more than a century. Its roll of champions and runners-up—Doug Sanders, Curtis Strange, Kenny Knox, and Allen Doyle among them—testifies to the course’s ability to identify elite ball-striking under pressure. The Southeastern’s modern summaries repeatedly cite the restored short grass and postage-stamp target as competitive differentiators, reinforcing CCC’s status as a proving ground for precision. The club also presents programming around the Haskins Award, which further entwines the golf course with the national amateur/collegiate game. While CCC is not typically listed among the longest Ross courses, its design integrity and competitive relevance over time are well documented through the tournament’s record.
Current Condition / Integrity
The 2002 restoration by J. Drew Rogers—undertaken with Ross drawings in hand—returned green pads toward their original perimeters, reinstated shaved collection areas, and reshaped bunkers in Ross’s style. Reports from the club and the Southeastern Amateur stress that the course was made “as close to those designs as possible,” acknowledging the limits of an in-place, member-used property. In 2022 the club modernized bunkers with the Capillary Bunkers lining/drainage system to retain form while improving performance after storms. Current yardage from the back tees is approximately 6,515 yards at par 71 (tournament weeks sometimes adjust to par 70), with five tee options noted in club materials. The routing itself remains Ross’s, hinging on interior elevation undulations and the ravine-crossing sequence on the inward nine.
What has been preserved: routing; the scale and siting of most green pads; the concept of tightly mown run-offs; the postage-stamp target; cross-bunker strategy on key two-shotters. What has been altered: agronomic surfaces (modern TifEagle on the greens); bunker construction technology and edging; some tree management through time that has reopened angles; and day-to-day green speeds that exceed Golden Age norms, which in turn magnify the penalty for missing the proper green section (especially at No. 5).
Uncertainties remain. Secondary sources indicate a 1938 Ross return for updates, but without published primary documentation; likewise, while 1925 is widely cited as the completion date for the 18-hole course, the club’s own marketing timeline has at times displayed conflicting date references. These do not alter the core record—Ross’s 18 was in play by 1925—but they underscore the need for continued archival work in the Tufts Archives, local newspapers (1923–1930), and any surviving CCC board minutes or contractor invoices.
Sources & Notes
Country Club of Columbus, “Golf Legacy” and “Golf Heritage” pages (accessed Sept. 2025): confirmations of Ross 18-hole introduction by 1925, the 2002 restoration using Ross drawings, and specific reference to the “postage stamp green on hole #4.” Also summarizes Southeastern Amateur origins on a 13-hole course and subsequent name change.
Country Club of Columbus, “Donald Ross Classic” (hole-by-hole) page: par/yardage by hole, descriptions noting the thumbprint on No. 5, cross-bunkers at No. 6, downhill par-3 at No. 8, small target over water at No. 11, and practical details such as the first-tee putting green.
Southeastern Amateur, “History of the Southeastern Amateur”: 1922 founding by Fred Haskins; play on 13 holes prior to full Ross introduction 1923–1925; summary of the 2002 renovation using Ross drawings obtained by Cecil Calhoun; repeated mention of the postage-stamp at No. 4 and shaved collection areas.
AmateurGolf.com coverage, 2023–2025 Southeastern Amateur articles: course set at just over 6,500 yards, periodic par-70 championship setup, and reiteration of the postage-stamp at No. 4 after a restoration completed circa 2003. (Note the 2002 vs. 2003 variance in secondary reporting.)
J. Drew Rogers, project page for Country Club of Columbus: first-person statements from club officials and the superintendent affirming use of Ross drawings and the design intent of the early-2000s restoration.
Golf Course Industry & Golf Business Monitor reports on 2022 bunker work at CCC utilizing Capillary Bunkers and Duininck Golf. These document the most recent technical renovation impacting sand hazards while retaining restored forms.
Club home and golf pages: confirmation of private membership model, no tee times, and statement of practice facilities and instruction culture.