Golf on the site began in 1909 when local backers purchased the Graf farm and commissioned Arthur Smith to lay out a nine-hole course that played across natural slopes and shallow stream valleys. In 1926, club leaders engaged Donald Ross to redesign Smith’s layout; the club’s historical note credits Ross with the transformation that gives the present back nine its character. The balance of the property remained nine holes until 1961, when Jack Kidwell designed a complementary front nine, producing the 18-hole sequence still in use. The club’s own materials explicitly label holes 10–18 as the “Donald Ross Side – 1909/1926,” and holes 1–9 as the “Jack Kidwell Side – 1961,” clarifying how the historic nine maps onto today’s card.
Secondary press surrounding the club’s 2021 sale repeats the 1926 Ross redesign date; one article also mentions a 1980s effort to adjust the Kidwell nine “in the style of Ross,”.
Unique Design Characteristics
The back nine preserves the course’s clearest Ross-era characteristics and plays with a notably stronger set of internal contours than the outward half. The tenth is short on the card but defended by a severe back-to-front green, a theme repeated at 14 where the club notes “not a single pin position with less than 3 degrees of slope,” making spin and uphill-leave management central to scoring. At 11, the recommended “top of the hill” tee shot yields a downhill approach into a green that routinely produces “one of the biggest swinger putts” on the course—an effect of the site’s cross-fall and a perched surface that magnifies break. Hole 12 narrows corridor width to roughly 25 yards in places and adds a strongly sloped target, rewarding precise placement over power. Hole 15 layers a two-tier green onto a right-to-left canted fairway; misses long are punished by a steep fall-off behind the surface. The inward finish is distinctive: 16–17 are reachable par-5s that tempt a late charge, while 18 is an uncommon long par-3 finisher (about 230 yards from the tips) that demands a penetrating tee shot to a relatively benign but exposed green. These features—documented in the club’s hole-by-hole guide—keep the back nine’s challenge rooted in slopes, angles, and green construction rather than front-nine-style length.
While the hole-by-hole guide is descriptive rather than archival, the continuity of corridors on the back nine, the intensity of back-to-front pitches, and the use of natural ridges (e.g., the carry “over the ridge” assisting tee balls at 13) all align with the club’s assertion that Ross’s 1926 work shaped what golfers play today on holes 10–18. A definitive provenance of individual bunkers or exact green perimeters would require early aerials and Ross plan sheets; however, the present-day play notes delineate a set of surviving strategies—false fronts, tiering, and elevation-change approaches—that distinguish the Ross nine from the Kidwell nine’s broader canvases and straighter holes.
Historical Significance
Within Ross’s Ohio portfolio, Lancaster represents a small-market, nine-to-nine redesign project from the mid-1920s that has remained continuously in golf use and, unusually, ends with a par-3 eighteenth—a configuration more often found on compact early-century sites. The course stood for decades as the town’s principal club and has in recent years broadened its role as a public venue for competitions, hosting events such as the 2008 U.S. Amateur Qualifier and the 2024 Columbus District Golf Association Amateur Championship. While Lancaster has not claimed a national championship on its own, its survival and daily-play status make it a tangible example of Ross’s influence on a community course that still expresses its 1920s back-nine heritage inside a modern 18.
Current Condition / Integrity
Routing integrity is clear: the club presents the Ross nine as the back and the Kidwell nine as the front, and the hole-by-hole guide identifies where historic slopes and green constructions continue to govern play. The official scorecard credits “Donald Ross / Jack Kidwell – Course Architects” and shows a 6,739-yard, par-72 layout with contemporary ratings, indicating that modernization has come through length, tee options, and turf programs rather than wholesale corridor moves on the Ross side. The club’s public narrative calls the back nine a “historic treasure,” and present-day descriptions of green severity (notably at 10, 11, 14, 15) and the par-3 finishing hole suggest that key Ross-era intentions still register strongly in daily play.
Claims of 1980s work to bring the Kidwell nine “closer” to Ross in look and feel are repeated in regional coverage and directory-style sites; however, those accounts do not identify a named architect, year, scope, or plan set.
Operationally, the club is now public and active in local golf calendars, with two ranges (including a full-length passholder range and short-game area) supporting league play, school events, and amateur tours. None of these modern amenities affects the authenticity of the back-nine architecture; they do, however, reinforce the course’s community-golf role—a context in which Ross’s nine continues to receive heavy, everyday play rather than museum-piece curation.
Sources & Notes
Lancaster Golf Club – Course Details. Club history summary (Graf farm, 1909; Arthur Smith original nine; Ross redesign 1926; Kidwell front nine 1961) and present framing of back nine as “Donald Ross Side.”
Lancaster Golf Club – Hole-by-hole Guide. Descriptions for each hole; explicitly labels the front nine as “Jack Kidwell Side – 1961” and the back nine as “Donald Ross Side – 1909/1926,” with detailed notes on slopes, ridges, and distances (e.g., 18th ~230-yard par-3).
Lancaster Eagle-Gazette (Dec. 15, 2021). Report on sale and reopening to public; repeats club-provided history (1909 nine; 1926 Ross redesign; Kidwell second nine later added). Note: article also states an 1980s “redesign by the Donald Ross Society,” language that should be treated cautiously pending primary records.
Club + Resort Business (Dec. 15, 2021). Trade coverage of the sale and transition to public access; background on the course’s 112-year history.
Golf Course Industry (Apr. 3, 2025). Feature story on the community purchase and public transition, with historical overview and recent operations.
Columbus District Golf Association – 2024 Amateur Championship. Confirms hosting of a district amateur at Lancaster GC.
Ohio Golf Association – 2008 U.S. Amateur Qualifier. Documents USGA qualifying at Lancaster GC.
Scioto Post (Dec. 10, 2021). Local coverage repeating claim that the Donald Ross Society “redesigned” the front nine in the 1980s; included here as a lead for further investigation rather than as a definitive architectural attribution.