The North Course formed the second half of Oakland Hills’ two-course commission to Donald Ross. Club records state that Ross drew the North in 1922; construction followed in 1923 under Ross associate Walter B. Hatch, and the course opened for play on May 13, 1924—three weeks before the U.S. Open commenced on the South. During the Depression the North’s operations shifted: in 1933 it was run as a daily-fee facility under the name “North Hills,” a pragmatic response to economic conditions. The club returned the North to private, member use decades later, and that transition precipitated the most consequential architectural change to Ross’s work on this side of Maple Road.
In 1967 members voted to re-establish the North as the club’s second private eighteen. Robert Trent Jones Sr. led a major redesign across 1968–69. That work reversed the 1st and 9th as well as the 15th and 16th holes, expanded total yardage from roughly 6,300 to 6,668 yards, and increased the bunker count from fewer than twenty to more than ninety. The front nine reopened in July 1969 and the back nine followed that fall. The modernization also coincided with construction of an arched aluminum pedestrian bridge over Maple Road to connect the two courses, permanently integrating the North into the club’s daily flow.
Subsequent touchpoints are documented but far less transformative than the Jones overhaul. Hills & Forrest completed a renovation in 2014 to prepare the course for national-level stroke play; the project later received ASGCA Design Excellence recognition. The North then served as stroke-play co-host for the 2016 U.S. Amateur and again for the 2024 U.S. Junior Amateur. Club history also records a 2019 adjustment in which holes 14 and 16 exchanged positions on the North—an operational routing refinement rather than a philosophical reset. No evidence has surfaced in publicly available club histories or USGA materials of a Ross-led return to the North after 1924; his later documented proposals at Oakland Hills addressed the South.
Unique Design Characteristics
Because the 1968–69 redesign was comprehensive—altering hole sequences, multiplying hazards, and changing yardages—the North’s present-day features are best read through the Jones lens rather than as intact Ross elements. The defining characteristic is the hazard scheme: a dense matrix of fairway and approach bunkers that asks for positional control from the tee and inhibits indiscriminate aerial approaches. That scheme is visible immediately on the front side and becomes more insistent after the turn.
Water is not omnipresent but it matters where it appears. The reachable par-5 12th, for example, brings a pond and a railroad-tie shore into close proximity with the green, creating a modern risk-reward moment that does not read as 1920s Ross but has become a signature challenge on the back nine. Long two-shotters like the 7th and 11th test angle management against flanking bunkers; the par-4 16th (one of the two holes whose order changed in 2019) now plays through corridors and cross-hazards that reflect late-20th-century preferences for more forced-carry emphasis than Ross typically employed here. Where Ross’s presence remains legible is at the scale of landforms and corridors: the routing still uses the rolling topography north of Maple Road, asking players to handle stance and lie changes on a steady basis. Without access to original green construction drawings for the North, however, it is not possible to attribute specific interior contours or “false fronts” to Ross with confidence in the wake of multiple later programs.
For researchers seeking the clearest surviving traces of Ross on the North, the most promising candidates are the macro alignments—fairway corridors and general green/tee siting that persisted even through Jones’s reversals—rather than the micro-shaping of green pads and bunker forms.
Historical Significance
The North mattered to Ross’s Oakland Hills assignment as the complementary half of a rare two-course Golden Age commission built to national-championship standards. Its opening in May 1924 created capacity that has remained essential to the club’s hosting model a century later. The North’s Depression-era stint as a daily-fee operation illustrates the economic stresses that reshaped private-club golf in the 1930s; its late-1960s redesign captures the postwar trend toward lengthened, hazard-intensive courses intended to challenge elite play. As a tournament venue, the North has been the indispensable partner course when the USGA brings large amateur fields to Oakland Hills, sharing stroke play in 2016 (U.S. Amateur) and 2024 (U.S. Junior Amateur). It has also staged state championships in its own right, including the Michigan Amateur in 2019 and 2023. The 1969 Maple Road bridge—while an engineering note rather than an architectural flourish—cemented the North’s functional parity with the South within the club’s daily routing and championship logistics.
Current Condition / Integrity
In integrity terms, the North is no longer a Ross course in the same way the restored South now is. Jones’s 1968–69 program reversed holes, expanded yardage, and multiplied bunkers; later work in 2014 tuned those Jones elements for contemporary standards and championship administration; and 2019 brought a further routing tweak with the swap of 14 and 16. The result is a course with Ross authorship at the origin but Jones strategy and presentation on nearly every hole. The par and total yardage have settled around 70 and approximately 6,900 yards for club play, with USGA stroke-play setups in recent years set near 6,850–6,810 yards depending on the event. Specific present-day features that signal post-Ross authorship include the tie-lined pond defending the par-5 12th and the sheer number and placement of bunkers across the course.
What remains of Ross is primarily the land itself and broad corridor geometry. Without consulting primary plan sheets or construction notebooks for the North (and correlating them with early aerials), it is not possible to isolate original green interiors or bunker placements that have persisted untouched since 1924. The club’s public history does not claim such continuity for the North; in fact, it emphasizes the scale of the 1968–69 redesign and records further adjustments since. That candor makes the North an instructive study in how Ross’s work at a major-event club was later recast to fit mid- and late-20th-century expectations, even as the course continues to serve the same functional role in championship weeks.
Sources & Notes
Oakland Hills Country Club — “History.” Club chronology with North Course milestones: Ross design (1922), construction under Walter B. Hatch (1923), opening (May 13, 1924), Depression-era “North Hills” operation (1933), 1967 vote to return North to private status, 1968–69 Robert Trent Jones redesign (hole reversals; bunkers from 90; yardage to 6,668; phased reopening), 1969 Maple Road bridge, 2019 swap of holes 14 and 16, 2019 and 2023 Michigan Amateur on the North, and the 2022–26 clubhouse rebuild timeline.
USGA — “2016 U.S. Amateur: Fast Facts” and course documentation. Confirms the North as stroke-play co-host and reports championship yardage/par (set at 6,849 yards, par 70) plus hole-by-hole statistics pages for the North.
USGA — “Fast Facts for 2024 U.S. Junior Amateur” and related coverage. Confirms North as stroke-play co-host and notes North’s setup near 6,808 yards, par 70.
ASGCA — “Oakland Hills North Course renovation completed by Hills & Forrest” (Sept. 26, 2014). Describes the 2014 renovation by Arthur Hills and Steve Forrest and its connection to the club’s championship hosting. Golf Course Architecture / ASGCA Design Excellence listings (2014). Notes industry recognition of the 2014 North renovation.
Top100GolfCourses — “Oakland Hills (North).” Independent synopsis repeating the club history’s 1960s Jones interventions (reversal of 1/9 and 15/16; yardage and bunker count increases). Used here as a secondary corroboration to the club’s chronology.
Golf Digest — “Oakland Hills Country Club (North) – Course Profile.” Describes current hole characteristics, including the reachable par-5 12th with a railroad tie-lined water hazard.
USGA — “Oakland Hills’ Rebuilt Clubhouse on Pace for 2026 Grand Opening.” Current-state facility context for the campus rebuild, confirming construction progress and the 2026 target.
Uncertainties & Research Needs
• Extent of surviving Ross ground features on the North. Public sources document wholesale Jones changes in 1968–69 and subsequent renovations; they do not enumerate Ross-era greens or bunkers that remain unaltered.
• Ross return visits specific to the North after opening. Club histories and USGA materials highlight Ross’s 1938 proposal set for the South, not the North. Absent access to correspondence or minutes from 1924–1940 addressing the North, the safest reading is that no Ross-led redesign occurred there.