Kahkwa’s leaders relocated from their land-locked city nine to a larger Swanville property in 1912 and, on the recommendation of head professional Charlie Hymers, hired Donald Ross to plan a new course. According to the club’s published history, Ross began field work on May 17, 1916, laying out an 18-hole course to be constructed in two stages. The first nine opened in May 1918 alongside the new clubhouse. The club’s own golf pages note that those original nine holes constitute today’s back nine, while the current front nine was built after the club acquired additional land east of the entry road; both nines were Ross designs. The Donald Ross Society directory corroborates the two-stage build and dates the completion of the full 18 to 1919.
As the course matured, Kahkwa asked Ross to return in 1927 “to determine if the course could be improved by the addition of hazards and trees.” After a seven-hour tour, Ross submitted a hole-by-hole plan calling for numerous additional bunkers and adjustments intended to elevate the course to championship caliber. Contemporary Ross scholarship also records that Ross would, on later visits, recommend shifting and extending fairway bunkers at Kahkwa as the game evolved—a pattern consistent with the 1927 submissions.
Post-Ross alterations followed in phases. In 1999, the club engaged Ron Forse to restore the original character and integrity of bunkers, fairways, and greens; his plan reinstated several hazards shown on Ross’s drawings, added others in Ross’s style, and restored green pads to original dimensions while expanding forward tee options. In 2009, Brit Stenson/IMG produced a new master plan that added back-tee length, reconfigured selected bunkers (removals, reshaping, additions), and upgraded practice facilities to keep pace with equipment and playability needs. Most recently, in 2022–2023, Kris Spence executed a comprehensive rebuild of all bunkers and reworked the No. 17 and No. 18 greens, completing construction in September 2023; Spence also reports installing Capillary Concrete bunker liners with Pro Angle sand and softening excessive slopes on 17 and 18, and he now serves as the club’s architect of record while a new master plan is prepared.
Unique Design Characteristics
Kahkwa’s present character is anchored in its Ross routing across a rolling upland with modest elevation change. The club’s virtual tour captures distinctive green contours and false-fronts that shape play: No. 9 (“The Green Bowl”) presents a “bowl-shaped green with a false front,” demanding precise trajectory control; No. 13 (“School House”) penalizes approaches that land on the front third, often repelling balls; and No. 16 (“The Elbow”) features a green with the front sloping away and a mound bisecting the back portion. These green-site idiosyncrasies—integral to how the course still plays—drive approach strategy more than raw yardage.
Ross’s use of diagonal and cornering bunkers remains legible at multiple holes. No. 4 (“Gentle Bend”), a slight dogleg left, places a bunker on the outside corner of the fairway, shaping tee-ball line and angle into a slightly elevated target. No. 7 (“The Monster”), the top handicap hole, turns right and finishes to an “extremely challenging green,” with fairway bunkers influencing line and club selection. No. 12 (“Long Tom”) emphasizes positional play through a corridor framed by woods and a gully fronting the green, often creating a blind uphill third shot that tests depth control into a tilted surface.
The water carry at No. 3 (“Pond”)—a two-tiered par-3 over a pond—adds variety without over-reliance on hazards, while No. 10 opens the inward half with a pronounced back-to-front sloping green that keeps approach shots below the hole. A lingering hallmark is the wind’s role: although lake vistas are distant, Kahkwa’s site is exposed enough that crosswinds materially affect clubbing and trajectory decisions—a point long noted by course reviewers.
In terms of surviving Ross fabric, the routing and the green pad scale (widened back to original dimensions in 1999) are the clearest continuous through-lines. Among hole examples, Nos. 3, 9, 10, 13, and 16 read most “original” in strategic intention and green character as described above. By contrast, Nos. 17 and 18 expressly received new green surfaces in 2022–2023 to reduce excessive slopes, so while their concepts (17’s “bowl” with run-offs on three sides; 18’s elevated, two-tiered target) remain recognizable, those two putting surfaces are modern reconstructions rather than intact Ross artifacts.
Historical Significance
Kahkwa is significant within Ross’s corpus for the World War I-era two-stage build followed by a documented 1927 return with a hole-by-hole revision plan—an instructive example of Ross’s readiness to update earlier work as competitive standards shifted. The course gained national visibility by hosting the 1958 Women’s Western Open (Patty Berg) and the 1971 U.S. Women’s Open (JoAnne Gunderson Carner), then reinforced its ongoing suitability for elite amateur play with the 2004 U.S. Women’s Amateur (Jane Park) and 2016 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur (Julia Potter). These championships situate Kahkwa among the stronger Ross venues in women’s competitive history, with particularly rich links to the USGA’s women’s program. The club and independent ranking panels have periodically recognized the design’s quality; recent cycles of Golf Digest’s Best-in-State lists have included Kahkwa among Pennsylvania’s top courses.
Current Condition / Integrity
Routing integrity appears high: both nines trace Ross’s original corridors, with the original nine forming today’s back nine and the expanded, later-built nine forming today’s front. Bunker styling and placement presently reflect a composite of Ross’s 1916–1919 design, the 1927 additions he prescribed, and multiple modern restoration cycles: Forse’s 1999 work restored Rossian shapes and reinstated hazards shown on Ross drawings; Stenson’s 2009 master plan removed/reshaped/added bunkers and built back tees to restore shot values amid equipment advances; and Spence’s 2022–2023 project rebuilt all bunkers with modern liners and sand while refining two greens. The club notes that greens were returned to original dimensions in 1999, a decision that preserves the footprint and many internal contours even as individual surfaces have been selectively adjusted for firmness, speed, and cupping variety.
What has been preserved: the Ross routing, the scale and many contour themes of the green complexes (with exceptions at 17 and 18), and the general hazard rhythm (diagonal placement, cornering bunkers, and approach-side interest) sustained or reinstated by the 1999 and 2023 projects. What has changed: bunker construction and some locations (to reflect both Ross’s 1927 revisions and modern distances), two reconstructed greens (17, 18), and teeing grounds (forward additions in 1999; back-tee lengthening in 2009). Tree cover is heavier now than in Ross’s era—the 1927 memo itself contemplated adding trees—and selective management would historically ebb and flow in response to agronomy and strategy; the club’s published record explicitly links the 1927 visit to adding trees as well as hazards.
From a playability standpoint, the current back-tee yardage is posted around 6,686 yards with par 72, with published hole-by-hole descriptions confirming key features (e.g., Nos. 9, 13, 16, 17).
Citations and Uncertainty
The most significant gaps in the public record concern (1) precise opening chronology for the second nine—the club history provides the 1918 first-nine date but does not publish the second-nine opening month/year, while the Ross Society directory dates overall completion to 1919; (2) full details of the 1927 plan—the club summary confirms a hole-by-hole plan and its general thrust, but the actual Ross sheets and correspondence held at Tufts and any club committee minutes would be needed to verify exact bunker counts, placements, and tree prescriptions; and (3) yardage variance—modern totals differ across third-party scorecards, likely reflecting evolving tee inventories and rating updates.
Sources & Notes
Kahkwa Club — History. “Donald Ross began the design… May 17, 1916… first nine opened May 1918… invited back in 1927 with a hole-by-hole plan adding many bunkers and trees,” plus summaries of the 1999 Forse, 2009 Stenson, and 2022–23 Spence work. Kahkwa Club — Golf pages. Course overview, practice-facility description, note that the “first nine are now the second nine,” and a summary of championship hosting.
Kahkwa Club — Virtual Tour. Hole-by-hole descriptions and representative yardages for each hole (e.g., Nos. 3, 4, 7, 9, 10, 13, 16, 17, 18).
Donald Ross Society — Directory of Golf Courses Designed by Donald J. Ross (June 2023). Entry for “Kahkwa Club, Erie, PA — 18; 1916–19; Remodel 1927; Tufts info: YES.”
USGA — 2016 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur site page. Confirms that 2016 was the club’s third USGA championship after the 1971 U.S. Women’s Open and 2004 U.S. Women’s Amateur.
Kahkwa Club — Championships page. Event ledger including 1958 Women’s Western Open (Patty Berg), 1971 U.S. Women’s Open (JoAnne Carner), 2004 U.S. Women’s Amateur (Jane Park), 2016 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur (Julia Potter).
Women’s Western Open (1958). Wikipedia and corroborating tournament databases confirming venue and winner Patty Berg at Kahkwa.
1971 U.S. Women’s Open. Wikipedia tournament record confirming JoAnne Carner as champion at Kahkwa.
Kris Spence Golf Design — Kahkwa project. Bunker restoration master plan (55 bunkers), Capillary Concrete liners, Pro Angle sand, and putting-surface remediation on holes 17 and 18.
Feature Interview with Ron Forse (GolfClubAtlas). Notes Ross’s practice of revisiting his own courses, citing Kahkwa as an example of recommending a fairway-bunker extension roughly a decade after original construction.
Golf Digest — Best in State. Confirms Kahkwa’s inclusion among Pennsylvania’s best (e.g., 2023–24; 2025–26 cycle).