TOLEDO, OH (WTOL) - The story of golf can't be written without mentioning Toledo's Inverness Club.
It's one of the crown jewels of the sport and it has seen it's fair share of renovations through the years.
But a recent major facelift to the club is now helping it to gain some momentum across the golf world.
Leadership at the historic club hopes that will translate to more major championships.
"Part of our commitment to ourselves, to the community, to the world of golf, we're committed to hosting major golf championships at this prestigious, historic, golf course," said club president Jerry Lemieux.
The biggest changes you'll notice at Inverness are in the back corner of the property.
A brand new 3, 4, and 5 get the course back to that Donald Ross feel that was lost during a re-design prior to the 1979 Open.
"You've gotta really give the thumbs up to the club," said course Superintendent John Zimmers. "They really jumped in to this and I think that they knew that they wanted to restore this golf course to what the original Ross design was and preserve the history, but prepare for the next chapter that will be historic for the club as well."
One of the knocks on the course hosting a major golf championship is that it didn't have the length that is needed for today's players. That is no longer an issue. With the renovations, Inverness can play plenty long enough for any test thrown it's way.
"We're close to 7,700 yards right now with a little more room to go still if we want to," said Lemieux. "It's plenty long for that, it's plenty challenging, and we've found just with the work that John Zimmers has done that we can make the golf course as hard as we want to."
Inverness Club has hosted 11 major championships in its history. The first dating all the way back to the 1920 US Open and most recently the 2011 US Senior Open.
Next year, Inverness will welcome the US Junior Amateur to town featuring the best young players in the country.
There is no doubt that the USGA will have a close eye on how that tournament goes and the club will certainly be doing their best to impress.
"We took a big team over to Baltusrol to see the championships and to see how they were set up," said Lemieux. "It's our job to just blow that one away and have this be the best championship that these kids have ever played in."
A big reason why Inverness has taken a step forward in the minds of those in the golf community is the addition of course superintendent John Zimmers.
Zimmers has been around championship golf and knows where the club needs to go.
He came to Toledo after working at Oakmont Country Club where he was in charge for two US Opens, A US Women's Open and the US Amateur.
"They shared with me that they were committed on taking the next step to really get themselves prepared for all these championships that are coming up and certainly we hope that a major is coming up as well," said Zimmers.
"He's the best in the business and the USGA knows it, the PGA knows it. He's been fabulous," said Lemieux. "He oversaw the whole project that we did that took place over the course of a year. I'm not sure what we would have done without him. His depth of knowledge, he'd worked with the contractor before, he'd worked with the architect before, really he's just a home run for us."
Everyone wants to know if there is a chance Inverness will get another major championship.
First up though is the US Junior Amateur in 2019. The Solheim Cup will follow that in 2021.
After those prestigious tournaments the goals are even loftier.
The club hopes the relationships they've built with the USGA, PGA and LPGA will pay off in the next ten years.
"Toledo's better than it was ten or 15 years ago in terms of all the exciting things that are happening downtown," said Lemieux. "I think that we'll be in the mix, it's obviously a competitive marketplace, but we'll be in the mix for a large major championship in the next ten years, my guess is."
