TOLEDO, Ohio —
Some of the best young golfers in the United States have rallied together this week in The Glass City for the United States Golf Association Junior Amateur Championship held at Inverness Club. This may not be their first time playing at Toledo’s world-class golf course, or so it is hoped.
As the Marathon Classic at Highland Meadows, which showcased the world’s best female golfers from the LPGA, came and gone, interest shifted seven miles down the road to Toledo's premier golf course at Inverness.
The golf club that sits off on Dorr Street can be a pass by for some but for the history of the course in golf, it is a landmark.
Inverness hosted five major championships, beginning with the 1931 U.S. Open, with the course being the host site in 1957 and 1979, respectively. Following a brief break from major golf tournaments, Inverness then held the 1986 and 1993 PGA Championships. Since then, the club has hosted the 2003 and 2001 U.S. Senior Opens and is currently slated to host the 2021 Solheim Cup.
This year’s U.S. Junior Amateur Championship and the 2021 LPGA Solheim Cup will serve as showcases, and perhaps driving forces, to not only bring a PGA Tour tournament but a major championship back to Toledo.
“I would say yeah, based on the conditions it could,” said Paul G. Brown, a member of the USGA Executive Committee. “I think the course, the layouts and the changes ,it could host a major, sure.“The way the USGA operates, we have to be invited. We wait for the invitation. The club determines what event they would like to have. We get a phone call and then there is a whole process to go through for that.”
It is not as simple as just a phone call, inviting the USGA to host a major championship at Toledo’s pristine golf course. Inverness and the host city have to have an appropriate amount of corporate-advertisement funds, a strong volunteer base, and a strong presence of the logistics, for the club to be deemed a suitable match.
"Does it have the infrastructure? How about it from a fan experience? Players No. 1, Fans, No. 2. Does it layout correctly from that standpoint,” Brown told WTOL's Jordan Strack among the key questions raised to the host course. “There is local support? Yes, do you have enough hotels, restaurants, all of that stuff, for players, for fans, and all of us. How is the volunteer base?”
Make no mistake, the course condition, difficulty, and set-up is not so much the question, however, the previous is.
Golf architect Andrew Green, who was at the forefront of course renovations three years ago, lengthened the course. Additionally, a rough estimate of 1,000 trees were removed, sand traps and bunkers were deepened, and greens were restored.
According to the club’s website, “Green modernized tee boxes and bunkering systems. Green’s design has restored [Donald] Ross’s championship majesty, with Inverness Club now playing over 7,700 yards.”
The course renovations have not only made the course more challenging, but it has also enhanced the nature as well.
“It is a tremendous set-up. A tremendous lay-out, a tremendous test of the players,” Brown said. “The impression is that it is in great condition, it really is. The fairways are firm and fast, the greens are in tremendous condition, the course looks beautiful. It is a great success from our standpoint.”
Former Inverness Club president and current general manager of the USGA Junior Amateur Jerry Lemieux was blown away by the condition of the course for this week after five years of preparation.
“They love it. We delivered what they wanted," Lemieux told Strack. "They specified the ruff heights, the green speeds, the firmness. All the numbers right on. They like seeing the course play the way it is playing. We have had a couple of visiting people from the USGA that have seen the place and they are blown away by it. This golf course is as good as it gets. We still have more to show.”
Not only do course officials have a strong impression of the course, but former players have also noticed the upgrades to the course as well.
Brad Faxon, a former PGA golfer that has won eight PGA tour championships, is serving as a broadcaster for FS1 for this week’s championship, and he too has noticed the riveting improvements.
“It looks like this golf course has been improved, strengthened, lengthened,” Faxon told WTOL. “I know it has been a long time, since the ‘93 PGA [Championship], but it looks magnificent. It has yardage, difficulty around the green, thick ruff. These kids are seeing a golf course that is PGA Tour tough.It looks really different. I remember rows-and-rows of trees. I remember. It was very traditional looking,” he said. “I think there is a lot of really neat things that have been done here. The bunkers have been strengthened so if you hit it in the fairway [bunker] or near the green, you better get that ball up in the air. The greens are severe here."
“Not one style of player can win here. You have to be smart, you have to hit fairways, you have an advantage in match-play if you can hit the fairway.”
Brett Quigley, a former professional golfer and who is also serving as a commentator for this week’s championship for FS1, had strong impressions of the course.
“It is fantastic. The greens look great, the fairways are perfect, the ruff is long,” Quigley told WTOL when describing the course. “It looks like a great championship golf course.”
But once again, as it stands, does Inverness have the potential of hosting a major championship once again?
“Absolutely [it could host a major.] We were talking about a couple of players about last year. They played at Baltusrol [Golf Course] and everyone said that this course is much more difficult than Baltusrol, which is saying something,” he said when comparing Inverness to Baltusrol, which hosted last year’s Junior Amateur Championship and the 2005 and 2016 PGA Championships. “Baltusrol is a fantastic property, it is a fantastic golf course. It shows you how good or high regard that players are holding the course this week. It says a lot.”
The earliest Inverness could host a U.S. Open is 2028. Over nearly the next decade, the championship will make stops in Los Angeles and San Diego, as well as the suburbs of Boston and New York City, perhaps making Toledo competing as a small fish in a big pond for the current future host sites.
As for the PGA Championship, the host sites are set through 2029, with confirmations in 2031 and 2034, as well as Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma, also receiving a guaranteed bid to host in the future.
It may be a long wait but that could be a good thing for Inverness and the City of Toledo, as they develop a strategic plan to bring the PGA Tour back to Northwest Ohio.
When asked if Toledo, after a potential 30- to-40-year hiatus from major golf tournaments, could see the PGA Tour back at the historic Inverness golf club, Brown initially deflected the question but did say it was possible.
“That is a tough question for me to answer,” he said. “I am thinking of all of the limitations we have now, I think it could legitimately be considered, I think that is fair.”
Now, we wait and see.