Scioto CC’s return to the
national spotlight is overdue

Gary Kellner

Few courses possess more historical significance than Scioto CC in suburban Columbus, Ohio. It’s only fitting, then, that in its centennial year the club that nurtured the game’s greatest champion will return to the national spotlight by hosting the 2016 U.S. Senior Open.

It also was fitting that the aforementioned champion, Jack Nicklaus, was in attendance at his boyhood golf home for the April 17 announcement, even as he modestly tried to down-play his presence. “I’m a very small part of this,” said the Golden Bear, who will serve as the tournament’s honorary chairman.

Nicklaus’ presence aside, it’s important the course rejoin
the national conversation. As Nicklaus acknowledged,
“Scioto is long overdue to have a championship.” And Mike
Davis, USGA executive director, noted: “We make a lot of
announcements for sites, generally 14-16 national champi-
onships in a given year, but … to come to Scioto is really
special. This is a gem.”
Scioto is a Donald Ross original that has been reno-
vated several times, most recently in 2008 with Nicklaus
assisting Columbus-based architect Mike Hurdzan. The
course first gained attention beyond Ohio when it hosted
the 1926 U.S. Open. Bobby Jones won it. A young Charlie
Nicklaus saw it and later shared with his son, Jack, the
exploits of the man who would be a hero to both.

The third Ryder Cup, in 1931, followed. The U.S. beat Great Britain, 9-3. Then came the 1950 PGA Championship. Jack, then 10 years old and having just started attending head pro Jack Grout’s Friday lessons, recalls more clearly not that Chandler Harper won but the autographs he collected, including Sam Snead’s and Lloyd Mangrum’s.

Credit USGA officials for remembering Scioto’s unique heritage and keeping it in their sights, bringing the 1968 U.S. Amateur and 1986 Senior Open there. Only three other courses have hosted a Ryder Cup, PGA, U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur: Oakland Hills, Oak Hill and Pinehurst No. 2.

What has befallen Scioto is common for older land-locked courses that can’t be stretched and lack appropriate space for all of today’s accouterments, specifically corporate

hospitality. The club sought, unsuccessfully, to lure another PGA, but the logistics didn’t work. (Merion GC in Ardmore, Pa., is an exception, as it will hold the 2013 U.S. Open.)

Scioto’s omission from hosting
marquee events is most notable
because it is Nicklaus’ boyhood home. “If you think about it,”
Davis said, “two of the all-time great heroes in American golf
are associated with Scioto: Bobby Jones and Jack Nicklaus.”
Although Scioto is just 7,140 yards, par 70, like the even
shorter Merion it remains a championship-caliber layout.
“It’s the same routing, but a totally different golf course,”
said Nicklaus, who laments the redesign work of Robert
Von Hagge and Joe Lee in the 1960s, which he and Hurdzan
tried to address. “But there are still a lot of the same shots
that I played growing up here.”
It will be something for Senior Open entrants—and
spectators as well—to look forward to, in the same way
Masters contestants and patrons thrill to see the same shots
once played by Snead, Hogan and Nelson. “I just have to work
to get my game in shape for it,” quipped Nicklaus, who will be
76 then. “The only thing I regret is that through all the years I
never had the opportunity to play in [a championship] here.”
No, but he got to do the next best thing. In August 1962,
in a rematch of their titanic U.S. Open playoff, Nicklaus
defeated Arnold Palmer in an exhibition at Scioto. Jack
doesn’t remember the score, but you better believe he
remembers who won. n