Firestone Country Club, probably the best 54-hole golf complex in the world, welcomes the Senior PGA Championship.

By George Sweda

Montage image by Halamay Color Lab

Harvey Firestone would hardly recognize the country club south of Akron, Ohio, that carries his family name. That’s understandable, however, since a lot has changed since Firestone Country Club first opened on Aug. 10, 1929.

The original course was designed by William Herbert (Bertie) Way, an English golf pro who immigrated to the United States in 1896 and became one of the country’s first club pros. As a young pro, Way apprenticed under Willie Dunn Jr., a Scot who was the pro at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club on Long Island, New York, when the first unofficial U.S. Open Championship was played in 1894. Dunn designed such courses as Baltimore Country Club, Royal Montreal Golf Club in Canada, Apawamis Club in New York, and Jekyll Island Golf Club in Georgia.

Way, who finished tied for second in the U.S. Open in 1899, moved to Detroit and later to Cleveland where he became the pro for another of the country’s industrial barons — John D. Rockefeller. Through Rockefeller, Firestone arranged for Way to design what the world now knows as the South Course.

Way’s original routing remains much the same — a series of holes running north and south, many parallel to each other. "Firestone is one of the most straightforward courses you can play," says golfing legend and course designer Jack Nicklaus. "Everything is right there in front of you. There are a couple of blind tee shots, but even on those holes, because of the trees, you know where you have to set up your shots." Nicklaus is one of the many golf legends who has played and won at Firestone. He and many of those past winners will virtually be walking in their old footsteps when Firestone hosts the 63rd Senior PGA Championship in early June.

Firestone’s history of hosting PGA Tour events goes back to 1954 when the Rubber City Open was moved from neighboring Cuyahoga Falls. Tommy Bolt started a list of champions that includes Arnold Palmer, Jay Hebert, Al Geiberger, Ken Venturi, Raymond Floyd, Jim Colbert, Gary Player, Tony Lema, Lee Trevino, Tom Weiskopf, Tom Watson, Nick Price, José Maria Olazábal, Greg Norman, Phil Mickelson, Nicklaus, and most recently, Tiger Woods, who has won the last three World Golf Championships-NEC Invitationals.

Bothered at the start of the year by back problems, Nicklaus was already committed to playing again at Firestone, perhaps for the last time as an active player. "It’s a must if I’m able," he says. "I haven’t played Firestone for a lot of years, but I’ve had great success there. I’ve probably won more money at Firestone than any other place in the world and I’m looking forward to it."

Great success, indeed.

A PLACE OF SIGNIFICANCE
Nicklaus was introduced to the PGA Tour when he was invited to play in the 1958 Rubber City Open at Firestone as an amateur on a sponsor’s exemption. He made the cut, but Art Wall won the title.

It was a significant year. Harvey Firestone wasn’t trying to build a monster golf course. Firestone Country Club was built as a gift to employees. Yet, in an attempt to lure a more significant golf tournament to the course, architect Robert Trent Jones was brought in late in 1958 to beef up the South Course.

The work was a success because, in 1960, Firestone hosted the PGA Championship, the first of three played at the site. Jones stretched what was a 6,585-yard, par-72 layout into a 7,180-yard, par-70 course, adding more than 50 bunkers and rebuilding every green.

Despite a double bogey on the par-4 10th hole, Hebert managed a final round 70 for a one-over-par 281 total that beat Jim Ferrier by a shot. It was the start of bigger and better things for Firestone.

The American Golf Classic (AGC) replaced the Rubber City Open in 1961, but gave way to another PGA Championship in 1966 (won by Geiberger), and yet another in 1975 (won by Nicklaus).

THE GAMES BEGIN
Firestone is probably best known as the scene of the World Series of Golf (WSOG). A tournament that started as a 36-hole, made-for-TV contest in 1962 — when Nicklaus beat Palmer and Player in a format limited to winners of the four major championships — evolved into a limited field event with tournament winners from around the world in 1976. Nicklaus won that tournament, too, one of his five career victories at Firestone.

When the World Series of Golf expanded to a 72-hole event in 1976, the old American Golf Classic was still a part of the PGA Tour schedule. As a result, Firestone hosted two events that season — the AGC on the adjacent North Course and the WSOG on the South Course the weeks of Aug. 26-29 and Sept. 2-5. Australian David Graham won the last AGC, a victory that earned him a spot in the tournament across Warner Road the following week in the expanded-field WSOG.

In 1973, Firestone became the only course in the world on which three televised golf events (the WSOG, AGC, and the CBS Golf Classic) were conducted in one calendar year.

While the South Course, with its 18th hole framed by the now familiar water tower painted to look like a golf ball on a tee, is world renowned, the companion North Course is no slouch either. Also reworked by Jones, water comes into play on nine of the 18 holes (versus just two holes on the South). The holes also dogleg both left and right on hilly terrain and run in all compass directions. It’s usually referred to as "one of golf’s great unknowns," and, in 1994, was a good enough test to host the NEC WSOG (which Olazábal won) because of remodeling work, which was incomplete on the South.

While the 16th is the signature hole, the 458-yard 4th and 457-yard 13th annually rank among the toughest holes on the PGA Tour. Both are good examples of Firestone South’s simplicity. The 4th is a straightaway, but the fairway is slightly uphill and twists to the left at the landing area and then to the right at the green. The same is pretty much true at the 13th, one of the few blind tee shots, where a huge elm tree guards the right side of the landing away with a fairway bunker protecting the left side. Like many courses in the Midwest, Firestone lost a number of mature elm trees to disease in the late 1960s and early 1970s. But time, Mother Nature, and some new plantings have restored much of the tree-lined fairway corridors.

The 16th, rarely reached in two before Nicklaus reworked it and even less now that he enlarged the pond that guards the right half of the green, was the scene of one of the most remarkable pars in his career. In the third round of the ’75 PGA Championship, Nicklaus hooked his tee shot into a rarely seen hazard more than 100 yards from the center of the fairway. (The shot would be nearly impossible today since that area is now part of the West Course.) Choosing to take relief, he went backward and dropped just 150 yards off the tee. His 6-iron, third shot sailed right behind trees that divide the 16th and 17th hole. Left with an even more difficult fourth, Nicklaus pitched a 9-iron over the trees from 130 yards out within 35 feet and made the putt for a saving par en route to a 67 to take a four-shot lead into the final round.

The South Course has a dozen par-4s that measure 400 or more yards and three of its par-3s play more than 200 yards. There are just two par-5s. The course played at 7,139 yards for last summer’s NEC Invitational when Woods became the first player to win three consecutive years at Firestone, needing a birdie on the seventh extra hole of a playoff to beat Jim Furyk for the $1 million first prize. When the seniors show up, it’s not going to be much easier. Par is still 70 and the course will measure 6,927.

In 1981, ClubCorp bought Firestone from the tire company in what was a cost-cutting move. The tire company has since become part of Japanese-owned Bridgestone Tire Company Ltd. and is no longer headquartered in Akron. And the club has evolved into an exceptional golf club — probably the best 54-hole complex in the world.

The clubhouse, once small with a modest pro shop, has nearly doubled in size to more than 80,000 square feet. The pro shop, under the direction of director of golf Gary Robison and head pro Mark Gore, was ranked among the top 100 in the country by Golf World Business earlier this year.

Robison is an example of the long-term employees who have been part of the transition. He came to Firestone in 1980 with then head pro Don Padgett II, who replaced former PGA Tour pro Bobby Nichols. Locker room manager Paul Lazoran has been on the staff for more than 50 years. He began as a caddie, then became an assistant to Nichols, who handled the junior golf program when a youngster named John Cook was learning the game while his father, Jim, was running Firestone’s auto racing program.

"Our tenured staff is probably our biggest asset," Padgett says. "I really can’t tell you how many people we have who have been here 15 years or more because I really don’t know, but I know it’s a significant number. It’s one of our strong points."

BETTER GETS BETTER
Being added to Firestone’s impressive résumé will be a totally rebuilt West Course, scheduled to open in late June. It’s a $10 million re-do of what was originally a $2 million course that surrounds the South Course layout. Originally designed by Geoffrey Cornish and Brian Silva, the course has been going through a drastic remodeling by Tom Fazio.

Though they sit side-by-side, the South, North, and West courses are vastly different. With the exception of the famous, par-5 16th hole — Firestone’s 625-yard signature hole — the South Course is pretty flat. Both the North and West have a variety of terrains, but while the North is very tree-lined, the new West is pretty wide open thanks to extensive tree clearing. The highest piece of club property, its finishing holes offer dramatic views of the watery finish at the North. The North Course, a par-72 layout, is 7,060 yards from the back tees, while the new West will play 6,908 yards from the back tees with par 70.

"When the West Course reopens, it will be fun to try to come up with a composite course of the best 18 holes on the property," Padgett says. "People might be surprised, but I wouldn’t, if about half the holes came from the North Course."

In 1985, Nicklaus’ design firm was hired to rebuild the greens on the South to modern specifications. A state-of-the-art practice facility has since been added, along with 30 clubhouse sleeping rooms and 14 four-room villas along the 16th and behind the 18th green on the South Course and beside the lake that lines the 18th hole on the North. ClubCorp, the state of Ohio, and Northern Ohio Golf Charities, which conducts the tournament golf at Firestone for charity, contributed to the construction of a permanent tournament media center — one of just four at Tour sites across the country.

"We’ve also spent about $500,000 on some things that weren’t too sexy for the tournament or the club, like a tournament storage building and repaving the road in front of the clubhouse," Padgett adds.

While Firestone operates as a private club, ClubCorp was instrumental in building a nine-hole public course and year-round practice range adjacent to the North Course. In honor of another member of the Firestone family who helped keep the championship golf tradition at the club alive, it’s called the Raymond C. Firestone public course. Its clubhouse, known as Hacker’s, has quickly become a local watering hole for players. "It’s a great asset for south Akron from a public play standpoint," Padgett notes.

Through all the changes in the last few years, the constant at Firestone is still golf. It’s difficult, different, and demanding.

George Sweda is a golf writer at the Cleveland Plain Dealer who has covered Firestone since 1975.

FIRESTONE COUNTRY CLUB

Location: 452 East Warner Road, Akron, Ohio.

General manager: Donald E. Padgett II.

Membership director: Debby Thomas.

Director of golf: Gary Robison.

Head golf professional: Mark Gore.

Amenities: Three 18-hole championship courses, including the 7,189-yard, par-70 Robert Trent Jones-designed South Course; pro shop; bar and grill; private dining facilities; clubhouse suites and golf villas.

Web site: www.firestonecountryclub.com

63rd SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP
Dates: June 3-9, 2002.

Daily or season tickets: Call 800.PGA.TCKT (800.742.8258) or visit www.SeniorPGA2002.com.