Country Club of Birmingham - East

The Country Club of Birmingham was founded in 1898 in North Birmingham and moved in 1904 to the Lakeview area at the end of Highland Avenue. In 1926 it moved again, to farmland in Shades Valley in what is now Mountain Brook. There Donald Ross laid out two 18-hole courses on 284 acres, leaving eight acres for a clubhouse, according to Carolyn Satterfield, the club's centennial historian. The course and swimming pool opened in 1926, and the English Tudor clubhouse by Warren, Knight & Davis was completed in 1927. The club credits Ross with both the East and the West.

The Donald Ross Society and Tufts Archives directory lists the East as a new Ross 18 of 1926, with supporting records held at the Tufts Archives. When the USGA brought the 2013 U.S. Mid-Amateur here, it described the East as the second half of Ross's work for the club, laid out when the club planned its move from Lakeview, and said it kept much of its original routing. No published record says whether Ross staked the East on site or sent plans. Later architects were George Cobb in the 1960s and John LaFoy in 1989 and again in 2018-19.

Holes to Know

The East is par 35 on each nine and 6,644 yards from the Five tees. It has twelve par 4s, four par 3s (the 3rd, 7th, 13th and 15th) and only two par 5s, the 6th and 11th. The back nine puts two par 3s within three holes, at the 13th and 15th.

The 307-yard 2nd from the Five tees is the shortest par 4 on the card and plays downhill. A creek crosses the hole about 40 yards short of the green's centre, and the green, bunkered short-left, right and behind, slopes hard from back to front toward the stream. One of the club's professionals calls it a risk-reward hole for long hitters.

The 454-yard 5th is the longest par 4 and stroke index 1, yet it has no bunker. The fairway bends right about 270 yards out, with trees at the corner, and the creek crosses roughly 85 yards short of a deep, narrow green.

The 563-yard 11th is the longest hole and stroke index 2. Since 2019 the drive has had to carry the large lake LaFoy built in front of the tee. At the far end a creek crosses about 25 yards short of the green, with a bunker at each front corner and a two-tier putting surface beyond.

The 188-yard 15th is the last of the par 3s and all carry over a pond that ends about 20 yards short of a green wider than it is deep, with sand to the left and right. A 2017 GolfPass reviewer named the 2nd, 11th and 15th as his favourite holes on the East.

Ross's Design Here

The East's routing is the part of the course most clearly Ross's. The USGA's 2013 description says much of it survives, and that changes since opening were made to expand the practice range and improve playability. Many of its greens sit close to the next tee, and in 2018-19 LaFoy used that to set "walk-on" tees beside the greens, which he attributed to the course's traditional design.

The greens today carry much of the course's difficulty. The club's hole notes describe two-tier greens on the 4th, 9th, 11th and 18th, false fronts on the 8th and 16th, and greens on the 3rd and 6th that fall away on all sides, which the club calls classic Ross design. The 8th climbs to a plateau green seen only as a ridge from the fairway. The 10th follows the slope back beside the 9th, with a downhill drive on a dogleg left and an uphill approach to a green with deep bunkers on each side. The 13th, a short par 3 to a triangular green, is played beside the neighbourhood streets. A 2017 GolfPass reviewer found the greens flatter than the turtlebacks he associated with Ross, with five carrying distinct shelves, and wrote that all are slightly raised, eight of them dramatically. Cobb enlarged the greens in the 1960s, so their present outlines are not Ross's.

Water shapes several holes. A creek runs through the property and crosses the 2nd, 5th and 11th; the club's notes also put it beside the 3rd and 7th greens and along the right of the 12th. The 16th and 18th play back toward the clubhouse.

Historical Significance

The club calls its 36 Ross holes an unusual treasure for one club. The West was later rebuilt by Robert Trent Jones and then Pete Dye, while LaFoy says his 1989 work on the East was done more in the Ross traditional style. That leaves the East as the club's course closer to Ross.

The East has shared national championships with the West. At the 2013 U.S. Mid-Amateur, the club's first USGA championship, the 264-player field played one stroke-play round on each course, the East set at 6,471 yards and par 70, before match play on the West. The club hosted the 2016 USGA Men's State Team Championship. In May 2022 the 7th U.S. Amateur Four-Ball again split stroke play between the East and West, with 128 two-player sides, before match play on the West; Chad Wilfong and Davis Womble of North Carolina won the title on the 19th hole of the final.

Changes Since Ross

George Cobb renovated the East in the 1960s and enlarged its greens. After Pete Dye's 1985 rebuild of the West, the club hired John LaFoy for the East. He described that 1989 project as a complete tee-to-green renovation, done more to the Ross traditional style than the West's. The 1991 Good Friday storm brought down more than 860 trees on the club's courses.

LaFoy's second project grew out of 2012 plans for the practice range and short-game area. It came to include the East's tees, bunkers and irrigation. Construction began in July 2018, after the Alabama State Women's Amateur, because both courses share the practice facilities, and was complete in spring 2019. The work installed a new irrigation system and a large lake off the 11th tee, built for water supply and appearance. Every bunker was rebuilt to Better Billy Bunker specifications; LaFoy said none was drastically changed, though some sand lines were adjusted to be seen better. The putting surfaces were left almost untouched, apart from lowering and re-sodding the "dams" of topdressing at their edges that kept water from draining off, and the club deep-aerified the greens. Before the project the East had five scorecards for different groups of members, with at least one hole a different par for men and women. LaFoy consolidated them into one card with the same par for everyone and a six-tee system that kept most existing tees and added 28, most of them forward, with several new back tees. The tees were squared off and sodded with Diamond zoysia. The range tee was brought to one level and enlarged, and the short-game area combined two greens into one 8,000-square-foot green beside a new teaching building.

Uncertainties

• Opening dates: the club, the Encyclopedia of Alabama, the Ross Society and the USGA's 2013 text give 1926 for the East; GolfPass and Wikipedia give 1927. The Ross Society dates the West to 1929, while an earlier USGA account had the West opening first, in 1925. This listing follows 1926 for the East.

• Cobb's work is dated to the 1960s by the club and Golf Course Architecture and to 1964 by GolfPass; LaFoy's first project is 1989 in Golf Course Architecture and 1990 on GolfPass.

Sources & Notes

1. The Country Club of Birmingham, Club History. https://www.ccbham.org/club-history — Founding, Lakeview, 1926 move and 36 Ross holes, 1927 clubhouse, Cobb's greens, 1991 storm, LaFoy's 2010s project and lake off the 11th tee.

2. The Country Club of Birmingham, East Course Tour (with the USGA's 2013 U.S. Mid-Amateur course note). https://www.ccbham.org/club/scripts/custom/custom.asp?NS=PUBLIC&PAGECFG=COURSETOURV2&CID=749 — Original routing, 1926 opening, hole notes on greens, creek and water.

3. The Country Club of Birmingham, USGA Tournaments and home pages. https://www.ccbham.org/usga-tournaments — 2013, 2016 and 2022 USGA events; facilities.

4. Richard Humphreys, "LaFoy completes renovation of East course at CC Birmingham," Golf Course Architecture, August 6, 2019. https://www.golfcoursearchitecture.net/content/lafoy-completes-renovation-of-east-course-at-cc-birmingham — Cobb and LaFoy history; 2018-19 scope and LaFoy's quotes.

5. Donald Ross Society and Tufts Archives, Directory of Golf Courses Designed by Donald J. Ross, January 2026. https://www.rosssociety.org/resources/Documents/Ross%20Course%20List/Final%20Ross%20Directory%20of%20Courses%20Jan%202026%20website.pdf — East new 1926 with Tufts records; West 1929.

6. Carolyn Green Satterfield, "Country Club of Birmingham," Encyclopedia of Alabama, 2009, updated 2024. https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/country-club-of-birmingham/ — 1926 move, 284 acres, 1926 opening, 1927 clubhouse; cites her Centennial History (1999).

7. AmateurGolf.com, "USGA Mid-Amateur: Pairings, start times released," October 1, 2013. https://www.amateurgolf.com/golf-tournament-news/11170/USGA-Mid-Amateur--Pairings--start-times-released — East at 6,471 yards, par 70; stroke play on both courses, match play on the West.

8. Village Living, "The Country Club of Birmingham prepares to host its first national championship," 2013. https://www.villagelivingonline.com/people/the-country-club-of-birmingham-prepares-to-host-its-first-na — 2013 Mid-Am format on both courses.

9. New York State Golf Association, "Six Represent NYS at 7th U.S. Four-Ball in Birmingham," May 2022. https://nysga.org/communications-news/six-represent-nys-at-7th-us-four-ball-in-birmingham — 2022 stroke play on the East and West, East par 70.

10. GolfPass, "East at Country Club of Birmingham." https://www.golfpass.com/courses/14073-east-at-country-club-of-birmingham/ — Bent greens; 2017 user review on elevated and shelved greens and favourite holes; alternative dates.

11. AmateurGolf.com, "U.S. Amateur Four-Ball: Medalists roll into Round of 16," May 2022. https://www.amateurgolf.com/golf-tournament-news/28759/U-S--Amateur-Four-Ball--Medalists-roll-into-Round-of-16- — 2022 stroke play on both courses, match play on the West.

12. Greens Visited scorecard (Five tees) and course-tour aerials (USDA NAIP via USGS The National Map). https://apps.nationalmap.gov/ — Pars, yardages, stroke indexes and hazard positions.