Elks Country Club

Set in the hills just northwest of Portsmouth, Ohio, Portsmouth Elks Country Club (often shortened locally to “Elks Country Club”) is a semi-private, 18-hole course in McDermott that plays today at roughly 6,700 yards, par 72. The club operates a full clubhouse with bar and grill, pro shop, and daily-fee access alongside Elks Lodge membership play. The landscape is rolling Piedmont foothill terrain rather than riverflat, and the routing moves repeatedly over shallow ridges and swales before returning to a compact clubhouse core. Fairways are generally tree-lined, greens are modest in size by modern standards, and the hazards today are comparatively few; the challenge rests more in stance, lie, and approach precision than in forced carries. For visitors, the experience is unpretentious and walkable, with most transitions short; carts are available but not essential. Conditioning centers on bermudagrass turf with a stated USGA course rating near 71 and slope near 117 from the back tees, reflecting a course that rewards placement more than power. While club materials emphasize a 1924 connection to Donald Ross, on-site archival drawings or correspondence are not publicly available; what the golfer encounters now is a historical layout that has evolved, with some original hazard schemes diminished, but with green sites and general corridors that still reflect early-1920s design lines.