The five best golf courses near Akron, Ohio are Firestone Country Club's South Course, Canterbury Golf Club, Fowler's Mill Golf Course, Windmill Lakes Golf Club, and Sleepy Hollow Golf Course — a mix of legendary private clubs and well-designed public tracks that would hold up against any golf region in the country.
Keep reading for a closer look at what makes each one worth your time, what you can expect to pay, and which course best fits your game.
Firestone Country Club (South Course) — Akron's Most Famous Round
Firestone's South Course started as a perk. Harvey Firestone built it in 1929 for employees of his tire and rubber company, and it stayed a modest, private layout until Robert Trent Jones Sr. got his hands on it in 1960.
Jones transformed it completely — adding more than 50 bunkers, two ponds, and stretching the course past 7,100 yards.
Arnold Palmer played it that same year during the PGA Championship, triple-bogeyed the 625-yard 16th, and called it “The Monster.” The name stuck, and so did the course's reputation.
The tournament history here is hard to match: three PGA Championships, 18 consecutive WGC-Bridgestone Invitationals, and Tiger Woods winning eight times on these fairways alone.
Today it plays at 7,400 yards, par 70, with a 75.1 rating and a 128 slope.
As a private club, public access comes through Stay & Play packages starting around $595 per night, which includes lodging and a round.
The full complex runs 54 holes, with the North Course and the Fazio Course rounding things out, plus 61 villa rooms and two on-site restaurants.
Golf Magazine has ranked it #56 in the country, and Golf Digest consistently puts it in Ohio's top five.
Canterbury Golf Club — Where All Five Major U.S. Championships Have Been Played
Canterbury is one of only two clubs in the entire country to have hosted all five rotating major U.S. golf championships.
That's not a marketing line — it's a genuinely rare distinction, and it speaks to a course that has held up under the highest levels of scrutiny for over a century.
Located in Beachwood, about 30 miles north of Akron, the club was founded in 1921 and named for Canterbury, Connecticut, the birthplace of Cleveland founder Moses Cleaveland.
Herbert Strong designed the original layout in 1922, routing it through rolling, wooded terrain with Scottish-inspired bunkering, fast undulating greens, and holes that weave between brooks and mature hardwoods.
The design works with the land rather than against it, which is a big part of why it has aged so well.
The championship résumé covers 13 majors, including:
- Two U.S. Opens (1940 and 1946)
- The 1973 PGA Championship, where Jack Nicklaus claimed his 12th major title, surpassing Bobby Jones
- Multiple U.S. Amateurs and Senior Opens, including back-to-back Arnold Palmer wins in 1984–85
Two holes stand out as particularly demanding: the 605-yard 16th, a par 5 that requires three precise shots to navigate, and the 438-yard 18th, which plays uphill with out-of-bounds hugging the right side.
Keith Rhebb and Riley Johns — associates of the respected Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw design firm — are currently restoring the course through tree removal and green complex work, nudging it back toward Strong's original vision.
The USGA clearly still considers Canterbury a premier venue, with events scheduled through 2039, including the 2027 U.S. Girls' Junior, 2033 U.S. Senior Amateur, and 2039 U.S. Women's Amateur.
Canterbury is private and member-invitation only, with no public tee times. Golf Digest ranks it #8 in Ohio and #180 nationally for 2025–26, though it peaked at #46 in the Golf Digest 100 Greatest.
Fowler's Mill Golf Course — Pete Dye Goes Public in Geauga County
Pete Dye and his brother Roy built Fowler's Mill between 1969 and 1971 as a private retreat for employees of TRW Corporation, an aerospace and electronics conglomerate.
When TRW sold the property in the 1980s, it was renamed after a historic local gristmill and opened to public play.
What that means for you is access to one of Dye's earliest designs — a course that predates both Harbour Town and TPC Sawgrass, sitting about 40 miles north of Akron in Chesterland.
The property spans 27 holes across three nines: the Lake, River, and Maple.
The Lake/River combination serves as the championship layout and is the one worth planning your trip around — 7,025 yards, a 74.7 rating, and a 136 slope that ranks among the most demanding public courses in Ohio.
Each nine plays differently enough to feel like a separate experience:
- Lake nine: Open, windswept holes built around a central lake
- River nine: Dense forest routing along the Chagrin River, with split fairways on holes 9 and 12 where the river cuts through
- Maple nine: A more forgiving parkland layout with generous fairways
Dye packed the property with 76 sand bunkers and water hazards on six holes. The Chagrin River isn't just scenic — it's a genuine strategic element that shapes two of the most interesting holes on the course.
Green fees run approximately $61–$75 on weekdays and $75–$100 on weekends, with a senior weekday rate around $29.
One honest note on conditioning: the greens draw consistent praise, but fairways can get rough after wet weather, so it's worth checking recent reviews before you book.
Golfweek named it the #1 Best Public Course in Ohio in 2021, and Golf Advisor ranked it the 20th best course layout in the entire country in 2016. For a public fee track, that's a strong résumé.
Windmill Lakes Golf Club — The Thinking Player's Course in Ravenna
Edmund Ault designed Windmill Lakes in 1970, and it has been Kent State University's home course for both its men's and women's golf teams ever since.
One of those players went on to win the 2003 Open Championship — Ben Curtis trained on these fairways before pulling off one of the biggest upsets in major championship history.
Located about 20 miles east of Akron in Ravenna, the course plays 6,936 yards at par 70 with a 73.8 rating and a 128 slope.
The number that shapes your entire round, though, is two — as in, only two par 5s. That design choice is deliberate.
Without easy birdie holes to fall back on, you're grinding through a long stretch of demanding par 4s where accuracy matters more than power.
Fifty-plus bunkers and six lakes keep you honest throughout, and the large, undulating bent grass greens punish anything but precise iron play.
2026 green fees (confirmed):
| With Cart | Walking | |
|---|---|---|
| Weekday | $49.50 | $39.50 |
| Weekend | Up to $67.00 | $46.00–$56.00 |
| Senior (60+, Mon–Fri) | $39.50 | — |
If you play here regularly, a prepaid 10-round pass brings the cost down to $35 per round — solid value for a course that won the 2011 National Golf Course of the Year from the National Golf Course Owners Association and ranked #2 in Ohio on Golf Advisor in 2021.
The competitive history is legitimate too. Windmill Lakes has hosted MAC Championships, USGA Public Links Sectional Qualifiers, and the NOGA Northeast Ohio Amateur — events that reflect how well the course holds up under tournament conditions.
Sleepy Hollow Golf Course — A Stanley Thompson Classic Inside a National Park
No other course on this list offers anything close to Sleepy Hollow's setting.
Sitting entirely within Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Brecksville, about 25 miles north of Akron, the course overlooks the Cuyahoga River Valley in a way that makes it feel removed from everything around it.
Stanley Thompson designed it in 1924–25 — the same architect responsible for Banff Springs, Jasper Park, and Capilano — originally as a private country club. It opened to public play in 1963 and has been operated by Cleveland Metroparks ever since.
At 6,750 yards, par 71, with a 133 slope and a 73.3 rating, the numbers don't fully prepare you for how difficult the course actually plays.
Thompson used a classic “out and in” routing: the front nine works downhill, often with the wind at your back, while the back nine reverses course and climbs into the prevailing breeze.
Deep ravines come into play on 13 of the 18 holes, and between 58 and 64 bunkers guard small, well-contoured greens that reward precision over aggression.
The par 3 second hole is something of a local legend — most players need a driver or long iron just to reach the green.
Green fees run approximately $59 with a cart. If you plan to play multiple Metroparks courses, the Bonus Rounds Loyalty Program is worth the $30 annual fee — it gives you 20% off every round across all nine courses in the system.
The rankings reflect what Thompson built here. Golfweek places Sleepy Hollow among the top five courses you can play in Ohio and top 20 municipal courses in the country.
Northern Ohio Golf named it the #1 Best Public Course in Northeastern Ohio in 2021. For a municipally operated track, that's a rare level of recognition — and it's earned.
How These Five Courses Stack Up — Finding the Right Fit for Your Game
Here's a quick look at how all five compare on the numbers that matter most:
| Course | Type | Yards | Slope | Rating | Est. Green Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Firestone CC (South) | Private | 7,400 | 128 | 75.1 | From ~$595/night (Stay & Play) |
| Canterbury GC | Private | ~7,000 | 138–140 | 73.9–74.6 | Member/guest only |
| Fowler's Mill | Public | 7,025 | 136 | 74.7 | ~$61–$100 |
| Windmill Lakes | Public | 6,936 | 128 | 73.8 | $39.50–$67 |
| Sleepy Hollow | Public | ~6,750 | 133 | 73.3 | ~$59 |
On the private side, both Firestone and Canterbury are effectively off-limits unless you know a member or book a Stay & Play package at Firestone.
Canterbury has no public access path at all.
Together, they account for more than 80 professional and amateur championships — including PGA Championships, U.S. Opens, and nearly two decades of elite WGC fields.
If history and prestige are what you're after, nothing else in the region comes close.
For the rest of us, the three public courses cover different priorities cleanly:
- Hardest test on a public budget: Fowler's Mill, with its 136 slope — the highest of the three by a meaningful margin
- Best value: Windmill Lakes, with confirmed 2026 rates under $70, a top-ranked layout, and strong conditioning
- Most distinctive experience: Sleepy Hollow, where a century-old Thompson design inside a national park creates something no other course here can replicate
What makes the Akron region genuinely worth noting is the architectural depth behind these five courses.
Bert Way, Robert Trent Jones Sr., Pete Dye, Stanley Thompson, Herbert Strong, and Edmund Ault — that's a design lineage most major American golf markets would envy, let alone a city of 190,000 people.
Wherever your game is at and whatever you're willing to spend, this stretch of northeast Ohio has a course that fits.
Conclusion
The Akron area delivers a golf lineup that genuinely holds its own against markets twice its size — from two private clubs with a combined century of major championship history to three well-designed public tracks that won't break the bank.
Whether you're chasing a bucket-list round at Firestone or looking for a well-conditioned daily fee course you can play every week, the options here are hard to fault.
Few mid-size American cities can put five courses this good within a 45-mile radius.
