Firestone Country Club

•  Indoor Golf Facility
•  Official Firestone Country Club website
•  Tour the North Course

The North and West Courses at the world-renowned Firestone Country Club serve as the home courses for The University of Akron men's golf team. The North Course opened in 1969 and has been rated by Golf Digest as one of Ohio's top-10 courses.

Firestone Country Club, opened for play in 1929, was created by Harvey S. Firestone to serve as a recreational park for employees of the Akron-based Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, which he founded. The original links of the South Course were designed by the late Bert Way.

Professional golf first visited the Akron area in 1953, when the Rubber City Open was played at Breathnach Country Club in Cuyahoga Falls. The event moved to Firestone in 1954 as a fully-sanctioned tournament and continued through 1959.

The PGA Championship was awarded to Akron in 1960, and to provide a worthy test, architect Robert Trent Jones was hired to bring the course, which was then a 6,585-yard par-72, up to true championship standards. When Jones was finished adding 50 bunkers and two new ponds, the new card listed 7,189 yards and a par 70.

The success of the PGA Championship in Akron led to a new event, the American Golf Classic, which began in 1961 and was played annually through 1976. The PGA Championship returned to the South Course in 1966 and again in 1975, making Firestone the first club to host this championship three times.

Since 1962, Firestone's South Course has been the site for the annual World Series of Golf, a major event on the PGA Tour. For 14 years, the event brought together the winner of the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and the PGA Championship for a two-round, 36-hole television competition. In succeeding years, Firestone played host to many other competitions, including the CBS Golf Classic and Big Three Golf.

The World Series of Golf was expanded in 1976 and offered the world of professional golf an international championship in which all the participants had won at least one tournament in the past year. In 1984, NEC Corporation became the event's title sponsor. The PGA's World Golf Championships NEC Invitational debuted at Firestone Country Club in August 1999, replacing the World Series of Golf. This tournament is part of a World Golf Championship series, and features the game's foremost players. Tiger Woods won the 2001 event for the third time in as many years. The course also played host to the 2002 Senior PGA Championship.

In 2001, the West Course was renovated by renowned golf course architect Tom Fazio, making Firestone Country Club the finest 54-hole golf facility in the world.

• Holes: 18
• Par: 70
• Length: Championship 7,283, Member 6,409, Front 5,600 yards
• Slope: Championship-132, Member-124, Front-123
• Designer: Bert Way and resdesigned by Robert Trent Jones in 1960

• Holes: 18
• Par: 72
• Length: Gold-7,125, Blue-6,741, White-6,388, Red-5,589
• Slope: Gold-134, Blue-130, White-126, Red-126
• Designer: Robert Trent Jones

• Holes: 18
• Par: 70
• Length: Championship 6,904, Member 6,472, Front 5,125 yards
• Slope: Gold-128, Blue-123, White-118, Red-119
• Designer: Tom Fazio