Fowler's Mill Golf Course

About Fowler's Mill Golf Course

Fowler's Mill is Pete Dye's work in the Geauga County countryside, about 30 minutes east of downtown Cleveland. It's 27 holes, split into the Lake, River and Maple nines, and it still looks the way the Dyes built it: railroad ties, split fairways and wooden bridges, ideas Pete and Alice Dye brought back from trips to Scotland in the early 1960s. The course calls the 4th on the Lake nine, Coastline, its signature hole: a par 4 where you have to keep the drive in play, and a miss right with the second is trouble. On the River nine the Chagrin River comes into play, including at the 12th, which has two fairways to choose from.

It started as a corporate course. In the late 1960s TRW went looking for a first-rate course like the corporate ones at NCR and Firestone, and pieced together 1,500 acres from 50 parcels, including a dairy farm where the Lake nine is now. The old barn still stands south of the parking lot. They planned 54 holes and ended up with 27, and Pete and Roy Dye, fresh off Crooked Stick and Harbour Town, built it from 1969 to 1971 as The TRW Course.

American Golf Corporation bought it in 1986 and named it for Milo Fowler, an early settler who ran a gristmill. The one big change since has been the 7,000-square-foot Western Reserve style clubhouse, opened in 1998, with a Grille Room and a patio over the River nine. The course cites Golfweek's 2021 ranking as the best public course in Ohio, and Golf Advisor ranked its layout 20th in the U.S. in 2016 and 8th among Pete Dye courses in 2015.

It's one of 111 courses Yoink watches in the Cleveland area, and the closest alternative is Legend Lake Golf Club, about 4 miles away — handy when your first choice is booked solid.

How to get a tee time at Fowler's Mill Golf Course