Very few courses in this country can match the number and history of major championship golf that has been hosted at Inverness Golf Club in Toledo.
Ted Ray beat out his good friend Harry Vardon, Jackie Burke Sr. and two others to win the 1920 U.S. Open held at Inverness Club. That 1920 U.S. Open was also the inaugural entry into a U.S. Open for Bobby Jones.
In 1931 Billy Burke won the second U.S. Open held at Inverness and Dick Mayer won the 1957 U.S. Open held there. Also, in 1957, a young Jack Nicklaus played in his first-ever U.S. Open.
The USGA returned to Inverness for the 1973 U.S. Amateur won by Craig Stadler, then a student at USC. In 1979, Hale Irwin won the second of his three U.S. Opens at Inverness.
Inverness has also hosted two PGA Championships. In one of the most famous shots in major championship history, Bob Tway holed a bunker shot on the 72nd hole to win in 1986. Paul Azinger won here in 1993, before being diagnosed with cancer. Most have forgotten that Greg Norman finished runner-up to both Tway and Azinger in those two PGA’s held at Inverness.
The USGA returned to Inverness for the 2003 U.S. Senior Open won by Bruce Lietzke and Olin Browne battled extreme heat, as well as, the field to win the 2011 U.S. Senior Open.
The NCAA held the 2009 Division 1 Golf Championship at Inverness with Matt Hill, from North Carolina State, taking individual medalist honors and Texas A&M winning the team title.
Byron Nelson was named Head Professional at Inverness (1940-1944) over Ben Hogan. A young, Frank Stranahan, won two British Amateurs and was runner-up in both the Masters and The Open Championship. He learned to play the game at Inverness, before he became one of the most dominant amateur golfers in the country.
In addition to the U.S. Junior Amateur being held this year, the LPGA will bring the 2021 Solheim Cup to Toledo’s Inverness Club. 
The first U.S. Junior Amateur was held in 1948 at the University of Michigan Golf Club in Ann Arbor. Only two players have won this event on multiple occasions. Jordan Spieth won in 2009 and again in 2011. Tiger Woods is the only player to have won the U.S. Junior Amateur three times, 1991,1992 and 1993. Other winners of note include, Kevin Tway, Hunter Mahan, Gary Koch, David Duval, Johnny Miller and Gay Brewer.
The 2019 field will include 156 players under the age of 19 with a handicap of less than 4.4. In 2020, the field will increase to 264 entrants and be contested over two courses.
During the month of June players will try to earn a spot in the field at one of 56 sectional qualifiers. Hickory Hills Golf Club in Columbus will host a qualifier on June 20. The Lakewood Country Club in Westlake, Ohio will hold a qualifier on June 24 and the UM Golf Course in Ann Arbor will hold a qualifier June 25th.
The first two days of the U.S. Junior Amateur, Monday July 15 and Tuesday, July 16, will consist of 36 holes of stroke play, to determine the 64 players that will enter the match play portion of the tournament. The round of 64 will be held on Wednesday. Two rounds will be held on Thursday to cut the field to the top eight for Friday’s quarter-final and semi-final matches. It will be four days of grueling match play to determine, who will duke it out in a 36-hole final on Saturday, July 20th, to decide the ultimate champion.
Inverness first opened for play in 1903 and was designed by Donald Ross. Several notable golf course architects have reworked certain portions of the course over the years. Local golf designer, Arthur Hills is credited with a complete renovation in 1999 and more recently Andrew Green completed the latest renovation in 2018.
From photographs he found at the USGA Museum in Far Hills, New Jersey, Green worked to restore the course to Ross’ original vision. He expanded several greens to create additional pin placements and revamped the par three holes in various directions to account for the capricious northwest Ohio winds.
These short holes may well prove the undoing of many a golfer. No. 3 can be stretched to 240 yards, No. 5 covers 170 yards, with water in play and No. 12 is just under 200 yards.
The course is demanding because of unusual number of par 4 holes. With only two par 5’s and three par 3’s players must navigate 13 par 4’s to score well at Inverness.
Green’s remodeling also added over 400 yards to the course, as it can now be stretched to nearly 7,400 yards and play to a par of 71. Inverness will offer a true test to the Junior Amateur field, as it is rated at 76.8, with a slope of 148.
Head Superintendent, Jon Zimmers has plenty of experience in preparing a course for a USGA Championship. In his previous role at Oakmont Country Club in Pittsburgh, Zimmers oversaw preparations for two U.S. Opens, a U.S. Women’s Open and the U.S. Amateur.
He told us,
“The entire membership is committed to keeping Inverness one of the most respected clubs in America and is excited to host the 2019 U.S. Junior Amateur. We look forward to hosting the USGA, as well as, seeing how the competitors handle the new Andrew Green renovations. It has been an unusually wet and cold spring in Toledo, but we will have the course ready when the tournament begins.”
Inverness has a history of hosting big events, but this Junior Amateur is the first after an intensive renovation that has brought the grand old lady into the 21st century. Inverness will have the red carpet out for the USGA and will show the golf world, why it is still one of the best courses in America.
