Elks Country Club

Elks Country Club in McDermott, Ohio, carries the design signature of Donald Ross, the prolific Scottish-born architect whose work spans hundreds of courses across America during the early twentieth century. Ross's portfolio includes major championship venues and modest regional clubs alike, and Elks Country Club represents his reach into southern Ohio's rural landscape. The course sits in Scioto County near the Ohio River valley, where rolling terrain and hardwood forests provide the natural setting for golf in this part of Appalachian Ohio. Ross's design principles typically emphasize strategic bunkering, crowned greens with subtle contours, and routing that works with natural land movement rather than against it. At Elks Country Club, the layout likely reflects these characteristics within the constraints of the property, offering members a traditional test of placement and approach play. The course serves a local membership in a region where golf facilities are relatively sparse, making it a recreational and social anchor for the community. McDermott itself is a small village, and the club's presence reflects the mid-century expansion of golf into smaller American towns, often through fraternal organizations like the Elks. The course operates as a straightforward, unpretentious facility where the focus remains on playable golf in a quiet, wooded setting. While it lacks the tournament history or national recognition of Ross's more celebrated designs, it preserves the architect's fundamental approach to routing and green complexes for a regional audience.