Lakeside Country Club

About the club

Oakmont is known for several outstanding front-to-back fallaway greens, but it has nothing on the 13th green at Lakeside. This 1952 Ralph Plummer design in Houston was completely redesigned by architect Jay Blasi in 2023 with a new routing and newly created holes, including the 13th, a long brute that plays more like a par 4½ and used to run the opposite direction. Now it starts with a swing-from-your-heels drive toward a pair of squared spectacle bunkers 100 yards from the front of the deep, skinny putting surface that stretches nearly 60 yards front to back. The first quarter is level with the fairway before it slides down to a lower section tilted toward away toward the rear, and hitting long second shots toward it, hoping to see the ball bounce, roll and then disappear down the slope, is the kind of thrill that keeps golfers coming back. It’s not the only must-see green. The par-4 second is a combination Punchbowl-Redan. Eight is a classic Biarritz. Several par 3s have Redan-esque kicker slopes. Six is wide and shallow with a maddening knob in the center that divides it into small quadrants. Twelve is a Road replica. All of this is needed to jazz up a dead flat site that had drainage issues, and Blasi’s creative takes on classic architect give Lakeside far more energy and fun than a casual glance would suggest.