The origins of present day Maketewah Country Club begin in 1897 with the formation of the Avondale Athletic Club, located where present-day Xavier University stadiums sit. Robert White, later first President of the Professional Golf Association, laid out the first course at AAC. When there was a dispute between the owner of the property and the membership in 1903, the AAC was shuttered and the golf playing members incorporated the Avondale Golf Club, leased the golf course (less than 3,000 yards) and kept operating. It took several years of exploring and negotiating as AGC members tried to find property to build a modern course. The club continued to operate and was one of the founding members of the Cincinnati Golf League (present day GCGA) in 1905 but it took until 1910 when Barney Kroger, spotted adjoining dairy farms that looked promising. Mr. Kroger had the land surveyed and contacted noted Chicago golf designer Thomas Bendelow to review the site for its suitability for a championship 18-hole golf course. Mr. Bendelow walked the grounds and confirmed to the members that an acceptable 18-hole layout was indeed possible and laid out the city’s first 6,000-yard course. With this seal of approval, the club decided to make the move the two miles from Avondale to Bond Hill and renamed the club Hamilton County Golf Club. Making the move were all of the members, club staff, trophies and Club Professional Richard Cass in 1911. During those early years, the course was likely very rough and like most golf clubs of the day, the local Professionals (Cass and Archie Simpson Jr.) made alterations each winter to minimize the effects of Spring floods and dry summers. ‘Chick’ Evans held the first club scoring record shortly after the course opened and its reputation spread quickly as it was selected to host the its first Ohio Open and Ohio Amateur in 1917. Those early layouts were limited by the property’s boundaries, but by 1919, the membership had acquired additional land where current #1, #16 & #17 are today. With this additional land the HCGC hired Donald Ross, the preeminent golf architect of his day, to lay out and construct the first true golf course on our property. That year of 1919 was key to Ohio golf as Ross also spent time at two other courses along the train route from Cincinnati to Toledo where he was preparing Inverness CC for the 1921 Open. The new Ross course was also in full operation by 1921 under our new name of Maketewah CC with only two of Bendelow’s original holes (present #6 and #12) reused though they were modified. For example, Bendelow’s 600-yard Par-5 went in the opposite direction of the present Hole #15. In 1929, the club had purchased the final piece of property we have today where present-day Holes #2 & #3 are located. That same year Ross was in town to explore the property that would become the Kenwood Country Club and, with associate Walter Hatch, finalized a redesign with the additional land. This routing that has remained mostly unchanged since then. Even though most of Bendelow’s bunkers were kept for the final installation, Ross also added his to complete the design. Many, if not most, have been removed over the years. Maketewah has continued its place in Cincinnati golf history as a site for fifty US Open Qualifiers, Three Ohio Amateurs, two Ohio Opens and over twenty-five Men’s and Women’s Mets. It also other accolades and accomplishments over the years including having the most individuals to win the Men’s Met.