Portage Country Club

Detailed description of Portage Country Club

Portage Country Club, is a Private, 18 hole golf course located in Akron, Ohio.

The growth of the Portage Country Club paralleled the rise of the rubber industry in Akron, and it became the place for the athletic and social activities of the city’s most prominent families.

Golf was introduced to Akron in 1894 at the original site of the Portage Golf Club, a rural area then known as the “West Hill Residential District.” The club founders, Charles C. Goodrich, son of company founder Dr. Benjamin F. Goodrich, and Charles G. Raymond, a young executive at BF Goodrich, laid out the golf course on the Colonel George T. Perkins farm. Col. Perkins was Raymond's father-in-law. They rented a structure known as the "Old John Brown House," once the home of the Harper's Ferry Abolitionist, and constructed a crude nine-hole golf course around it. The balls were handmade and the clubs primitive.

In 1905, the Club moved to its present location at the corner of Twin Oaks and Portage Path. A nine-hole course was built. By 1917 sufficient acreage had been acquired so that an 18-hole course could be built.

Noted golf course architect William B. Langford was hired in 1918 and designed the 18-hole golf course we see today. 

This par-71 course plays to a maximum distance of 6,246 yards.