Medina Country Club knew it wanted to offer members something more. When Union Home Mortgage CEO Bill Cosgrove purchased the northeast Ohio club in 2022, it was clear that some updates and renovations were needed to bring the facility to its potential. Enter architect David Zinkand.
“They knew I had done work down the road that they admired and felt like I could be a good fit for the kinds of things that really needed to improve there,” Zinkand says. Zinkand formerly worked as a design associate with Coore & Crenshaw, with notable designs including Bandon Preserve in Bandon, Oregon, and the Saguaro Course at We-Ko-Pa in Arizona, before opening his own firm.
Since Cosgrove purchased the club, a new golf academy was built, updates were made to the driving range, and The Reversible, a nine-hole multi-directional short course has been designed, grown in and opened for play. Zinkand has helped guide each project. The land that once held the club’s former 9-hole course, the Red Course, is now used partially for the upgraded driving range and partially for the new short course.
Cosgrove did things differently than other clubs. When undergoing renovations, clubs commonly save projects such as a short course for last. Instead, following the golf academy’s construction, Cosgrove wanted to focus on redoing the driving range and building The Reversible, and moving to renovations on the main course last. “That was fun,” Zinkand says, “just to know that one of these super fun design projects would be guaranteed to happen because it was going to happen up front as opposed to just waiting until we had everything else finished.”
The Reversible can be set up for two different routes: the green rotation and the purple rotation. When set up for the green route, golfers play from hole No. 1 to No. 9 in a counterclockwise direction. When set up for purple, hole No. 9 becomes No. 1. and golfers play in a clockwise direction.
Flagsticks are color-coded to help golfers distinguish where they are playing, and three tee box options are available.
When designing the course, Zinkand drew inspiration from Tom Doak’s The Loop in Michigan, and the Old Course at St Andrew’s reversible routing. Going with the reversible option allows clubs to make the most of their land and offer more variety to members.
“They lean so much into the learning and family side of the game,” Zinkand says, “and we know how important that is, to create those positive outlets that people have available to them and their families.”
Although all the details haven’t been finalized, superintendent Brian Smoot says the club plans to leave the course set up in the green rotation for three to four days and then swap to purple. On the weekends, the club plans to offer both rotations. Switching between the two playing routes requires significant work from the maintenance team, so rotating every day is not feasible for the private club.
The course features four par 4s and five par 3s atop Pure Eclipse bentgrass playing surfaces. A Kentucky Bluegrass and ryegrass mix comprise the very little rough on the course. “Everything out there is basically fairway cuts,” Smoot says.
Another dramatic feature on the course is the jagged, deep bunkers. “When you come and you look at the reversible nine, that’s the first thing you notice,” Smoot says.
Navigating the land the course is built upon was an upfront challenge for Zinkand: “I tried to work through the topography and figure out whether it was feasible to start the golf course on high ground above a floodplain, play through that floodplain with a creek and then get across to the meandering high ground on the other side.”
The topography eventually led to the design of two double greens located on the floodplain. When set up for the green layout, holes No. 1 and No. 9 share a green. When in the purple layout, holes No. 1 and No. 8 share a green.
The course also features a large gas line, of which Zinkand and the construction company were always aware, that runs under parts of the property. Majestic Excavating, based out of Seville, Ohio, did all the necessary earthmoving and excavating, preparing for Frontier Golf, who led construction. “Majestic Excavating probably doesn’t get enough credit for the work that they did,” Smoot says.
Following construction, the course faced one major hurdle: water supply. The course utilizes multiple on-site ponds and a well. Ohio faced an unusually dry, hot summer in 2025. The lack of water meant The Reversible didn’t open until October 2025. This year will be the course’s first full season of play.
To address water concerns, Cosgrove purchased an off-site four-acre pond. This will allow the maintenance team to have access to extra water in the future.
When Zinkand was planning the course, he had to keep multiple types of players in mind. For starters, he wanted the course to be challenging.
“One of the things that we really wanted to ensure was that anyone in the membership could go out there and enjoy it, no matter what level of golf that they were playing,” Zinkand says.
Secondly, it needed to be friendly to both the new and experienced players. “There’s a lot of rolling turf,” Zinkand adds. “The bentgrass is pretty generous around it, and it connects almost everywhere. And as a result, it kind of feels like you could very readily get kids around the golf course in a way that makes it fun and challenging for them but doesn’t feel overwhelming.”
Medina Country Club was left with a unique, entertaining and valuable asset. The Reversible offers variety and challenge, which is just what Zinkand envisioned. As winter concludes, Smoot and Zinkand are looking forward to a full season of feedback and play.
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