Some courses are built to a formula. Sawmill Creek was built to a piece of land — a rolling, wooded, water-laced stretch of the Lake Erie shore in Huron, Ohio — and that is a large part of why it has endured for half a century. This is a short, independent history of how the North Coast’s best-known public course came to be.
A young architect, a career-defining shore
When Sawmill Creek opened in 1974, Tom Fazio was still early in his solo career; the course was only the fourth he had designed on his own after years working alongside his uncle George Fazio. Fazio would go on to become the most awarded architect of his generation, and the fact that one of his formative works sits on a public daily-fee course in northern Ohio — rather than behind a private gate — is a quiet point of pride for the region. To this day it remains one of only three Fazio designs in the state. You can read how those early instincts show up on the ground on our design page.
Routing with the lake
Fazio set the routing to make the most of two very different landscapes on the same property. The front nine threads through mature hardwoods along the creek that gives the course its name; the back nine breaks toward Lake Erie and the edge of Sheldon’s Marsh, exposing golfers to water, wind and wide sky. That deliberate contrast — a sheltered, traditional start and a dramatic, open finish — has defined the round for fifty years and still surprises first-time visitors. The course page breaks down both nines hole by feature.
A resort grows up around the golf
The course anchored what grew into Sawmill Creek Resort, a lakeside destination with lodging, dining and event space that made the property a stay-and-play long before the term was fashionable. Over the decades the resort passed through several ownership eras — most recently into the hands of major regional operators tied to the nearby amusement-park industry — but the Fazio course has remained the constant, open to the public season after season.
A living landmark
Today Sawmill Creek is still a working public course and still the reason many golfers first look up “Sawmill Creek golf.” It has kept pace with the times — online tee times, modern conditioning, a players-card program — while preserving the routing and character Fazio drew half a century ago. For a course to stay relevant and playable for fifty years on a lakeshore is no small thing, and it speaks to the strength of the original design.
Play a piece of golf history
You do not have to be an architecture buff to appreciate walking an early Fazio original on Lake Erie — but it does add something to the round. Pair a visit with the rest of the North Coast using our travel guide, and for the wider context of golf in the state, the Ohio Golf Association and the architect’s own Fazio Design are the authoritative sources.