E-mail us

We'll pick the best golf course we play and share the knowledge!

June Pick of the Month

by Moe Miller

Ron and I have intended to get down to Western Kentucky for several years now. We finally did, and it was worth the trip. The plan started when my friends in Art Hills office got us on the new Hills course in Bowling Green, called Olde Stone. It’s a private club off Scottsville road, and it’s trying hard to be the classiest club in Kentucky.

Drew Rogers is an Art Hills associate and UK graduate. He led the Olde Stone development, and contacted Julia McDonald at the club to get us our round. We played on a very hot Wednesday, the last day of May. We were almost alone on the course.

I gave the course 7 excellent holes, 11 good, and 1 TOO HARD! “Too hard” is a new rating I just added. I have needed it a couple times before, but just went with good or poor depending upon my mood. The too hard hole at Olde Stone is number 1, which gives me two reasons to complain to Drew – which I already did. The first hole should never be the hardest on the course!

Number 1 at Olde Stone is a 473 yard dogleg left uphill par 4! That’s from the tips.

Olde Stone plays 7372 yards from the tips, with a rating of 76.1 and a slope of 138. With the course being a little soft, not even Ron went for that. He played the black tees at ONLY 6928 yards. I played the blue (member) tees at 6497 yards. That made #1 ONLY 429 uphill yards for me. I drove it into the middle of the fairway and was looking at a 225 yard shot uphill to a green with no fairway in front. The fairway ends 100 yards short of the green! I thought about laying up, and I hate laying up. I should have laid up. They sodded many areas of the rough at Olde Stone and in year 1 it’s already thick and very tough to hit out of. That’s how I started with a double bogey. Ron also missed the green on his second shot and the rough also helped him to a double bogey. What a great start we had! All the holes were not that tough and the layout and course condition were both excellent.

It’s obvious that no expense was spared in building the course, and based on the number of course workers we saw out working, they continue to spend money freely. It shows everywhere. I don’t join a club because I like to play different courses, but I believe Olde Stone is a course and a club I could live with. We didn’t find out what it cost, but who wants to start the fund to send Moe to Bowling Green?

Let me say that before I even mention another course, Olde Stone is Moe’s pick of the month. Also let me say that Ron planned this trip and did an excellent job. If the navigator (Moe) hadn’t taken us 18 miles out of the way as we started home it would have been flawless.

On Thursday morning we got to Drake Creek before the guy in the pro shop. We got out by 8 am and finished before noon. Drake Creek is just east of Paducah on the Ohio River. It's a nice public course. They have water in play on 6 or 7 holes and the greens were very nice and almost as fast as Olde Stone. For design I gave it 3 excellent holes, 10 good, and 5 just OK. Ron called it player friendly, which is pretty close to easy. On the front side he birdied both par 3s and was 1 under at the turn. He had a couple of boo boos on the back to finish at 77 which kicked my ass. Drake Creek has had some conditioning problems (read money problems), but is now under new management and improvements are promised. It was a very playable course right now at $30.

After that round we showered, went to lunch, and then got in an afternoon round at Kentucky Dam Village. It drizzled during lunch, but we started anyway at about 1:30. We got in 6 holes before the lightning drove us to ground. We had our cooler with us, so we just parked in the nice rest house behind number 7 tee and watched it rain for almost an hour. During that time we used the concrete floor to establish that my Callaway ball (I can’t tell you exactly which Callaway because I hit it in the woods 5 holes later) was the hottest ball we had. We also got to look at number 7 for a long time, which is the prettiest hole on the course. Ron got a nice picture after the sun came back out. We then finished our round in somewhat cooler conditions without ever getting wet! Ron was hitting every shot and finished at 75 with 1 birdie and a double on # 18! If I didn’t know him better, I’d call it sandbagging. (Editors note - I told you the whining would start soon) For design I gave the course 2 excellent and 16 good holes. It is a traditional design with tree lined fairways and some nice elevation changes. The grass is all good but the greens were slow and shaggy. I made the 36 hole day even with my knee bothering me, and while taking a sound beating. Just one course to go.

On Friday we drove over to Mineral Mound in a light drizzle, under overcast skies.

The fellow in the trailer checked the radar and encouraged us to “get on out there”. It looked pretty bad in the sky and on the radar, but we had danced around it at Kentucky Dam Village, so off we went. I’d say it rained on us with varying degrees of intensity for over half the round. I got discouraged on number 4 which is another hole I rate “too hard”. This one is just too narrow for a 510 yard par 5 with blind shots and hills that roll you into the woods on both sides. Ron lost a ball but won the hole with his 9 because after losing 2 balls I wouldn’t even hit another one. Give Moe an X and let’s move on! Ron had a steady 80 under adverse conditions and while playing with a whiny quitter. For design I gave Mineral Mound 4 excellent holes, 13 good, and 1 too hard. The greens were just a little faster than the previous afternoon, which is still too slow. They had green problems last year and are probably being careful. We paid about $33 at both park courses and now can recommend two more on the Kentucky Parks Trail. I’m not backing off my previous recommendation of the Bear Trace in Tennessee, but now Kentuckians have several backwoods gems of our own.

I can’t imagine that Ron missed a better course in Western Kentucky. I’ve played both Western Hills in Hopkinsville, and Miller Memorial in Murray; and while they are both nice older public courses kept in good shape; I think these newer designs are better.

However, if you can name a course in the Lakes region better then these, let us know.

by Ron Waterson

After his "whoopin' in western" Moe had to put himself on the shelf for a few days of rest before he headed to the mountains for his annual "old farts golf in the mountains from ridiculously short tees" trip. Between the knee and the elbow problems he was having on the western Kentucky trip, he's probably ready to accept the tee his distance compromised buddy Joe, will want to play from on this trip. I'm sure he will provide us with more on the mountains when he gets back next week. If he is well enough to write.

Meanwhile, I'm here in Kentucky knocking out some grunt work. Jason and I played Shawnee last week. Once again we encountered poor weather as I probably came as close to lighting on a golf course as I ever want to be. With spinchter clamped, we briskly walked to a shelter after the rogue bolt lit up our immediate area and rumbled less than a second later. TOO CLOSE! We did manage to finish the round without incident.

Shawnee was in pretty good shape. By far the best of any Metro Park course I have played so far this year. There fairways probably are not in as good a shape as Vettiner, but everything else was as good or better. Unfortunately the greens were probably a bit slower than "Metro Speed" which gets old. Greens were smooth and just needed to be cut a bit tighter in my opinion. They have actually tended there bunkers this year. In fact it appeared as though bunkers were routinely raked. So I'm giving the nod to Shawnee for best Metro Park (18 holes) conditioning. That's based on a few experiences too. They're up to $11 this year to walk on a weekday. That's a good deal!

Jason told me that the State Am qualifying number at Shawnee was 77, so we set out on the day with a mission to beat that score. We both did at 76. Maybe next year we should actually try to qualify. 76 at Shawnee doesn't seem like that tough of an assignment to either of us. Maybe the actual scores were lower and we were misinformed. I kind of hope so, because while shooting 76 I didn't think I played very well. It's just not a very difficult course.

Next up I headed out to Longview near Georgetown for a round all by my onesie. I met up with guy that could only drink more than he could talk, but it was all fun and amusing. My wife tells me that I have a great way of finding humor in the strangest places...I honestly don't know how else to handle some situations. This was all harmless, although I did notice that when I got back in the car it was nice to have silence for my drive home. I think he had a lot of nervous energy. I could tell you his life story, but that wouldn't be fair to you.

Longview is a good ole' Buck Blankenship country course. Very typical Buck. They have done some nice work on the course recently, including the addition of rock walls around ponds. They have a nice clubhouse with a bored bartender. Course conditions were all pretty good and this is fun enough place to play golf while not being spectacular in any fashion. You could probably score pretty low here if you were able to hear yourself think. I shot 77 with a couple of mental lapses.

As Moe mentioned, Olde Stone was indeed everything and more than you can imagine in a golf course. It's quite incredible what can be done with "resources". It's certainly my private course pick of the month so far. I suspect that in some fashion you will see Olde Stone nationally ranked in the future. Check out the photos.

For a public pick, I'll take Kentucky Dam Village. Even though the park manager hit into us as we exited 16 green. I like the old school courses with updated greens.