Pros:
- Well maintained course at public park. Easy to find off of the highway with ample amenities nearby.
- Multiple picnic shelters, bathroom facilities, and trash cans throughout the course.
- Lots of variety in terms of distance, shot type, elevation, and difficulty.
- Challenging, tournament caliber course that will definitely appeal to and be worth a trip for experienced players.
- Additional course on site.
Cons:
- Course plays along the park access roads. Passing traffic is often in play, and throwing OB is always a concern.
- Signage from basket to the next tee is almost non-existant. Having the online course map is essential for navigation, but even then the course can be confusing.
- Distances and pin locations can be frustrating for novice and intermediate players. Probably not a good course to beginners.
- Multiple pin locations are not marked on the tee signage. Several baskets are not easily viewable from the tee pad.
Other Thoughts:
I played Armco for the first time last year and posted a review then, but we went back to play this week. After playing several courses in several states, and having played this course a couple times now, I felt like I needed to update my review.
Armco Park is located in Boyd County, Kentucky about five minutes off of I-64. It's very easy to find the park entrance just off the main highway behind the state police barracks. The park houses two courses, the longer and more difficult Blue Course on the left hand side of the park upon entering, and the more moderate but still challenging White Course on the right hand side. Both courses are tournament caliber, well maintained and well designed, and are worth a trip if you're coming from out of town.
I won't mince words. The Blue Course kicks my butt every time I've played it. It's a very long course with tons of challenging hole designs and distances. If I had to sum up the course in a single word, I'd say it's "long." I haven't played a huge number of courses, but having played a dozen courses in several states in the year I've been playing the game, I can honestly say this course is the longest I've played. I'm an experienced beginner to intermediate player, and the course is about as challenging as I care to play without being unfair.
Distance aside, the course is challenging in a lot of other ways. First of all, there are a lot of elevation changes, and you'll need to be able to throw strong uphill on about half of the holes in order to score well. The distance combined with the slope is brutal at times. Other holes throw off from an elevated tee to baskets at the bottom of small woodes ravines that allow for booming drives but will test accuracy. The pinball effect is a common occurrence on this course.
My main complaint about the course is not the difficulty factor at all, but rather the lack of clear signage navigating from hole to hole. Even if you have the map provided online, it's not always clear where the next tee is. There are multiple holes where you'll need to backtrack and it's not always intuitive to do so. Other tees can't be seen from the previous basket, and other times you'll see a tee pad for another hole that's closer than the one you're looking for. There are two or three holes where they've posted a small sign pointing to the next tee, but they aren't on every problem hole, and even those signs are small enough that they could be missed.
Though the tee signs are great in terms of par and distance for each tee and pin placement, there's no indication of whether the basket is in the long or short position. And on a lot of these holes you can't see the basket from the tee pad, so if you're unfamiliar with the course you're stuck throwing a generic drive hoping that you're in line with the basket. It's kind of shame, in my opinion, because the course is so pristine in all other aspects, but this navigation problem can really frustrate to the point of taking away some of the fun from the round. Even having played once before, it was still hard to remember where to go. If time permits, walking the course first might make things a lot easier.
The park itself is a really great facility, with lots of picnic shelters, playgrounds for the kids, public restrooms and water spigots. It'd be very easy to combine a round with a family trip or cookout.
All in all, I think Armco is a great course and a real asset to the community. Though it's very challenging, it's ultimately very fair and players of all skill level can get something out of a round here.