Beautiful park in an affluent area, it's very well maintained overall. The turf tees were grippy and not slippery after rain the previous day. Mach X baskets are very nice. Plenty of wood chips were laid down to soak up some muddy places in the woods. Next tee signs were extremely helpful as I didn't need the map that I printed out. I was able to get through the front 9 with a cart. This course starts out strong, 2 open and hilly holes before completely changing to tight woods. #3 is a great wooded and hilly par 4.

The newer back 9 holes were hard for this MA55+ golfer with bad hips. The hike down and up #11 was treacherous, I found it unsafe. (Great tee shot though over the ridge and into the open). Precise lines were required to hit on the back 9 while elevation was a major factor. Obtaining par would be difficult without two very good shots on many of the holes. Hole 17 was very narrow tunnel shot and slightly uphill while being muddy too. The long walk back UPHILL to parking after 18. Why couldn't just some of this space been used?

Knowing the back 9 was steep and wooded I took my cart back to the car after the front 9 and simply walked the back 9 without playing it (I was tired from playing Echo Valley the day before).

J Hills is a great challenge, I just didn't find it as fun to play as other area courses. I would not take a beginner golfer here.

Johnson Hills Park is set about twenty minutes or so east of Cincinnati, and has just been completed with the installation of a new back nine. It packs a surprisingly challenging punch for a park-style course, something that is always welcome. The course varies in length, with holes ranging from 150 to just over 400 feet, and two or three holes that could possibly be considered par 4s (more on that later). Even with the installation of the new back nine, the front is still the best part of this course. While the course flows smoothly overall and the holes feel connected, the front manages to do a much better job mixing things up within that cohesion than the back does. Even though the gaps are all roughly similar, the shot selection required (more notably on the front) is pretty varied, and I found myself throwing a healthy portion of my bag. Elevation is also a big factor, and people that enjoy a variety of uphill and downhill shots will be happy about the differences found here. There are also a few holes that pop out significantly from the rest of the course, whether in design, look, fun factor, or some combination of the three. My picks for those are 6, 10, and 17.

The back nine simply doesn't hold up to the front. With the exception of maybe two holes, the back feels very repetitive and, even when it's not, usually isn't as fun as the front. This brings me to one of my biggest issues with Johnson: the variety, or more specifically, the lack of it. Nearly every gap that exists throughout the whole eighteen, and my goodness are there a lot of them, is roughly eight feet or smaller. After the initial first two open holes, most of the course runs through the woods. As mentioned, the distances do vary, but the surrounding scenery is so similar that it really doesn't feel like it all that much. Another issue I have with Johnson is that it feels as if good shots often get punished. While this doesn't apply to every hole, the tree placement on certain holes and overall layout of the course unfortunately lends itself to this happening a little more often than I would like. Time will tell if this is merely the course not being broken in yet, but, as of now, it is unfortunately the case. Lastly, and this may be a personal gripe more than anything, is the amount of par 3.5 holes there are. Holes 3, 11, 15 and 18 are all holes that feel like they are smacked straight in between in a par 3 and a par 4, which can be frustrating. I would recommend playing all but 11 as par 4s, but obviously do what you think works. While both the course and UDisc give you the benefit of the doubt on all of these (and a few others that don't really need it), it can feel pretty cheap taking a "birdie" 3 on a par 4 that's less than 400 feet. While this doesn't really matter if you're playing against yourself or just by score, there's something about making a birdie that feels like a par, or a bogey that feels like a double, that just doesn't sit terribly well.

It's unfortunate that the back nine could not be completed as originally intended, because I think it's clear that Johnson's second half could have been so much more than it is, but it's also clear that the designers did the best they could with the land that they were given. If you're close enough, it's certainly worth coming to check out, because I think this could be one of those tracks that is loved by some and not by others. I feel like this review has been awfully harsh for the three out of five I'm giving it, and it's worth me clarifying that I do not by any means think that Johnson is a bad course overall. With that said, I wasn't struggling to pick out its shortcomings. While Johnson Hills shines in its front half, it falters towards the finish line. And, unfortunately, at the end of the day, that was the impression I was left with.