Kentucky - Summer 2020

[Future_Primitive]

Every year a group of 5-6 of us meet up in a state and have our own little 5 rd tournament. Generally a Thursday (2 rds), Friday (2 rds) and Saturday (1 rd) schedule seems to work best to avoid local DG traffic. Having done Michigan, Colorado, Virginia, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota and Pennsylvania it looks like we are on to KENTUCKY! Looking at a couple scenarios:

1. We focus on Idlewild and rope in some Ohio courses to get us 5 courses to play. Idlewild, Lincoln Ridge, South Fork, Mt Airy and maybe one more. Little concerned Idlewild will probably take a whole day with 5-6 AM2/AM3 players. Also breaks our tradition by roping in Ohio course(s) to the mix.

2. Meet up in Louisville instead. I can hit up Idlewild/Mt Airy on my drive from Michigan. Guessing little better night life in Louisville, should be able to snag 4-5 courses for our events. Course recommendations? This would be nice as we are in Kentucky whole time, can hit up some cool courses on my drive.

3. Any other area in Kentucky we should look at? Usually snag some breweries during our trips but thinking it might be distilleries on this trip. Looking for 4-5 courses, good quality with some variation between them. Some wooded, maybe an open one or two. LMK.

Thanks! :thmbup:

 

[InnocentCrook]

1. Great plan even if it bucks tradition. Idlewild, Lincoln Ridge, Mt. Airy, and Osage Grove would be a spectacular weekend of golf with a great mix of holes, especially if you mix in a 9'er or two like South Fork(KY) and/or Mason Sports Complex(OH). I've played a bunch of golf spread out all over this fine country and there's likely only a few areas that have a collection of courses that match the quality in these.

-It's not so much that Idlewild takes a long time, it can, it's just that after 24 holes you may not have the energy for another round elsewhere.

2. Louisville does have a good night life scene, but I don't think it's any better than Cincy. Cincy's Over-the-Rhine (OTR) neighborhood has blown up in the past decade w/some awesome restaurants and bars. The Greater Cincy area at large has a ridiculous number of breweries (30+ if I'm not mistaken). Rhinegeist, MadTree, 50West, Taft's, Braxton(Covington, KY), just to name a handful. Louisville has some great breweries too (Against the Grain, Goodwood, Gravely) but not the sheer quantity of Cincy.

-Some of the best "Louisville" courses (Seviren Lang, New Albany) are actually across the river in Indiana so that could break tradition as well if you only wanted to play in one state.

-It's a beautiful drive from Louisville (Iroquois Park, Charlie Vettiner) up to N. KY especially if you take the back roads through Frankfort (East Frankfort Park, Graviss McDonald are a couple nice courses in that area) then north on rte 127 to hit up Lincoln Ridge/Banklick and Idlewild.

3. The only other areas that would warrant consideration would be Lexington or Bowling Green. Both areas would pale in terms of the quality of golf overall (though there are some gems) and would seriously lack the night life of Louisville or the Cincy area.

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You'll find distilleries scattered throughout the route from Louisville to Frankfort to Lexington and beyond. Check out the "Kentucky Bourbon Trail" for a list of distilleries predominately in that area.

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If I was travelling from out of state, and only wanted to play in one state, I'd probably do the Louisville to Northern Kentucky route. Diverse mix of courses and plenty of breweries and distilleries to visit and enjoy.

Iroquois Park - old school, shorter course. Some open, some wooded holes.
Charlie Vettiner - mix of open and wooded, longer than Iroquois.
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Drive to Frankfort, KY (1 hr.)
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East Frankfort DGC is mostly wooded and not very long but pretty fun.
Graviss McDonald is a beast of a course. Picturesque KY "horse farm" type terrain with long open bomber holes over rolling hills of bluegrass.
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Drive to N.KY (about 1.5 hours)
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Lincoln Ridge - One of the most fun courses I've played. Challenging, but not overly so. Mix of open and wooded with plenty of duece-able holes.
Idlewild - no description necessary.

Feel free to hit me up with any questions you might have.

 

[Future_Primitive]

Feel free to hit me up with any questions you might have.

Great post and very much appreciated. :hfive::clap::clap:

Going to give the gang a couple options to choose from based on your feedback and see which way they want to go. Your 3rd option would be ideal for me, play some courses and keep working my way back up north closer to my heading home route. No matter what they decide to do I will be hitting up the KY/OH courses on way down or on way home.

Guessing we will have 2 guys fly in from Colorado, 1 flying in from Florida and another driving from Virginia. My brother will probably ride along with me from Michigan. A central location tends to work best for the fly guys and makes it easier to book hotel rooms for multiple days. But we have plenty of time to plot a route, find hotels and make sure they have enough time to get back to the airport.

That Kentucky Bourbon Trail site looks to be a perfect fit for our trip. Thanks for that, we will make good use of that site.

 

[graynova]

If you want to keep it all-Kentucky, playing Idlewild and Lincoln Ridge in Northern Kentucky is obvious, but I would then head down I-75 to Lexington and play Jacobsen and Veteran's. Ironworks Hills would be my 5th, especially since it's dripping in the Kentucky vibe, but you're starting to spread the courses out a bit if you head to Ironworks. Osage Grove is probably just as far from Idlewild as the Lexington courses, so you're not gaining any sort of travel time savings by making it a "Greater Cincy" trip than a "Kentucky" trip.

IMO Southwest Ohio is worthy of a trip of its own with Airy/Osage along with Sycamore, Germantown, and Belmont up in Dayton. Heck, I think Monroe, Williamsburg, and surely the soon-to-be-18-hole Johnson Hills deserve mention as fun stops.

 

[racer93]

Add a few courses to what InnocentCrook posted:

--Ryan's Course in Shelbyville for a monster, championship-level course. (30 mins east of Louisville on I-64.)

--Wendell Moore DGC is 20 mins north east of Louisville and is absolutely picturesque and pretty decently challenging. Pretty open but uses available woods effectively.

I will say I love Jacobsen in Lexington (1 hr east of Louisville). It's a lot like Wendell Moore as described above. Don't forget about some of the absolute must hits down in Bowling Green, 2 hrs south of Louisville, 1 hr north of Nashville.

Have fun and if you need a guide in Louisville, I'll be sitting over here.

 

[InnocentCrook]

I always feel a little weird promoting my own place, but if you do happen to be traveling North/South on the I-71 corridor, you could consider stopping by Hidden Ridge DGC (see my sig). I'm almost perfectly halfway between Louisville and Cincy. This may be heavily dependent on what month of Summer you'll be visiting.

As a mostly one man show (I have 2 others that help regularly but I do the day to day stuff and all the mowing since I live on site.), it's brutal trying to keep up with the vegetation. I just now feel like I'm getting caught up after the summer growth. It was basically "closed" from mid-June through early Sept.

The terrain is most closely aligned with that of Lincoln Ridge. Steep hills, couple creeks and ponds, some open holes, but mostly wooded. Rugged at this point, with natural or carpet teepads, thick rough, but it's secluded as hell and you won't see another soul during the entire round most likely. I've had a few dozen folks out to play it thus far and while I don't have any reviews to back it up, most folks seem to have enjoyed it for what it's worth.

 

[InnocentCrook]

...Osage Grove is probably just as far from Idlewild as the Lexington courses, so you're not gaining any sort of travel time savings by making it a "Greater Cincy" trip than a "Kentucky" trip.

IMO Southwest Ohio is worthy of a trip of its own with Airy/Osage along with Sycamore, Germantown, and Belmont up in Dayton. Heck, I think Monroe, Williamsburg, and surely the soon-to-be-18-hole Johnson Hills deserve mention as fun stops.

Osage is actually almost a half hour closer to Idlewild than the Lex courses. That said, I would agree that SW Ohio would be worthy of it's own trip if you lump the Dayton area in with Cincy.

Along with what you mentioned, Armco Park, which replaced the course that was pulled at Turtlecreek has been getting some good publicity lately. Though I haven't gotten up that far north to play it yet it is on my radar. Gulley Park would be another worthy option, especially since they added concrete tees last year.

 

[Future_Primitive]

IMO Southwest Ohio is worthy of a trip of its own with Airy/Osage along with Sycamore, Germantown, and Belmont up in Dayton. Heck, I think Monroe, Williamsburg, and surely the soon-to-be-18-hole Johnson Hills deserve mention as fun stops.

Osage is actually almost a half hour closer to Idlewild than the Lex courses. That said, I would agree that SW Ohio would be worthy of it's own trip if you lump the Dayton area in with Cincy.

Thanks!! Pretty sure that is going to be the plan, do Kentucky this year and save Ohio for a future trip. Appreciate all the input here and will start to make a trip plan over the winter. Once I have a trip or two planned I will post it here for all to review and let me know how it looks or ways to improve it.

PM incoming IC about the private course offer. :thmbup:

 

[Future_Primitive]

1. Great plan even if it bucks tradition. Idlewild, Lincoln Ridge, Mt. Airy, and Osage Grove would be a spectacular weekend of golf with a great mix of holes, especially if you mix in a 9'er or two like South Fork(KY) and/or Mason Sports Complex(OH). I've played a bunch of golf spread out all over this fine country and there's likely only a few areas that have a collection of courses that match the quality in these.

-It's not so much that Idlewild takes a long time, it can, it's just that after 24 holes you may not have the energy for another round elsewhere.

I think we are going to attempt to do this plan. :thmbup:

Thursday: Idlewild (24 holes) and time permitting South Forks (9) twice. If Idlewild runs long and or kicks our arses we will drop SF and find a distillery. Start here since we are fresh and hoping a Thursday means the course will be less crowded.

Friday: Mt Airy (18) in the morning, lunch, then Osage Grove (18) in the afternoon.

Saturday: Back to KY and Lincoln Ridge (24 holes) to close things out. Hoping there is a not a tournament going on here that weekend. :hfive:

Plan to get hotel rooms near the Cincy/N KY Airport, any good night life places to hit up near here? Looking for good food and breweries. Thanks!

 

[Monocacy]

Sounds like an excellent plan. No sense letting state lines interfere with playing good courses at a meet-up.

We did a Cincinnati meet-up a few years ago and camped at Winton Woods, which is close to Mount Airy and has a fun little Steady Ed course dating to 1981. Might be worth a quick spin if you have time.

 

[Future_Primitive]

Sounds like an excellent plan. No sense letting state lines interfere with playing good courses at a meet-up.

We did a Cincinnati meet-up a few years ago and camped at Winton Woods, which is close to Mount Airy and has a fun little Steady Ed course dating to 1981. Might be worth a quick spin if you have time.

Awesome, thanks for the tip. :thmbup: Always love playing a historical course when we venture out of state. I am hoping to leave Michigan Tuesday morning and hit up some courses on the drive down. Also leaves me with a full day Wednesday to take in some more local scenes and courses before the others arrive.

After some thought it we figured the quality of courses overrode the desire to play in one state. And with most of us over 40 trying to do one state per year isnt going to cut it, might as well double up this year.

 

[discNDav]

Plan to get hotel rooms near the Cincy/N KY Airport, any good night life places to hit up near here? Looking for good food and breweries. Thanks!

from a local beer geek I know: The new Braxton Barrel House in Ft Mitchell would be the closest. Otherwise you have to get into Covington for the flagship Braxton and closer to the river for some others.

I'll add that in Cincy I like Taft's (putting league venue), 50W and Madtree breweris, I visit once a year.

 

[tbird888]

If you truly wanted to stay in KY, you could do Idlewild (short of a tourney, this course is rarely busy), Lincoln Ridge (start early to avoid crowds), and South Fork (Boone Woods is close to Idle and a quick 18) over two days and then spend the third further south spinning Hidden Ridge and Grant County (new, fun 18). I doubt you'd feel cheated with that lineup. That would leave you with a chance for another year in SW OH. Mt. Airy (Dunham for a complement), Osage Grove (with Johnson Hills), and Armco Park (with Monroe - 24 holes/Mason Sports Park - excellent 9 with Harmon nearby if you want another 9) are all solid rounds. If you're a history buff, we have four courses from the 80s with Steady Ed cred. That doesn't get into the Dayton area which is an hour north of Cincy.

Just a thought. I'm full of local bias, but you can't go wrong regardless of what you choose. Hope you enjoy yourself.

Dave, next time you're in town consider checking out the Brink and Fretboard breweries. You can thank me later.

 

[brutalbrutus]

I think we are going to attempt to do this plan. :thmbup:

Thursday: Idlewild (24 holes) and time permitting South Forks (9) twice. If Idlewild runs long and or kicks our arses we will drop SF and find a distillery. Start here since we are fresh and hoping a Thursday means the course will be less crowded.

Friday: Mt Airy (18) in the morning, lunch, then Osage Grove (18) in the afternoon.

Saturday: Back to KY and Lincoln Ridge (24 holes) to close things out. Hoping there is a not a tournament going on here that weekend. :hfive:

Plan to get hotel rooms near the Cincy/N KY Airport, any good night life places to hit up near here? Looking for good food and breweries. Thanks!

What's the dates? I'll check the local tourney guide for you...

Also, if your looking to just bag a quicky foryour ourse count, there is a little 9holer just off the state route on the way out to Osage called Karl Van Coldway. It would probably take less than 30min to get the round in.

 

[brutalbrutus]

Also, if your looking to just bag a quicky for your course count, there is a little 9holer just off the state route on the way out to Osage called Karl Van Coldeway. It would probably take less than 30min to get the round in. Pretty short but its got a fun finishing hole across the gulley.

https://www.dgcoursereview.com/course.php?id=4076

 

[Future_Primitive]

What's the dates? I'll check the local tourney guide for you...

Also, if your looking to just bag a quicky for your course count, there is a little 9holer just off the state route on the way out to Osage called Karl Van Coldway. It would probably take less than 30min to get the round in.

Looking like it will be Thur (6.25) through Sat (6.27) when all of us are there and playing. I am hoping to take off Tuesday morning and play some courses along the way in Ohio or Indiana. Guess we will see which ones line up with the distilleries.

 

[Future_Primitive]

If you truly wanted to stay in KY, you could do Idlewild (short of a tourney, this course is rarely busy), Lincoln Ridge (start early to avoid crowds), and South Fork (Boone Woods is close to Idle and a quick 18) over two days and then spend the third further south spinning Hidden Ridge and Grant County (new, fun 18). I doubt you'd feel cheated with that lineup. That would leave you with a chance for another year in SW OH. Mt. Airy (Dunham for a complement), Osage Grove (with Johnson Hills), and Armco Park (with Monroe - 24 holes/Mason Sports Park - excellent 9 with Harmon nearby if you want another 9) are all solid rounds. If you're a history buff, we have four courses from the 80s with Steady Ed cred. That doesn't get into the Dayton area which is an hour north of Cincy.

Just a thought. I'm full of local bias, but you can't go wrong regardless of what you choose. Hope you enjoy yourself.

Dave, next time you're in town consider checking out the Brink and Fretboard breweries. You can thank me later.

Thanks! Looks like we will be doing the KY/OH mix. Couple guys really want to play Idlewild and most others want to drive as little as possible. Starting to look into hotels and houses around the area now and couple guys can look into buying plane tickets.

Definitely interested in some Steady Eds, if you have a minute let me know the names and I may try to hit them on my way down or on the trip back home. Sounds like Lincoln Ridge could be tricky if we dont start early on Saturday. I will keep that in mind and push for a real early start. :thmbup:

 

[tbird888]

Thanks! Looks like we will be doing the KY/OH mix. Couple guys really want to play Idlewild and most others want to drive as little as possible. Starting to look into hotels and houses around the area now and couple guys can look into buying plane tickets.

Definitely interested in some Steady Eds, if you have a minute let me know the names and I may try to hit them on my way down or on the trip back home. Sounds like Lincoln Ridge could be tricky if we dont start early on Saturday. I will keep that in mind and push for a real early start. :thmbup:

While technically free to play, they're all in Hamilton County parks which will require a parking pass (I think it's $5/day and $10-15/year. Haven't bought a new pass yet this year). The Steadies are:
Embshoff - 9 holer close to Airy and is a fifteen minute spin. This may be the only one left that's the original design. Expect awful blacktop tees and Mach Is that have seen better days.
Miami Whitewater - 9 holer that's kind of out of the way of everything. It's a redesign.
Winton Woods - 18 holes and twenty minutes to spin if you're pacing yourself. I am probably a 900-level golfer at this point, and I consistently throw -10 with putters. Off I-75 on the northern side of the beltway.
Woodland Mound - 18 holes that's probably the most challenging of the four. It's a bit out of the way in relation to other courses being on the SE side of I-275.

If you want a better chance at Lincoln Ridge without starting early, I'd consider moving its play date to Thursday to miss a lot of the 9-5ers who swarm in on the weekends. I know that doesn't leave you fresh for Idlewild, but LR is a funhouse and not really one to miss. I totally get your schedule though so no pressure. Just adding my usual $0.02. I hope you enjoy your rounds and time in town.

 

[Jay Dub]

If you play Osage know they added 6 holes after #1 (original #2) that will bring you back to #2 (original #3)'s tee. I haven't played them yet but heard they are not super long and shouldn't add too much time.

 

[Future_Primitive]

If you want a better chance at Lincoln Ridge without starting early, I'd consider moving its play date to Thursday to miss a lot of the 9-5ers who swarm in on the weekends. I know that doesn't leave you fresh for Idlewild, but LR is a funhouse and not really one to miss. I totally get your schedule though so no pressure. Just adding my usual $0.02. I hope you enjoy your rounds and time in town.

Thanks. So Lincoln Ridge on Thursday is better than Idlewild? I was under the assumption Idlewild would be busy on the weekend so I had it first to avoid crowds. We can easily flip them as that works. You think LR will be busier than Idle on the weekend? Like to schedule the popular/busy courses for the weekdays (Thur/Fri) if possible to avoid crowds.