I haven’t been downtown in a while. That’s interesting. It was getting good downtown before I stopped working down there.
Are you going all the way to Versailles on Saturday?
Not sure what can be recommended near the airport. Audubon is private if you have a pro that can call to get you on, but who knows on a Sunday. I think Iroquois is close, but not sure about that one. Quail Chase maybe. I find it “eh” but some enjoy it.
Other than Jeff Ruby’s and parts of NuLu, there’s really no upside to going downtown anymore. It’s A shame too, because before the pandemic/riots it was really growing and a lot of fun places to go. I hope it gets back to normal soon.
Hello Kentuckians (Not Sure that is what you guys are called)
My friends and I have had a Sweetens trip 2 years in the making. Unfortunately it was cancelled last year due to Covid and this year it is cancelled because of the flooding that they just received. We were planning on Driving from Minnesota, swinging by Chicago to pick up my friend and then heading to chattanooga for the weekend.
That said, we are still looking for a trip and making it affordable. I stumbled upon Kearney Hill in Lexington and was pleasantly surprised at the rate given the architect of the course. Would you guys recommend Lexington as your golf destination or is there a different town I should be looking at? Open to any suggestions.
Thanks.
If you’re stopping once in Kentucky, you could do a lot worse than Kearney. Not saying it’s the stone cold best option, but checks a lot of boxes. I’m a fan of it.
Other, true Kentuckians may have a better recommend for dinner, but mine is Malone’s.
Any other courses I gotta see?
Seneca is close enough to the airport, but can be slow. If you could get on at Big Spring it was nice when I did a scramble a few years back.
We ended up going with Vettiner for the second round of the weekend last Sunday. Weather wasn’t ideal but i liked the routing of it. Weather was perfect during our round at Nevel Meade on the Friday. Had a ton of fun there.
I went to UK and lived in Lexington for a while before moving to the Louisville area, so some of my information is older. If you are looking at public golf the “Lexington area” is your best bet. Kearney is one of the best in the area. They used to have a Senior Tour event and its definitely a good test that is playable.
Cherry Blossom in Georgetown is usually one of the best conditioned courses in the area.
Big Blue at University Club is a great play, but is usually the most expensive option outside of whatever rate they have going on at Marriott Griffin Gate. Griffin Gate is good if you can find something other than rack rate.
Gay Brewer Jr. at Picadome is a solid, old school muni that I always enjoy playing. It’s really close to downtown Lexington.
Boone’s Trace National (formerly The Bull) is a fun course that I haven’t seen in years but have heard good things.
Gibson Bay in Richmond is a great course that has always been a great price. They often have a lot of state events or USGA qualifiers out there.
Houston Oaks in Paris has always had some of the best greens in Lexington and its a fun course to play.
All of these courses are super accessible from Lexington as they are all pretty close to the interstate. If you stay close to the I75 you can be to just about any of them in less than 30 minutes. If you want to keep it in Lexington do Kearney, Big Blue, and Picadome. If I’m ranking the whole list I named in preference of courses I enjoy playing:
Kearney
Big Blue
Boone’s Trace
Cherry Blossom
Gibson Bay
Picadome
Houston Oaks
Griffin Gate
Posted in here in the winter but now that’s it warming up where are my Bowling Green area golfers who are interested in some muni golf?
Hey everybody. I’m in Louisville for the week for work and looking to maybe play Wednesday and/or Thursday depending on weather. Anyone with course recs in the area? Might drive up to the Ross course at French Lick cause I love that place.
Chariot Run and Nevel Meade might be the best choices this time of year with all bentgrass, so they will be all green. I can’t recommend Chariot enough, but Nevel is a good one too. Might depend where you are staying to which course is the best option.
2nd the Chariot Run call…wish I had some free time Thursday as I would definitely try to join you.
Thanks guys. Is either course a good walk?
Chariot has some space between holes, I would ride that. Nevel is probably and easier walk, but is a little hilly in places.
Nevel can for sure be walked. It has a couple decent hills though. Chariot I would think would be a ride, but they have those cool Club Car bluetooth follow caddy things out there so maybe its a good walk too. Might be worth it to try those things.
Getting ready to move to Lexington at the start of May. Just finished going through this thread and already have a list of courses I want to get out on. I am looking at Gibson Bay and Cherry Blossom first based on price/location. I usually prefer to walk so I was curious what courses are the best for walking and what courses, if any, are must rides due to length between holes/rules.
Welcome to Kentucky!
Gibson Bay will not disappoint. I grew up about 500 yards from the 1st tee and completely took it for granted when I was young. I always love playing there when I am back in town. It has some hills to manage and maybe one or two decent green to tee walks, but is mostly walkable.
In my experience, most of the publics in Lexington are pretty walkable. I walked plenty of rounds at Kearney and Picadome with no issues. One of my favorite late afternoon 9-hole walks when I lived in Lexington was the front at Connemara (if you’re willing and able to take on Nicholasville Rd traffic…). The back 9 is pretty blah in my opinion and feels like a slog, especially without a cart.
I would like to play a round of golf with some of you guys at your favorite golf course in KY over the summer. I randomly got this idea while bored at work and thought it would be a sick summer adventure before i have to go back to grinding away at school. Might even write about my experience at the end of the summer. Anyone who’s interested shoot me a dm.
Hey all:
My buddies trip of 8 played in Lexington last summer and loved it, even with not being able to get the full experience out of an abundance of safe measures. We played Kearney (loved the layout, too bad it was beat up), Cherry Blossom, and Big Blue (the crowd favorite that people want to go back to play).
Anyway, we’re coming back this July and I wanted to ask about the Peninsula Club south of town. We are thinking about doing a stay and play out there on Friday and Saturday, but I wanted to touch base and ask locals if conditions were typically solid in July. Also, always happy to take recommendations for other places to play in town. Connemara and Club at Widows Watch are on the list at potentials.
TYFYS
I’ve done that exact itinerary a few years ago. Kearny was definitely my favorite, but had no complaints on conditions at the time. Don’t know if Covid impacted that. Where as we weren’t told that Big Blue had just been punched until we were paying.
I just got back from a trip to Peninsula this past weekend. Honestly thought it was great. The course was solid IMO. Not the longest and a lot of Pete Dye type holes where you can pick how aggressive you want to be off the tee. A lot of drivable par 4s. Greens were pretty firm.
Our conditions were overall solid. Rough seemed to eat balls never to be found in a couple places even though it wasn’t that thick. Greens were faster than they looked.
We played 18 on Friday, 36 on Saturday and getting to see it multiple times really helped with playability but didn’t get boring.
Accommodations were sufficient although nothing spectacular. Pace was pretty slow at times as all of the villas were full.