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Eaton, OH

Lakengren DGC

Permanent course
2.175(based on 3 reviews)
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sisyphus
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Experience: 12.8 years 400 played 385 reviews
2.50 star(s)

Excellent first course 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Feb 7, 2015 Played the course:2-4 times

Pros:

You might not want to play cards with course designer Kenny Rogers (with a little help from Bill Rohe), but if you get off the fairways here and into the thick stuff, you better know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em. The holes may not play overly long, but they do tend to be tight (I'm talking to you, 3, 5, 7 and 8!), and a wise pitch out to the fairway may be the only way to keep your score out of the stratosphere. I put this as a pro because short & technical suits my older arm well.

With blue tees well scaled for the Intermediate player, and red tees for the casual to Recreational arm, these nine holes include a good deal of line shaping, excellent use of the available elevation and foliage, and 8 out of 9 of them actually do play 'fair' already (more on that later), even though the course is just in its infancy. You'll be throwing to beautiful, top of the line DisCatchers here, and the course flow makes for a pretty decent loop. In all, an excellent first course design targeted for the folks in and near this gated, lakeside community near Eaton, Ohio, since there aren't a whole lot of other courses really close by.

I was particularly thrilled to start on a fairly open downhill first hole to loosen up my arm, then play a second slightly down-slope shot with the only mando on the course, so I'd shaped a line before getting technical on hole three. The mix of distances blends well here with 'greens' utilizing evergreens (4) and tight, tricky greens (5&7) to make it an enjoyable, quick-playing course.

Cons:

Got to list it as a con for now, but the tees are natural turf, decently marked by temp signage. When wet, they get pretty rough, and some of them are on slopes that make stepping up a bit difficult. Fortunately, huge run ups aren't generally needed here. The plan of course is concrete tees, but they want to play the course in a bit before making those permanent upgrades. You never know when you might find a more clever spot. But I hope they don't wait too long. Ratings will rise a bit with the concrete...

Kenny knows this, but hole 8 will really frustrate a lot of players. You shoot through a line of trees up to the (usually windy) terrace above and to your left. The largest gap might be all of 10 feet, and that's in a line a good 70 degrees left off the shortie red tee. You have to try it yourself to actually believe your left to right shot will catch some wind there and get anywhere near the basket. Word is, there's a large tree coming down there, but that will only really improve the line for the blue tee. And steps up the steep slope there, cut through the old wire fence, will mean a direct line to the basket. Right now, you probably will want to walk all the way up the path to the end of the shrubbery line, and back to the basket.

Because the more open baskets and tees tend to be visible to each other, it may be important to help newcomers with next tee signage, when they get to that point. And even at that, the only really odd flow issues are walking back a little of 4's short fairway to get to the tees for 5, and doubling back a bit after 8 to the #9 tees. I'd also say that they should probably advise players NOT to practice putting on the 8th basket because folks throwing on that hole can't see you up there.

Other Thoughts:

The inaugural tournament was extremely enjoyable, playing in February as the temperature rose above 50 on a sunny day and melted all the light snow and ice. It really made the course quite a muddy mess, so in damper seasons, be sure you wear your mud gear!
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