What are your favorite courses with a low rating? Courses scored 2.5 or lower?
Mine is Wildwood Park in Louisville, Ohio.
Wildwood was the second course I played, and my first wooded course. My home course, Arboretum, was basically all open shots, so I found Wildwood challenging at first. There aren't any open shots here, and many of them are heavily wooded.
Now, Wildwood isn't what you'd call a destination course. If you google earth it, you'll see the course is TINY, one of the smaller courses I've played. It has natural tees that sometimes aren't in the best shape. The signage isn't the greatest. One of the long tees had a tree fall on it and its out of commission. The course does feature a hanging basket..or did. Last time I went there it was so bent out of shape that it touched the ground.
So why do I like Wildwood, nostalgia aside?
I think in terms of raw golf, it's a perfect example of what a short 9 hole course should be (Technically Wildwood is 10 holes now...).
There is superb variety here. Two sets of tees, with the longs often changing the hole completely rather than adding 25' of distance to the exact same line. Elevation changes manage to be in play on every hole save for 3, despite the park being pretty flat overall. You've got uphill and downhill shots, fairways sloping left or right. Roll-aways will be a concern at times.
The course teaches good line-shaping and woods management. Its the perfect course to build your fundamentals.
There are numerous holes with multiple lines to the basket. #2 is one of my favorites. It's a long, straight tunnel shot. You can throw the gap, or you can flick to the left of it, or throw a roller to the right of it, or throw an overhand over it. This holds true for so many holes here, you will often see 2 or 3 lines that have similar margins for error.
Once you've played the course once you'll know it by heart. After that, knocking out a round in 15-20 minutes is effortless.
Of all the courses I miss up north in Ohio and PA, Wildwood is up there right behind the destination 18 hole courses. Its really fun watching old videos I filmed here and thinking about what I could do differently now. Never tried flicking #9 long, and I know that'd be a perfect shot for that hole.
It's funny, back when I was in my first year of playing me and my friend played a pick up round with these two old school guys. I was backhanding Rocs and Wizards off every tee, and they were throwing all sorts of creative shots. Rollers and flicks on holes I'd never think to use them. Now I'm gonna go back and do the same thing!
Here's one of the last rounds I filmed there, testing out MVP Anodes when they came out:
Mine is Wildwood Park in Louisville, Ohio.
Wildwood was the second course I played, and my first wooded course. My home course, Arboretum, was basically all open shots, so I found Wildwood challenging at first. There aren't any open shots here, and many of them are heavily wooded.
Now, Wildwood isn't what you'd call a destination course. If you google earth it, you'll see the course is TINY, one of the smaller courses I've played. It has natural tees that sometimes aren't in the best shape. The signage isn't the greatest. One of the long tees had a tree fall on it and its out of commission. The course does feature a hanging basket..or did. Last time I went there it was so bent out of shape that it touched the ground.
So why do I like Wildwood, nostalgia aside?
I think in terms of raw golf, it's a perfect example of what a short 9 hole course should be (Technically Wildwood is 10 holes now...).
There is superb variety here. Two sets of tees, with the longs often changing the hole completely rather than adding 25' of distance to the exact same line. Elevation changes manage to be in play on every hole save for 3, despite the park being pretty flat overall. You've got uphill and downhill shots, fairways sloping left or right. Roll-aways will be a concern at times.
The course teaches good line-shaping and woods management. Its the perfect course to build your fundamentals.
There are numerous holes with multiple lines to the basket. #2 is one of my favorites. It's a long, straight tunnel shot. You can throw the gap, or you can flick to the left of it, or throw a roller to the right of it, or throw an overhand over it. This holds true for so many holes here, you will often see 2 or 3 lines that have similar margins for error.
Once you've played the course once you'll know it by heart. After that, knocking out a round in 15-20 minutes is effortless.
Of all the courses I miss up north in Ohio and PA, Wildwood is up there right behind the destination 18 hole courses. Its really fun watching old videos I filmed here and thinking about what I could do differently now. Never tried flicking #9 long, and I know that'd be a perfect shot for that hole.
It's funny, back when I was in my first year of playing me and my friend played a pick up round with these two old school guys. I was backhanding Rocs and Wizards off every tee, and they were throwing all sorts of creative shots. Rollers and flicks on holes I'd never think to use them. Now I'm gonna go back and do the same thing!
Here's one of the last rounds I filmed there, testing out MVP Anodes when they came out:
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