I hold a soft spot for Picadome, as it’s one of the courses I played pretty frequently while learning the game in college at (National Champion) University of Kentucky. As a wild-hitting high-handicapper, I didn’t care much for it the first few times I played. Over time it grew on me as my game grew.
I don’t believe that, as a golf course, Picadome is anything to go out of the way for. However, for an architecture fan, I think it’s one of the most interesting courses in the area. It’s a very small property: no more than 120 acres. Yet the routing manages to produce holes of great variation at a reasonable 6500 yards without a single weak link. You’ll find a lot of subtle risk/reward, beginning with the par 5 1st that requires a drive that challenges a lateral hazard stream on the right to gain the best angle of approach and ending with another par 5 at the 18th that requires a big carry over another stream to reach in 2.
The routing really maximizes its natural features while effectively working around others, and does a tremendous job of using angles to create challenge. The trees are a necessary evil and, really, quite fair on such a short course. The greens are mostly tiny and fiercely pitched, none more so than the 9th which is an all-time “stay below the hole” hole. Of all the courses I’ve played, Picadome’s greens remind me the most of Pebble Beach’s as a set.
It’s good, accessible municipal golf with a lot of quirk and interest. I wouldn’t expect it to make anyone’s Top 25, but I do think you’ll find yourself thinking “this is a cool shot” a lot. And as an architecture fan, I think it has a lot to offer from a routing standpoint and as a lesson in sustainable, interesting municipal golf.