Figure out the routing game - Sugar Ridge Golf Course

[Jason Thurman]

Yesterday I had the displeasure of playing one of the most bizarre routings I've ever seen in my life. Sugar Ridge Golf Course in southeast Indiana is one uniquely strange course.


An aerial photo of the routing is below, and can be explored in detail by going to Google Maps and looking up Sugar Ridge Golf Course in Lawrenceburg, IN. Anyone who can correctly figure out the routing (without having cheated and visited the course) gets my respect.

[Richard Hetzel]

I know it, but I have also played it once.

[Nigel Islam]

Yep I crashed and burned on my attempt! Wow that is interesting.

[John Percival]

Is that 6 hole loop at the top/left holes 13-18?
And the 5 par running se #1 and follow the cart path thru to 12.
Special favs are the itty bitty fwy at #2, drive past the green to the tee at #5 (driving on the slice-side to the tee) and the drive /walk from 12 to 13?

Ouch

[Jason Thurman]

Is that 6 hole loop at the top/left holes 13-18?
And the 5 par running se #1 and follow the cart path thru to 12.
Special favs are the itty bitty fwy at #2, drive past the green to the tee at #5 (driving on the slice-side to the tee) and the drive /walk from 12 to 13?

Ouch

You've identified 1-7 correctly based on your descriptions, although 1 is actually a par 4.


You're thinking too intuitively for the rest though. You'll need to think far more illogically to figure it out.


Your mention of the fairway on 2 reminded me: I should mention that each hole on the course is named after another famous course. I think 2 was either Shinnecock or Winged Foot - I can't remember for sure.

[Nigel Islam]

Is that 6 hole loop at the top/left holes 13-18?
And the 5 par running se #1 and follow the cart path thru to 12.
Special favs are the itty bitty fwy at #2, drive past the green to the tee at #5 (driving on the slice-side to the tee) and the drive /walk from 12 to 13?

Ouch

You've identified 1-7 correctly based on your descriptions, although 1 is actually a par 4.


You're thinking too intuitively for the rest though. You'll need to think far more illogically to figure it out.


Your mention of the fairway on 2 reminded me: I should mention that each hole on the course is named after another famous course. I think 2 was either Shinnecock or Winged Foot - I can't remember for sure.

No joke? Surprised I haven't heard of this course. How was the course except for the routing?

[Jason Thurman]

Nigel, I think the formal GCA term is that it's a pure "goat ranch." The hole-by-hole design is bad enough to rival the worst courses I've ever played on its own. The course has been altered a lot since it originally opened. Some of the original holes are not awful, though I wouldn't say there's anything notably good there either. I think only 4 or 5 of the holes are still original though. The rest range from "well below average" to "atrocious."


When you combine the poor hole-by-hole design with the genuinely horrific, perhaps one-of-a-kind routing, you end up with a special kind of bad. There's a new Worst Course I've Ever Played on the block...

[Phil McDade]

OK, I tried to figure it out, and then cheated, and was dumb-founded, by the routing. All I can say is -- holy cow! (I got a few stretches correct.) What slays me is that it doesn't appear that housing --often the card-wrecker for many a bad layout/routing -- has that big of an impact on the routing. Sure, there is some new housing south and west of the winding road that curves south in the middle of the screen shot. But much of the course north of that road appears to be simply carved out of the wooded terrain, and -- without giving too much away -- that's where some of the crazier routing decisions were made.


Did it seem as awkward on the ground as it does from looking at an aerial?

[Chris_Blakely]

I've played the course in its current configuration.  So, I know the routing.  I always assumed the course was heavily altered and was 27 holes at one time.  I know on golflink, they list at 2nd course at the address that is closed.  I am not sure of Brian Huntley's (course architect) full involvement.  He has done several above average public courses in Ohio.

Chris

[Matthew Essig]

I will take a crack at this.

I am almost embarrassed that I think I figured it out...

As said above 1-7 loops at the southern end. You drive way up to the par 3 going NE. 9 is the par 5 coming back to the clubhouse (because nines have to end at the clubhouse  ) 10-12 go along the north end of the property. 13 plays across the water coming back west. Then you have to drive way down to 14, a par 4 going E. 15,16,17 switch back and forth slowly climbing north. Then drive back down to 18, the par 3 across the water (because why wouldn't a course finish with a hole like that )

I am going to go check and see if I am right. BRB.
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I think I got it.......     

[Phil McDade]

Then drive back down to 18, the par 3 across the water (because why wouldn't a course finish with a hole like that )

I am going to go check and see if I am right. BRB.
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I think I got it.......     

When I saw how the course ended, I thought -- all that.......for this? If you're going to make me travel that far for a closing par 3 over water, it dang well better be a 3-wood over the ocean somewhere on the Monterey Peninsula.

[Nigel Islam]

Nigel, I think the formal GCA term is that it's a pure "goat ranch." The hole-by-hole design is bad enough to rival the worst courses I've ever played on its own. The course has been altered a lot since it originally opened. Some of the original holes are not awful, though I wouldn't say there's anything notably good there either. I think only 4 or 5 of the holes are still original though. The rest range from "well below average" to "atrocious."


When you combine the poor hole-by-hole design with the genuinely horrific, perhaps one-of-a-kind routing, you end up with a special kind of bad. There's a new Worst Course I've Ever Played on the block...

Wow is all I can say. I need to play one of your WCIEP candidates to see if they rival some of mine. Next time you are heading back from Indy you need to do a drive by of Dakota Landing a nine holer just off I74. That is a strong candidate for my WCIEP! It looks like it is still open from the images.

[Mark Fedeli]

I came to the same conclusion as Matthew. There seems to be newer cart path laid down—was the short par 3 over water originally the 8th hole and then they changed it to the 18th?

[Nigel Islam]

Then drive back down to 18, the par 3 across the water (because why wouldn't a course finish with a hole like that )

I am going to go check and see if I am right. BRB.
------
I think I got it.......     

When I saw how the course ended, I thought -- all that.......for this? If you're going to make me travel that far for a closing par 3 over water, it dang well better be a 3-wood over the ocean somewhere on the Monterey Peninsula.

Phil I think you are right. A quick look at the scorecard says the 18th is called........Pebble Beach!

[David Whitmer]

Jason,


Agree it is uniquely awful. Have you ever played Pebble Creek? Same developer as Sugar Ridge, and similar wacky routing. Also some of the worst holes out there. Hate to say that, as the current owner is a super good guy. It serves a purpose, as does Sugar Ridge. But man, they're not exactly high quality layouts.

[Jason Thurman]

Matthew's got it!


The rides from 13 to 14 and 17 to 18 measure at around 800 yards by my calculation. I was laughing with the guy I was sharing my cart with about how we were driving for what seemed like 5 minutes to get to a 170 yard hole, and how it would seem like they could have tucked 170 yards of hole somewhere closer to the 17th green. He figured they were trying to get us back to the clubhouse, but it's still 250 yards of cart path away. As Phil says, it's terribly anticlimactic to drive 800 yards to play a shitty par 3.


David, I haven't played Pebble Creek, although I'm sure the friend who recommended Sugar Ridge will soon try to talk me into it. I did eventually learn that his affinity for Sugar Ridge stems from having worked on the grounds crew in college and having a few near death experiences with mowers on the slopes around the property. Nothing releases endorphins like almost dying.

[Greg Tallman]

Nice unique logo they have though

[Jason Topp]

Nice unique logo they have though

I was going to post the same thing.  That one may not last.

[Criss Titschinger]

If you have Google Earth, check out the aerials from 2004, which was when I first played it. This was the last year of what I assume was the original routing.


In 2005, they decided to add on to the development part of it and built a huge road through the middle of parts of the course, including the old 18th. 18 was a par 4 originally and isn't really near the new 18th par 3. It had a fairway landing area which ran out, requiring an aerial shot on the second. That land is all houses now. Wasn't a great hole, but better than the new 18th.


The road also removed the old 11th and 14th. The new 2nd is an atrocious hole. Although only 342 yards, it requires close to 200 yards carry to make the fairway (downhill) to a patch of fairway that then rises fairly significantly to the green.


I think any trace of the old 1st is gone too. It looks like they were trying to put houses on it, but as of the Google aerial, I don't see any on it. While I think the land is still there, the road would cut through the tee line for those cutting the dogleg. Liability city.


I'm not sure whose decision it was to add that development on Sugar Ridge, but it turned a Doak 1 into a Doak 0. I still think Pebble Creek takes the cake, because it very well may contain two of the worst par 5s in the world; and they're all on the same course.