Henry County CC - A Kentucky Not-So-Hidden Gem (with photos)

[Jason Thurman]

I grew up in towns all over Central Kentucky, a state almost famously short on great golf courses. But Kentucky's lack of high-end, destination-worthy golf courses should not be confused for a lack of golf enthusiasm, value, or fun. One of my favorite things about any trip to my home state is the opportunity to play fun, country-fried golf. On a lot of courses around the state, golf is a popular blue collar game played fast on scruffy turf surrounding creaky, small, dimly-lit clubhouses full of familiar faces.

And of all the courses in Central Kentucky, the one I might hold up as the best example of my favorite brand of Kentucky golf is Henry County Country Club.

Located between New Castle and Campbellsburg, on 421 just a few miles south of I-71, Henry County CC is basically an American example of "the UK private club model." A robust group of members pay annual dues at a fraction of the ridiculous sums that might immediately come to mind when discussing private golf in the US (under $1k annually for a family), with daily fee public play also available. Daily fee golfers pay $28 w/ cart at peak hours on weekdays, and $41 on weekends. Sadly, walking rates aren't published on their website - a shame because Henry County is one of the best walks in golf as far as this country boy is concerned. You'll walk the fenceline past grazing pastures, soybean fields, and an iconic rural highway, with short green-to-tee transitions and rolling but not-too-taxing hills. Walking is certainly allowed, but surprisingly unusual.

And it's a pretty good golf course! Driving by on the highway, Henry County looks like some holes in a field and you'd be forgiven for assuming that it's a cheapo Doak 1 or 2. But you'd be wrong, as this is a really fun, really interesting golf course that doesn't do anything too flashy, but that consistently hits you with compelling shots. Particularly in summer, the ryegrass/bluegrass/fescue mix fairways play firm and bouncy. They're cut long enough to give the high handicapper a little cushion while a low handicapper might have to take care to avoid flyers once in a while. The greens run true and relatively fast (think 9-10ish) and can be downright confounding to read. There's a nice variety of difficult and scorable holes, and you won't lose many balls but you will almost certainly face some tricky recovery shots. Bunkering is sparse enough to keep costs down but meaningful and varied and contributing to the character of multiple holes. Half-par holes abound, especially on the par 3s which tend to play long, and the par 5s which tend to play short. And while you'll see some tightish corridors in these pictures, the trees are almost never too thick to offer a creative recovery. It's a course that encourages a player to pull driver and let the shoulders turn fully, and offers the offline player a chance to find his ball and try something heroic. The more I play it, the more I like it. I think it belongs in the discussion of Kentucky's top 10 public-accessible courses in terms of shot-for-shot interest and quality of routing.

The holes discussed below are those for which I have photos - holes not mentioned should not be assumed as being of lesser quality, and I hope to add to this thread over time.

The first hole gives a sampling of what's to come, with OB right pushing the player to the OB-free but more heavily-treed left side of the fairway, before crossing a (usually dry) stream bed and heading uphill to a green attractively benched into a hillside.



The 4th and 5th are shorter par 4s that both play over a rise in the fairway to greens that are largely hidden from the tee. Both head east on the compass, but they have their own character. 4 is shorter - almost drivable even for me - with tight bunkering in the landing zone that can put the "gouge" in bomb & gouge. Meanwhile, the 5th is a treacherous tee shot where you really want to put it in the fairway, and get far enough to reach near the top of the hill for a full view...



... of a green attractively fronted by bunkers and with plenty of back to front slope.



The 9th is a bold and awkward hole where the drive plays from one hilltop to, hopefully, the crest of another, before revealing this downhill approach. For the big hitter, reaching the top of the hill off the tee brings a reverse camber effect into play as the fairway sort of runs away to the left on the other side. And this approach is a really demanding one - played well downhill and potentially off a downslope with the ball above your feet, to a kidney shaped green where it's absolutely imperative...



... not to miss left or long.



I regret that I don't have a photo of the approach to 10. The tee shot is pictured below - it's a short par 5 playing blind but straight over the hilltop and then plummeting down to another usually-dry stream at the 310-ish yard mark. It's extremely reachable, but the approach is dominated by a single well-placed fronting bunker that shows true minimalism can still create really interesting golf. If you're going for the green, you're hitting your second off a downslope and the high soft shot that flies the bunker and stops is tough to pull off, so plenty of players go a little long and end up pitching back toward the green from a downslope. It's an easy hole on the card, and frustratingly frequent to play it well but walk away with just a par.



13 is just a lovely mid-length par 4, wrapping around the lake left off the tee. Of course, I'd love to see some of the view of the lake opened up by thinning the vegetation left, but this photo is deceptive. There's really a fair amount of room off this tee, especially up the right side, although there's also some risk of getting into a spot where trees stymie the ideal line of approach, as there should be for someone who bails away from the water.



You cross another finger of the lake on the approach to a very attractively sited green where the high right side helps plenty of approaches bound down to the putting surface, but leaves ticklish recoveries for shots that hang up on it. Unfortunately the turf on that high right side is struggling a bit in these photos - this is usually one of Kentucky's most beautiful holes, and a draw that takes the slope to kick onto the green is another very satisfying shot on offer.



The 14th is the shortest hole on the course by some 40 yards. While the other three par 3s play longish and tough, this beautiful little hole throws you a tiny green surrounded by trouble - a stream left, bunkers left and right, and uneven ground all around creating touchy recoveries.



There's more room left of the green than would appear from the tee, but missing this green means a tough recovery just about every time.



I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the bizarre 18th with its stand of trees blocking the fairway. The ideal line goes right over the top. Shorter sets of tees really flank the left side of the trees and take them out of play, but players from one of the back two sets of tees need to find a way to negotiate them. And look, I'm not here to tell you this is conventionally good design. But I will say that, playing this course in a tournament over the weekend, I respected the fact that after 17 holes of pretty wide open golf, getting asked to hit one really tough tee shot didn't feel like too much.



After all, it's not like you can't recover if you clip them and get knocked backwards, or even end up right in the middle of the grove. A punchout to the right sets up a simple pitch, while it's conceivable to go for the green if you finish in a favorable position. It's not an especially long hole, so there are plenty of ways to make par even if you fall victim to the tee shot.



The approach is another attractive one to a green sited just beyond a pond, with TONS of back-to-front slope and the potential for a small gallery from players on 9 green (far right in the pic), 10 tee (just beyond the green), 13 tee (just left of the green), and the clubhouse and patio (up on the hill behind the green).



Henry County isn't a flawless course, and it's not one that you're likely to hop on a plane to go visit. But I'd be thrilled to join this place as a member if I lived within a 20-30 minute drive. If you're driving down I-71 between Cincinnati and Louisville and looking for a game, it's well worth the short detour. As I write this, I just finished playing in their invitational tournament over the weekend. A full field of 144 players showed up, and I'll vouch for it as an event that's well worth seeking out for anyone who can pull off a summer weekend in the Bluegrass.

I don't know much about its design pedigree. It opened in 1967, and I've heard speculation that Buck Blankenship designed it, as he did a huge number of Kentucky's courses built between say 1950 and 1975, give or take. Buck built some three dozen courses in Kentucky despite doing very little work outside the state (Village Greens in Ozawkie, KS is the only course I've found and confirmed that he built outside Kentucky). If Henry County is a Buck Blankenship effort, it's consistent with his knack for building straightforward but fun courses with minimal earth-moving and flashiness, but with consistently solid routings that take advantage of natural features to create cool risk/reward opportunities and unusual challenges.

[Brian Ross]

Jason,

Thanks for that enjoyable tour of HCCC. As someone who's spent the past six months working on and exploring the golf courses of south-central Kentucky, I would agree that HCCC is pretty representative of the golf that can be found in the area. I too have taken notice of the abundance of half-par holes with the 3s tending to be more difficult and the 4s and 5s generally playing a half-shot easier for the good player.

While there isn't much that I'd recommend going out of your way to see, there's a lot that can be learned from visiting these places as they tend to be lay of the land with little-to-no dirt moved during initial construction which creates a lot of quirky, interesting, and ORIGINAL golf holes.

I probably won't make it up to New Castle this year, but the next time I'm in the area I'll try to stop in and check it out.

[John Emerson]

Jason,

Thanks for that enjoyable tour of HCCC. As someone who's spent the past six months working on and exploring the golf courses of south-central Kentucky, I would agree that HCCC is pretty representative of the golf that can be found in the area. I too have taken notice of the abundance of half-par holes with the 3s tending to be more difficult and the 4s and 5s generally playing a half-shot easier for the good player.

While there isn't much that I'd recommend going out of your way to see, there's a lot that can be learned from visiting these places as they tend to be lay of the land with little-to-no dirt moved during initial construction which creates a lot of quirky, interesting, and ORIGINAL golf holes.

I probably won't make it up to New Castle this year, but the next time I'm in the area I'll try to stop in and check it out.

Thanks Jason for the write up.  Being born and raised in Louisville myself I have never once enjoyed my rounds at HCCC personally.  I’ve played there several times over the years and each time I hoped it to be different, but I have accepted the fact that it is what it is.  I have never played there under 4.5 hrs, and that is unacceptable for me.  Maybe others are ok with long round times, but, I personally, am not.  A golf course can be a top 100 or bottom 100 for all I care, but if it takes me that long to play golf I am just not interested.  It’s been several years since I played there and maybe pace of play has been addressed?  Course conditions are of little concern to me the vast majority of the time, but if the conditions aren’t great, and the round is brutally slow... I’m out.

[Jason Thurman]

John, all I can offer is that my experience has been different from yours. I played a practice round in 3 hours on Monday when the course was fairly crowded. In the Invitational, they sent a field of 144 players out in groups of four and my mid-morning tee times each day came in at right around 4:05. I don't know - any course can be slow any given day, especially if open to the public, but I just haven't experienced chronic pace of play issues out there.







Brian, what are some of the courses you've seen in South-Central KY? That's an area of the state that's underexplored for me outside of Dale Hollow. Anything you'd recommend putting on the future to-see list?


To your point, the lack of earth movement on so many of these rural courses means a chance to see TRUE minimalism and, yes, really original and quirky holes. We're talking low-budget courses built on old farmland in most cases, and there's not a lot of natural interest to work with on some of them. But where there's a natural feature, it's usually incorporated well. I love that tee shot over the rise on hole 5 above for instance, and the way the green at 13 is sited beyond that little finger of the lake. And am I really supposed to believe that the Postage Stamp is THAT much better of a hole than the delightful little 14th above?


Even considering that stand of maples off the tee on 18, which will get lambasted here if the thread collects enough responses and which certainly have been lambasted before. But they certainly get every player's full attention, and present a unique challenge, and it's a manageable one even if you don't negotiate them perfectly. And they're weird and gnarly and really satisfying to navigate well. I'm not sure there's much more that to good golf: capture the player's interest, provide a sense of accomplishment for good shots, and give them at least a chance to recover from most mistakes.

[Drew Maliniak]

I really enjoyed this post. Thanks.


I'd love to see GCA feature more home-brew courses with the UK style economics.

[Bernie Bell]

I really enjoyed this post. Thanks.

I'd love to see GCA feature more home-brew courses with the UK style economics.

+1.  Very cool.  #18 gives new meaning to "Kentucky punch."

[John Mayhugh]

I hadn't played this course in close to twenty years, but didn't have any memory of it being worth a return. Based on Jason's enthusiastic post, I stopped by this weekend on my way back to Louisville from Cincinnati.

First, the positives: I probably have not played at a friendlier course in Kentucky. I was by myself late on a Saturday, and every group of players in front of me immediately waved me up to play through. I did just do a drive by on a couple of holes to avoid disrupting their games, but really did appreciate the thoughtfulness. The routing produces some interesting holes (par 3s need more variety), and I thought the longish turf worked ok. It took away a little roll, but also provided some cushion to hit off of. While there is also a cut of rough, it's not much longer than the fairway grass making the course potentially play very wide.

Of course, it cannot play very wide due to the tree situation. Jason is correct in that it's possible to play punch shots, but the club's tree strategy is really misguided. There is evidence of newish trees being planted to narrow fairways or add definition where it's not needed. Take away most of these "weeds" and you would have a much better looking (and probably playing) course. I can actually accept the clump of trees in 18 fairway more easily than many of the others. It's weird, but just one hole.

For the most part, I thought the greens were uninteresting. A few had some significant tilt, but most seemed relatively flat without much interior contour. Maybe it was just the hole locations of the day, but I spent about 5 seconds reading putts and was on target the entire round. The greens rolled really well but just didn't seem to have much movement overall.

If I lived nearby, would I be a member? Sure, there are few other choices, and it's a friendly, seemingly well-run place to play. I think it's a real asset for the area. But in the context of golf course architecture, not a place I would recommend anyone seeking out.

[Jason Thurman]

John, thanks for the post. I'm glad to hear you stopped through, and agree with you on the friendliness of the club.


I agree also, in general, with your thoughts on the club's tree strategy. As I added pics to this thread, I kept thinking "these trees hide some of how cool this hole is." There are certainly places where I would use a chainsaw and cleanup team if you gave them to me, primarily for aesthetic reasons.


But going back to the fundamentals, I complain about trees when:


* They unnecessarily limit recovery options and create a lot of chip outs and lost ball opportunities
* They adversely affect turf
* They reduce strategic width
* And sure, when they clutter a course visually and make it less attractive


Truthfully, aside from the visual clutter, I just don't see those issues at Henry County. As an expert in driving the ball erratically, I won't buy that the course is overtreed from a playability or turf perspective. The trees are just too sparse to ruin even the most offline player's day - it's extremely rare to get into a position where you're stuck with a pitch-out, even if you can't just play a stock shot right at the flag every time. They're not choking out the turf, and I don't see a lot of places where they compromise strategic width on the course. In fairness, part of that may reflect that the course isn't as strategic as some. But my thesis has never been that it stands up with the strategic masterpieces of the world. Rather, I contend that it's a really fun place to play an affordable round of golf, and that it has some good and unique holes that reflect a type of minimalistic but effective architecture. I think we celebrate a lot of comparably minimalistic and quirky courses outside the US, but rarely even acknowledge the ones all over the US where so many people play so much of their golf.


I can't think of a course in the US that charges $28/rd with cart that also has an effective tree management program in place, and I don't expect the HCCCs of the world to manage their trees to an ideal level. In spite of that, though, I think their actual tree situation on the ground is far better than most, including plenty of private courses with established tree management programs and dues that conservatively cost 10x more.


I agree that the greens probably represent a bit of a weak link due to a lack of significant contour. I probably see a little more interest than you see - most have some combination of tilt and fallaway edges that keeps things interesting, and I think some of those features might shine more if the surfaces were a little faster and firmer. I'll also add that my respect for the greens increased with two days of medal play. Three-putts were much more frequent than I would have anticipated, and the short putts that might get raked away in casual play became scary. "Tournament" pin positions surely helped - we received an introduction to some pretty mean locations on those surfaces.


Still, the parts of the course I enjoy the most tend to be tee-to-green elements. A sampling:


* The satisfaction of a tee shot that disappears over the rise on 1, with bonus points for getting to the OB-defended right side of the fairway to set up the ideal angle
* The decision on 3 tee might warrant of a thread all its own, at least for players who have a chance to carry the downhill and downwind stream
* The hog's back skyline tee shot at 7 - 70+ yards of room to keep your ball in play, but can you produce the swing that delivers a straightforward approach? Both the tee shot and approach will repel misses further from their intended target, and those two shots work together to create ripple-effects where one missed shot complicates the next.
* The total lack of comfort throughout the 9th hole, where an awkward tee shot meets a high-risk approach that might just funnel my mother's trundling 3 wood into the middle of the green as it sends my 9 iron careening down toward the stream
* The joy of clearing the ridge at 10, followed by the outsized presence of that single fronting bunker in your deliberation of how you'll try to set up a birdie chance
* The approach to 12 as a mortal, knowing that it's a real opportunity to set up birdie, an outside chance to make eagle, and a very real chance to push one OB or tug one into the valley of no-good left of the green, all with the prevailing headwind magnifying any miss
* The thrill of a well-played draw bounding down onto the green at 13
* The WTF of the tee shot at 18, and the rush of navigating it well