I’ve been fortunate enough to play a lot of good public golf in the OINK area. While I’ll try and post most of my experiences on this site, there are a number of courses that are still waiting for me to play. I feel that until I have played all that there is to play, any ranking I would give would be a pure guess based on what I’ve seen through others’ reviews and photos.
Here are courses on my Ohio wish list that I have yet to play. If you see any on this list that I don’t have on my already played list, add a comment to let me know what I need to add.
Avalon Lakes (not sure if this went private though)
Bent Tree
Black Diamond
Blue Herron
Cassel Hills
Cooks Creek
Deer Ridge
Fowler’s Mill
Grey Hawk
Little Mountain
Maumee Bay Links
Northstar Resort
The Quarry
Red Hawk Run
Sleepy Hollow
Stonewater (once again public)
Tartan East
Have played, within the last 3 years, numbers 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 on the Ohio list above. You can’t go wrong on any of them. Black Diamond is a must play…you either hate it or love it…but it is worth playing at least once. Swollow your pride and stay off the back tees here. The course is not long but you best be accurate.
Just found your website and am enjoying it. We re headed to Otter Creek and Salt Creek in Indians and traveling from central Ohio, thru Cincinnati. Looking for a high quality course along the way to play. Thoughts?
Keith,
Thanks for the kind comments. I won’t ever have to be convinced to stay away from the back tees because I know I don’t have the game for it.
If you’re going through Cincinnati towards Indiana, it makes it difficult to recommend Stonelick Hills as that’s on the complete opposite side of town. It’s a bit on the pricey side, but I think it’s the best public option in the Cincinnati area. I haven’t made it up to Shaker Run since they re-opened the Woodlands 9, so I can’t specifically comment on that. And Lassing Pointe is pretty far out of the way in Northern Kentucky.
Sharon Woods is a decent option if you’re going around the 275 loop and it’s not too expensive. And there’s always Grand Oak, my current home course. It’s about 5 miles off I-74 in Harrison, OH, and it certainly has its quirks.
I’d probably say drive completely through Cincinnati, and spend a day driving up I-65 from Otter Creek to Indianapolis. The quality of public golf in Indianapolis far exceeds that of Cincinnati.
If you were driving across I-70 to get to Indiana, I’d say stop off at Windy Knoll in Springfield. Otherwise, there’s not much in Cincy worth stopping for.