Ashland Golf Club

I found the course to be a fun layout. Many mature tree aligned fairways that made it challenging. The greens were fair, could have been faster. I prefer it to other courses in the area. I would definitely play again.

Greens run true such well groomed fairways and fast.

Nice, difficult golf course in very good shape. Make sure you play the correct tees, plays longer than the card. We didn't! Only complaint, no senior discount!

Beautiful course. The staff was friendly and I will be back.

This course was in great shape for April 7th. The greens were lightning fast, rough was evenly mowed and the bunkers were well looked after (all freshly raked).

If you are not consistently in the fairway you will struggle here. This is a tight course with trees guarding every fairway, pull it 15yds into the rough and you have serious tree trouble. Keep in mind this is every hole, so you will not find any relief from this at any point in the round.

Outside of the very tight fairways, I found the course challenging but very enjoyable to play. Staff was great and the course was again in very good condition for so early in the spring..

Definitely a recommend..!!!

It’s a beautiful course to play if u have about 6 hours and don’t have anything else to do.

Have not played here in several years and when saw times on Golf Now made an afternoon time mid week. Course in outstanding condition and greens very challenging. This course is a Gem

A well maintained course with great views and quality greens.

Several easy holes but a really fun track that creates a key key moments that will make or break the round/day

For my 2nd review I decided to visit a course I know well and at which I am a member, the Ashland Golf Club. Being a member for a couple of years and playing in leagues here, one would expect that I might demonstrate some evidence of competence when it comes to playing golf here, however, the opposite is closer to the truth. The Ashland Golf club is where I go to be humbled.

This is a beautiful course. The original 9 was opened back in the 1920’s and was designed by Willie Park Jr., one of the great early course designers and a two time Open Champion. The original drawings from the architect are framed and hung in the restaurant, and from my examination, the front 9 layout remains very true to these drawings.

Ashland is one of an increasing number of clubs that was established as a private country club and has since converted to allow public play; this allows the general public to play some really beautiful older courses.

I arrived at the course at 2:00pm on a Saturday afternoon, it was cold and overcast so the course was not crowded we paid and walked onto the first tee. Due to Covid 19 restrictions, the driving range and the restaurant are closed (except for carryout), so my review will only deal with the course on this day.

The course is in beautiful condition. The fairways and greens are very well tended and mowed in the patterns that serve no purpose I know of other than to make them look fancy. The fairway margins were better mowed than the fairways at most public courses, I don’t recall seeing a single weed in the fairway’s and it and a recent fertilizer application was in evidence.

Ashland is a tough course. For the most part the fairways are narrow and tree lined. An errant shot left or right will most of the time leave you with no good path to the green other than a punch shot to put you back in the fairway. Consequently as a result of having played here so much, I have gotten pretty good at that shot. There are significant elevation changes, raised tee boxes opening out onto the fairways most of which feature some degree of undulation. It would be fair to describe the course as being part of an urban forest. The number of trees allows for a good separation of each fairway, and the fairway for the next hole is not always evident from the tee box. I like this feature as you focus on each hole one at a time and each hole reveals itself in its turn. I have always liked the routing of the course for this reason, particularly on the front 9. While the course is mostly surrounded by neighborhoods, relatively few of the holes, and mostly just on the back 9, have houses backing up to the course.

The feature I have heard most commonly mentioned in reference to this course is the prevalence of water on it. There are 2 creeks that snake through the course and they come into play on 13 of the 18 holes. An additional hole has a pond fronting the green, so on 14 holes, water is a hazard, on a couple of holes the creeks come into play more than once. I will not claim to have never lost a ball in a creek here but they don’t cause me as much difficulty as the abundance of trees and my #1 nemesis, the greens, more on them to come.

The creeks can vary in width from only a few yards to a chasm spanning 30 to 40 yards, erosion, particularly evident in heavy spring rains last year, widened many of them considerably, removed some older trees (probably a good thing) and exposed a lot of banks in places that will need to be stabilized to prevent further erosion. Even with all of that, it is not difficult to reach the greens while still retaining a possibility of par if you manage to stay in the fairway off the tee. The course is not terribly long (the 10 par fours average 367 yards, the 4 par fives average 504 yards and the par 3’s range from 156 – 199 yards),and can be played well from the whites by golfers with only average distance off the tee. It’s when you get to the greens that you are really tested.

I played a very good round this day (for me) so far as my tee to green game, by that I mean I reached the green with at least a chance of par on most holes, certainly a single bogie would have been a realistic achievement. The thing to note about the greens at Ashland is that on a lot of them it isn’t important just to be close to the hole, you have to consider where in relation to the hole your ball is. It isn’t enough to be 18 inches from the cup if you are 18 inches above the hole, miss by an inch and you will probably end up 6 feet or further away on the down slope. Approach a hole from the side and if you don’t find the perfect line, your chances of 3 putting are very good. The greens this day were particularly fast and I paid dearly for that. I averaged almost 2.3 putts per hole and four putted more than once. My personal nightmare this day was on #4, only the 8th toughest hole on the course, if the score card is to be believed. Tee to green I agree, it is easy but this was one that I four putted.

I am by no means complaining about the greens, they are what they are and the degree of difficulty is not a result of poor maintenance or poor surface conditions, they are just tough. If you play once a week in season and want to break 80, don’t come here, it isn’t going to happen.

The only things I can really fault this course for are the sand bunkers which badly need to be dug out and have new sand put in. After heavy or sustained rainfall they become impromptu water hazards and the sand is so hard that you can frequently count on bouncing a ball through or out of the traps. Although the course has been removing trees over the last few years, particularly ash trees which have died, there remain too many in places, they are starting to become a hindrance to play, in another 10 years unless a more aggressive removal strategy is adopted, play will be adversely effected. Lastly, some of the tee boxes are also in need of some attention. I had to search around on a few to find a spot where my feet felt like they were on the same level as the ball.

Playing with my son, we finished in just over 4 hours, the course was not crowded so pace of play was as fast or as slow as we wanted to go, I typically avoid busier times, but have never found the pace to be slow. Slower players are generally accommodating about letting faster ones go through.

I highly recommend the Ashland Golf Club to players who are skilled or at least experienced. This is a tough place to come out and have fun if you don’t play frequently or haven’t played in a long while. It can be unforgiving. When I started playing 4 years ago, I wouldn’t play the course although I took my lessons here. I just didn’t feel I was ready and I think that judgement was correct. The cost to play 18 with a cart varies day of the week and time of day, ranging from $30 to $49 on a week day and $35 - $49 on the weekend.

This is a great course! Their tee times are spaced perfectly thus creating a great pace of play. The course is challenging, but not overly difficult. Fairways are plush, roughs are deep but playable, greens are challenging. It's a bit pricey, but worth it.

Review Ashland Golf Club

1333 Center Street

Ashland, OH 44805

419-289-3767

Ashlandgolfclubohio.com

For my 2nd review I decided to visit a course I know well and at which I am a member, the Ashland Golf Club. Being a member for a couple of years and playing in leagues here, one would expect that I might demonstrate some evidence of competence when it comes to playing golf here, however, the opposite is closer to the truth. The Ashland Golf club is where I go to be humbled.

This is a beautiful course. The original 9 was opened back in the 1920’s and was designed by Willie Park Jr., one of the great early course designers and a two time Open Champion. The original drawings from the architect are framed and hung in the restaurant, and from my examination, the front 9 layout remains very true to these drawings.

Ashland is one of an increasing number of clubs that was established as a private country club and has since converted to allow public play; this allows the general public to play some really beautiful older courses.

I arrived at the course at 2:00pm on a Saturday afternoon, it was cold and overcast so the course was not crowded we paid and walked onto the first tee. Due to Covid 19 restrictions, the driving range and the restaurant are closed (except for carryout), so my review will only deal with the course on this day.

The course is in beautiful condition. The fairways and greens are very well tended and mowed in the patterns that serve no purpose I know of other than to make them look fancy. The fairway margins were better mowed than the fairways at most public courses, I don’t recall seeing a single weed in the fairway’s and it and a recent fertilizer application was in evidence.

Ashland is a tough course. For the most part the fairways are narrow and tree lined. An errant shot left or right will most of the time leave you with no good path to the green other than a punch shot to put you back in the fairway. Consequently as a result of having played here so much, I have gotten pretty good at that shot. There are significant elevation changes, raised tee boxes opening out onto the fairways most of which feature some degree of undulation. It would be fair to describe the course as being part of an urban forest. The number of trees allows for a good separation of each fairway, and the fairway for the next hole is not always evident from the tee box. I like this feature as you focus on each hole one at a time and each hole reveals itself in its turn. I have always liked the routing of the course for this reason, particularly on the front 9. While the course is mostly surrounded by neighborhoods, relatively few of the holes, and mostly just on the back 9, have houses backing up to the course.

The feature I have heard most commonly mentioned in reference to this course is the prevalence of water on it. There are 2 creeks that snake through the course and they come into play on 13 of the 18 holes. An additional hole has a pond fronting the green, so on 14 holes, water is a hazard, on a couple of holes the creeks come into play more than once. I will not claim to have never lost a ball in a creek here but they don’t cause me as much difficulty as the abundance of trees and my #1 nemesis, the greens, more on them to come.

The creeks can vary in width from only a few yards to a chasm spanning 30 to 40 yards, erosion, particularly evident in heavy spring rains last year, widened many of them considerably, removed some older trees (probably a good thing) and exposed a lot of banks in places that will need to be stabilized to prevent further erosion. Even with all of that, it is not difficult to reach the greens while still retaining a possibility of par if you manage to stay in the fairway off the tee. The course is not terribly long (the 10 par fours average 367 yards, the 4 par fives average 504 yards and the par 3’s range from 156 – 199 yards),and can be played well from the whites by golfers with only average distance off the tee. It’s when you get to the greens that you are really tested.

I played a very good round this day (for me) so far as my tee to green game, by that I mean I reached the green with at least a chance of par on most holes, certainly a single bogie would have been a realistic achievement. The thing to note about the greens at Ashland is that on a lot of them it isn’t important just to be close to the hole, you have to consider where in relation to the hole your ball is. It isn’t enough to be 18 inches from the cup if you are 18 inches above the hole, miss by an inch and you will probably end up 6 feet or further away on the down slope. Approach a hole from the side and if you don’t find the perfect line, your chances of 3 putting are very good. The greens this day were particularly fast and I paid dearly for that. I averaged almost 2.3 putts per hole and four putted more than once. My personal nightmare this day was on #4, only the 8th toughest hole on the course, if the score card is to be believed. Tee to green I agree, it is easy but this was one that I four putted.

I am by no means complaining about the greens, they are what they are and the degree of difficulty is not a result of poor maintenance or poor surface conditions, they are just tough. If you play once a week in season and want to break 80, don’t come here, it isn’t going to happen.

The only things I can really fault this course for are the sand bunkers which badly need to be dug out and have new sand put in. After heavy or sustained rainfall they become impromptu water hazards and the sand is so hard that you can frequently count on bouncing a ball through or out of the traps. Although the course has been removing trees over the last few years, particularly ash trees which have died, there remain too many in places, they are starting to become a hindrance to play, in another 10 years unless a more aggressive removal strategy is adopted, play will be adversely effected. Lastly, some of the tee boxes are also in need of some attention. I had to search around on a few to find a spot where my feet felt like they were on the same level as the ball.

Playing with my son, we finished in just over 4 hours, the course was not crowded so pace of play was as fast or as slow as we wanted to go, I typically avoid busier times, but have never found the pace to be slow. Slower players are generally accommodating about letting faster ones go through.

I highly recommend the Ashland Golf Club to players who are skilled or at least experienced. This is a tough place to come out and have fun if you don’t play frequently or haven’t played in a long while. It can be unforgiving. When I started playing 4 years ago, I wouldn’t play the course although I took my lessons here. I just didn’t feel I was ready and I think that judgement was correct. The cost to play 18 with a cart varies day of the week and time of day, ranging from $30 to $49 on a week day and $35 - $49 on the weekend.