Oak Hills Golf Center

This is another course I played at years ago when I was in middle and high school in Jefferson City, and finally revisited during a nice stretch of weather in early winter. I lucked out with the temperatures around 60 degrees in late December, which is unseasonable. That said, in two days after my round the high will be 20. Welcome to the Midwest.

I digress, but for about 30-50 bucks on average with cart, it's a solid track. The good things I can tell since I played as a kid is they have improved the conditions over time. Even in December I can tell the fairways are solid shape, and even the greens are as well. In fact, I didn't see many divots, or signs of golf shoes either when putting. The tee boxes looked a little beat up; however, it's off season. They didn't put out the colors to represent the red through blue boxes. I am sure during the season they move the tee boxes around to allow proper growth and maintenance.

The only negatives I have with the course, hence it's name, is it's very hilly in a bad way at times. What I mean is the course was built without a lot of leveling or modern design in mind. There are holes where the hills are sloping so bad that it's almost luck at times how it bounces and settles. Some really weird angles as well where it's very tight while other holes are very wide.

I only say this as a negative is the course was likely built around the land instead of repurposing it for consistency throughout the course. A couple of examples. You have a lot of fairways are sloping easily 30-45 degrees. You don't see that often on nicer or newer courses that build with a modern design in mind. In my view, they likely converted old hills when they built this course into a fairway without thinking much of landing areas and so forth. There are holes where your landing area is going to bounce notably and land in an awkward spot based on your luck, and not skill.

Another example of some odd design choices is you have par-4s from the whites that are about 270 yards, and others are about 380. Again, nothing wrong with some variations with distances, but they are all over the place at time. In fact, your front nine is 34 strokes, and the back is 36. Not often you see it vary a bit like that.

To be fair, this course was built in the 60s. To me that feels like an era where the game grew a lot, but at the cost of not being as consistent with the track compared to a newer or a remodeled course. This is my personal opinion on the matter, but compared to some nicer and more expensive courses, there is more consistency with the challenges and having the fairways more flat/slight hilly then a 45-degree hill.

Also there are some bad blind shots on a few holes where you could hit someone. I almost hit someone once with my drive, and we almost got hit twice as well. Especially on a couple par-4s that only play about 270 yards from the whites. Honestly some holes need a bell or something to indicate to the people behind them it's clear. I doubt anyone gets serious hurt, but a lot of close calls.

Finally the Greens, which some will love or hate, are very challenging with tough to read slopes. To be fair though, this is winter. The greens, while good conditions for December, were spotty color wise. As in regular green, dark, and some brown. The color at times made it hard to read compared to a normal green for me. That said, very challenging where you'll likely 3-putt a few times and get frustrated. I won't say that is good or bad since it varies on your skill and how you handle it.

Overall though, it's a solid public course. The beer is very cheap, as in $12 for a 6-pack. The pace of play was a little slow at times, but not bad and things pick up on some holes as well. If you have a little time in the state's capital, check it out. One final note, this course has a lot of leagues in the summer. Be mindful if you try to play at times since there might not be any tee times available.

This course is pretty fun. Challenging blind shots and forced layups. Great greens. Met a guy named Cole who was pretty chill.

Got a call after booking round that course would be closed due to low temperatures.

Seems like maybe an issue with communication

Every other time playing has been superb!

A+

We played on a Sunday afternoon. Other than slow play it was a great experience. Well maintained course.

Course was in great shape! Always a fun course to play. My only complaint is that it took us (a two sum) 4 hours to play 18 holes because of the slow play in front of us.. other than that the course was amazing!

Our 2nd time golfing here and it has been great both times! Clean, well maintained and friendly people.

Wonderfully laid out course . Easy to figure out and friendly staff