Located off of route 23 just south of Delaware, OH, this course has the unusual feature of having the front nine designed by Donald Ross (or one of his proteges) and the back nine designed by Fuzzy Zoeller. Unfortunately, as with most course additions, the original style was not preserved or blended in with the new back 9. In fact, it would appear to me that only 6 of the original 9 are indeed "original". The 3rd and 9th hole are completely different from the Donald Ross design where their greens are big and undulating and the other holes have small flat greens. Somewhere between the 2nd and 4th, it would appear that the original 3rd hole exists, but was plowed under to make room for a subdivision. The gimmicky par 5 4th hole re-enforces this belief as there is a 150 ft tree right in the middle of the landing spot off the tee. Once you get passed the tree, the remaining hole has a feel of a Donald Ross design. Although different in style, the back nine and other non-original holes are well designed and quite tight in some spots.
We played on a Monday afternoon and the course had a flat $29 rate including cart. There was no break for walking. The gentleman in the pro shop said that "because the course is a difficult one to walk we don't have a walking rate. But if one chooses to walk, we usually take $10 off the rate." Okay, $29 was a decent rate nonetheless. It had rained the night before so we got hit with the "carts on paths only". Of course that slows down play. Interesting enough the carts do no follow up the entire side of the fairway. They stop well before the landing area off the tee. Unfortunately, this feature was not included on the additional nine holes.
The day that we played, the mercury was well above 90ยบ with high humidity. Needless to say we quickly sweated out any water consumed. At the turn, after we found no water coolers on the first nine we asked the pro shop if any water was out on the course. The reply, "no water is out on the course." The reason, "that's corporate." Although this was not part of the answer, apparently the reason why no water coolers are on some courses is because it's a health issue and courses are worried about pending litigation due to one falling ill due to unsanitary water jugs. Evidently, it's better to fall ill to heat exhaustion and lack of water than to getting diarrhea from "bad water". At the very least, a drink cart should be brought around the course. This is a financial incentive for the course.
The driving range has a big lake for its landing area and range balls "float" to the top. This is quite stupid as you have no idea how far you hit the ball or if the balls respond the same as traditional golf balls.
Although the greens were in excellent shape for this time of year, the ambiguous walking rate and the "it's corporate attitude" earns this course a 2 star rating.
