OHIO (and a little PA) FLY-BY - 2010

STONE WATER GOLF CLUB - Highland Heights, OH
A      -    Playability & Challenge                 
B      -    Quality of Course                                                    
B      -    Memorability                     
A      -    Service Levels                
A      -    Pro Shop
N/A   -    19th Hole Experience
A-     -    OVERVALL EXPERIENCE
 
AVALON LAKES GOLF COURSE - Warren, OH
A      -    Playability & Challenge                 
A      -    Quality of Course                                                    
A      -    Memorability                     
B      -    Service Levels                
B      -    Pro Shop
B      -    19th Hole Experience
A-     -    OVERVALL EXPERIENCE

OLDE STONEWALL GOLF COURSE - Ellwood City, PA
A      -    Playability & Challenge                 
A      -    Quality of Course                                                    
A+    -    Memorability                     
B      -    Service Levels                
A      -    Pro Shop
A      -    19th Hole Experience
A      -    OVERVALL EXPERIENCE

LONGABERGER GOLF CLUB - Nashport, OH
A      -    Playability & Challenge                 
A      -    Quality of Course                                                    
A-     -    Memorability                     
A+    -    Service Levels                
A      -    Pro Shop
A+    -    19th Hole Experience
A      -    OVERVALL EXPERIENCE


       (Updated 9/22/10) ...  As life progresses, there are some things that you seldom hear … if ever!  Sometimes good, sometimes bad; it all depends on your perspective. Things like “I’m pregnant,” or “you’re being audited,” or hopefully … “You’re a Lottery winner.”  After the Golfest Ohio Fly-by, I have a new one to add to the list:  “Welcome to Cleveland!”   And, it was spoken with so much unbridled enthusiasm by a flight attendant that it awoke me from my Southwest Airlines power nap.  Was it a dream?  Nope!  Despite the bad rap that Cleveland might get, it’s a great thing to hear after nearly four hours on an airplane.  It’s even better when you consider that there is a whole lot of golf in the immediate future on what we best describe as our Golfest-Ohio Fly-By.  

     Stone Water was a great sight for morning eyes.  This meandering course serves up quite the challenge with water and marsh hazards on all but two holes.  Even though the course appeared wet on this misty morning, the large bent grass greens were hard as a rock and lightening fast.  I was totally shocked to watch Mike Barbone hit a 9-iron 30 feet short of the flag and have it roll uphill past the flag and off the fringe 15 feet behind the hole.  When the ball hit, it almost bounced like a ball hitting a cart path -- a thudding sound.  Once we figured out that valuable lesson, we began to score well.  According to my notes, the back nine was the best, because it was naturally cut through the woods.  Overall, the rock work around the tee boxes gives this venue a lot of personality and ultimately makes it worth of its Top 100 rating.

     Speaking of Barbone, or should I say the “new and improved” Mike Barbone, this was a different golfer than the one who appeared on Golfest 2010-Florida.  But then again, that’s what happens when you get on the golf-crack.  Since Golfest, he admitted to have golfed more than 20-rounds. 

     By the way, our compliments to Dick Roth of Buckeye Golf who helped us arrange our Stone Water lodging and green fees.   He also had the wisdom to start us off on the 16^th hole so we wouldn’t get log jammed behind a group outing that was taking place.  After all, we had a 60-minute drive to …

Avalon Lakes Golf Course, Warren, OH (8/27) ... In continuing with our theme of playing courses today with references to water hazards, we ventured through small town America to Avalon Lakes.  We arrived early so we had a chance to eat some lunch, relax, and check out the impressive clubhouse.  Rittner had to become a member so we could eat lunch.  Thank goodness they didn’t check his police record (just kidding!)  We discovered that this is a semi-private club and on this Friday, it was a huge hub of activity.   Carts and people were buzzing around everywhere.

     This turned out to be an awesome venue that featured pristine tree lined fairways reminiscent of Pinehurst Resort.  With five tee boxes to choose from, ranging from 4904 to a humbling 7571 yards, you can dial in your desired amount of pain and how much water you want to come into play.  And on some holes, water lined the entire fairway.  Rittner ended up with a pair of 44’s for the best round of the day.  Once again, the Mike’s beat the Jim’s in skins.  Dinner was served up in the clubhouse and consisted of a few buckets of beer, and a wide assortment of appetizers and food.  Our hotel, the Avalon Inn, was only 100-yards away.  Day one was done!

Olde Stonewall Golf Club, Ellwood City, PA (8/28) … All I can say is “WOW!”  From the moment you pull into the parking lot at Olde Stonewall, you know you are at someplace unique.  The intimidating clubhouse is literally a castle and the surrounding rock retaining walls look like it emptied every quarry in the state.  And that was just the clubhouse.  You don’t have to be a golfer to appreciate the work that went into building this place.  It should be considered a tourist attraction.

     The golf course matched the intimidating clubhouse experience.  This number winds up and down through the thick foliage of the surrounding hills with some real steep cart paths.  To best describe the course would be to say it’s one of those risk-reward numbers.  If you take the risk of not hitting your driver straight, the reward is a long lonely search for a ball that will never be found … and let’s not forget the added bonus of a penalty stroke.  But seriously, the course was awesome to the point where it moved into my top 10 of all-time.  Not just from a playability and memorability standpoint, but for the attention to detail.  Several of the tee boxes, cart paths, bridges and elevation changes represented engineering marvels.  There was no way that Mother Nature would naturally allow for a golf course on this hilly terrain, however this 18 fit right in as if the forest grew in around it.  The bulldozers and rock pickers must have been busy for weeks before this course opened in the middle of rural Pennsylvania farmland in 1999.  There were also deer figurines strategically placed in the forest that produced many double-takes.     

     After conquering Olde Stonewall, a 160-mile drive awaited us, west in the direction of Nashport.  We started in Beaver County, PA and finished in Licking Valley County – no joke!  Apparently the local government decided to surf porn sites for possible names for their local areas.  The sights were beautiful, especially around the lakes of Dillon State Park.  The strangest sight was the seven-story basket-shaped Longaberger building.  Most women know all about the famous Longaberger baskets, something I would find out from my wife later.  We golfers just knew we were real close to the next golf course - Longaberger Golf Club.  Dinner was served up at Buffalo Wild Wings and for added bonus we were treated to UFC 100-something on an assortment of televisions.  The locals take their UFC fights seriously.

Longaberger Golf Club, Nashport, OH - (8/29) - This course was recently recognized as the top golf course in Ohio – and it didn’t disappoint.  With the exception of four holes on the back nine, this course has many interesting golf holes.  In fact, the first hole, an uphill, sharp dog-leg right cut into the side of a hill, to a well protected green was a great preview of things to come.   

     Designer Arthur Hills earned his money on this one.  The best way to describe the course would be to say it has a large diversity of holes.  The course makes the most of the natural rolling terrain and each hole – especially the 10 par four’s - presented their own unique challenge.  Where some courses begin to look all the same after a few holes, each Longaberger tee box presented a different challenge.  This is a thinking man’s course.

     The only disappointing thing about the day was that the course is located in a township that doesn’t allow alcohol to be served on Sundays.  According to the locals, they are working on that.  On the other side of the coin, we did back-to-backs here and the bodies were getting worn down.  In reality, we needed more Advil instead of Vodka-Cranberries.  Jim Dee dialed in the giddy-up in his golf swing and had a great day, which helped the Jim’s clinch the final two skins games at Longaberger.  Dee put Longaberger into his Top 10 of all-time and promises a full-blown review in the near future, so I won’t steal too much of his thunder.

     The bar at the Texas Roadhouse Restaurant, in the much more alcohol-friendly town of Newark, dished up a fair share of much-needed replacement calories and adult beverages.  It was a great way to wrap up a span of 60-hours that featured five rounds of golf.

     Overall, it was a great trip.  Although it seems that most of central Ohio appears to be in the midst of a 1980’s time warp, Golfest holds their golf courses to the highest regard.  Many of the homes looked tired, and most of the cars showed salt scars of harsh winters.  However, their golf courses rock!  Another thing I forgot to mention is that we got lucky in the weather department.   We were treated to 75-85 degree temps and the usual steamy humidity was pretty much non-existent.  Many of the locals said we were lucky.  Most people say that about my golf game also.

     Once again, hearing “Welcome to Cleveland” isn’t a bad thing.  Based on this Golfest Fly-By, I would be willing to hear it again.  I know ..., I have an idea … maybe the state should change their slogan to “Don’t Judge us by Cleveland – Judge us by our Golf Courses!”