eagle ridge golf course at yatesville lake

Just go and golf it. Don't think about the score, play and enjoy it's beauty and challenge. Tough and fair. This course will change you forever!

Kentucky opened their new State Park golf trail a few years ago and there were two new courses (top 4 new best affordable by Golf Digest) within 60 minutes of each other. It rained heavy during our visit so keep that in mind when you read this course review. We started with Hidden Cove at Grayson Lake and the layout was very good. The conditioning of tees, fairways, bunkers and greens would match any PUBLIC course without question. A flat roll on the greens like you are playing a country club. Very very plush dark green fairways. Best tee boxes on a PUBLIC course ever. Squarely cut and felt like the US Open.I am writing this email due to our visit to Yatesville State Park in the afternoon. While the conditions were absolutely plush like Hidden Cove, I would consider the layout in my Top 2 or 3 and spectacular views off the charts. The views on the front nine are just untouchable by anything I have seen or played. The back nine just keeps on delivering. The closest thing to this course is Stonehouse in Williamsburg, but Stonehouse is much too flat. Make no mistake... the fairways are extremely fair and provide absolutely zero shots with the ball above or below your feet.As far as difficulty, your butt will be kicked. Let's just say the USGA Slope Rating on the front nine from 3,183 yards is 153 out of a possible 155. The trouble just terrifies the bogey golfer before they address the ball. The entire 6,177 yard course is 142 slope. Move back to the tips at 6,600 if you wish.There is very little water at Yatesville. Maybe 4 or 5 creeks and no ponds. Two holes playing uphill and maybe two blind shots throughout. The most extreme greens, bunkering and downhill elevation changes imaginable without Tiger Woods 2006 for the Playstation. Although very fair, maybe the largest oak tree in the middle of the fairway anywhere in golf. Another green was built like an extreme two-sided bowl asking how there was zero standing water on the green. At no point did I consider any part of the course unfair, however the yardage sheet is absolutely essential like no other course in the history of the game. Lush greens considering 20-25 feet of break. A shot-making course of all time.I kept playing and thinking how this concept could be put on paper. I am 10 miles into a dense extreme mountainous forest. I am talking deeper than most people have camped. Arthur Hills would need to work from a helicopter with all seriousness. The 4 mile road to the clubhouse serves no other purpose, but to the clubhouse trailer. If the Neuse cost 5 million to build, this one cost 15. The wide cemented cart path from 12 green to 14 tee must be 2 miles and must have taken 6 months to build. There are 3 cemented cart paths out of service for very logical reasons. They rerouted them in a snake shape after golfers probably died or were seriously injured. The bunkers are raked by machine, however there are plenty of bunkers that are simple impossible to rake unless by hand. Just climbing the hill adjacent to some is like climbing a wall.The fact that #13 is not in the Top 18 most picturesque holes in America only means someone needs to do their job. The backup on the hole must be insane. Golfers probably just look at the hole for 5 minutes before they even consider which club to hit. I also think #6 should be considered. From an average golf course perspective... There are 14 or 15 signature holes. From a great design perspective, there are 5 or 6. You have not lived until you play a hole with clouds shooting through the deep mountainous swales of your drive and approach shots. Philipsen told me #2 was his favorite hole of all time. Then he told me it was #4. Then he told me it was #13.All for $19.75 with cart and personal coolers 100% exposed at check-in. The greatest value in America at $40. Four golfers in two queen beds at a very nice Super 8 (exactly 12 minutes from the course) plus breakfast, plus 18 holes with cart, plus 6-pack of drinks is $34.75 per golfer.Pictures available at: -----------