I made the drive out to Table Rock Golf Course (about 40 minutes from Columbus, Ohio). I had not played there in several years and a $10 greens fee through golfnow.com for 18 holes and a cart made it irresistible. In fact, it felt like stealing.
Upon driving up to the course, I quickly remembered reading an article that Table Rock had established a foot golf course and quite a few people were partaking in that activity on an early Wednesday afternoon. I’m not sure what the etiquette is when dealing with foot golfers as their holes sometimes intertwine with the golf holes but I let commonsense prevail and just waited for them to get out of the way. I’m not sure foot golfers know what etiquette is involved either as the few I ran into didn’t seem to be overly concerned with letting me pass easily. I imagine that Table Rock advises participants on etiquette but am not sure. Foot golf seemed to be confined to the front nine as I encountered no foot golfers on the back nine and don’t remember seeing any foot golf holes there either.
I ended up playing from the white tees as I didn’t remember the course but probably should have played from the blue or black tees. Table Rock has quite a few holes with water hazards placed in the middle of the fairways. The first hole starts out that way. I really enjoy my golflogix app as it gives you distances to such hazards or to any point on a hole.
I don’t play as often as I would like and when I do play I like to hit the driver but the pond on the first hole dictated a three wood. Sometimes your smoothest swings are your longest hits and I nearly dunked it in the pond with a three wood. The fairways were playing hard and fast as well which added some extra distance. I hit my approach short of the green but the hard and fast conditions caused the ball to jump up on the green and roll to the hole. Green conditions indicate that Table Rock receives a decent amount of play. After the first hole, the driver can come out on the par 4s and 5s until you get to number nine where water comes into play off the tee again.
The par 4 fourth may also counsel against using the driver if you decide to stick to the fairway. It is a dogleg right with out of bounds to the left but there’s plenty of room to the right of the trees and you can go directly at the green from the tee. A mishit still only left me 60 some yards from the hole. A longish par 3 fifth over water was a nice challenge. Also, the par 4 seventh to a peninsula green required some nerve on the approach shot but a big green is receptive to those not wanting to be short.
The back nine is much tighter and requires a bit more planning. I was just shy of the water off the tee at ten. I produced a memorable tee shot on the par 4 eleventh, a tight dogleg right with a large tree and bunker guarding the right edge. I put it to 100 yards and centered it on the fairway.
Leave the driver in the bag on 14. Things get real tight up the left side there. I believe this is the start of their amen corner but really didn’t understand the challenge to the short par 4 15th and the short par 3 16th. At 17, it seemed like there was no way I could reach the water at over 300 yards away. Of course, I hit my best tee shot of the day which was swallowed up by the water. That was particularly frustrating to be penalized for hitting a damn fine shot and I made a mental note to play from at least the blue tees next time.
18 presents you with water up the left that really shouldn’t come into play. The challenge is the trees on the right that may affect your second shot to the green. I hit my first bunker there and some new sand is in order for those bunkers.
Overall, Table Rock produced an enjoyable round. I’ll come back if I can find another $10 deal and play from at least the blue tees next time. I’ll also bring my thinking cap for the back nine.