Park Mammoth Golf Club, Kentucky
Smiling on the eleventh green at Park Mammoth Golf Club in Park City, Kentucky.
After enjoying a morning stroll around Chariot Run Golf Club in Laconia, Indiana, which you can read about in my last post, I headed south into the Bluegrass State on Interstate 65. The area is defined by the forested bluegrass hills and white picket fences as far as the eye can see. I like when a region embraces its stereotypes, and Kentucky owns its equestrian roots.
Kentucky as a golfing state is top heavy, to be certain. The king of the state is undoubtedly Louisville’s Valhalla Golf Club, which boasts more than its fair share of golf history. Tiger Woods’ epic playoff duel over Bob May at the 2000 PGA Championship, the United States’ route of Europe in the 2008 Ryder Cup, and Rory McIlroy’s last major, the 2014 PGA, all took place at Valhalla. The PGA Championship will return to the course in May. Speaking of the PGA, the Barbasol Championship is also held every year at Keene Trace Golf Club in Lexington.
Forty percent of Kentucky’s 4.5 million residents live in the metropolitan areas of Louisville, Lexington, and Bowling Green, but I opted for a small-town golf course down the beaten path because its recent debut was embraced wholly by the golf world. Park Mammoth Golf Club is in Park City, a town nearly equidistant from Louisville and Nashville, Tennessee on Interstate 65. The area in west central Kentucky is known mostly for Mammoth Cave National Park, the longest known cave system on Earth, but Park Mammoth is beginning to draw in visitors as well. The 2022 redesign is already being recognized by national golf publications despite its youthful age. Golf.com named PM the fifth best golf course in the state, and the top daily fee option. Golf Digest declared Park Mammoth the third best new public golf course in the country last year.
Driving onto the property, the golfer is greeted by the driving range on the left and the eighth and ninth holes on the right. As you progress through the premises, nearly every single hole is visible. The first tee is about fifty yards from the interim clubhouse, while the big building under construction sits perched behind the intersection of the first and tenth tee boxes and the eighteenth green.
The club’s website notes Park Mammoth is where traditional golf meets new age design. Boy, could that assessment not be more spot on. A lot of new course designs incorporate the open fairway design of Park Mammoth, which places a premium more on approach shot placement than tee shot accuracy. It doesn’t matter if you’re a long hitter at Park Mammoth; if your ball striking isn’t worth a lick you will struggle immensely here. At the same time, the birthday cake style greens are a nod to the golden age of design. I’ve seen this strategy employed elsewhere, a big example being Lawsonia Links in Wisconsin, a perennial top 100 public golf course in the country.
I played in February, and therefore the Bermuda grass of the fairways and tee boxes were colored brown and yellow. Folks who have never played golf in the south are turned off by it, but I don’t mind. The bold green on the putting surface provides a nice contrast to the marigold. Unlike in the world of Zosia and bent grass golf courses, you may be able to putt off the fringe if the angles allow. I loved the greens here, for they were unpredictable yet very fair. I paid the twilight rate and walked the grounds. Park Mammoth was easily one of the best thirty-five dollar rounds of my life.
The golf course plays a mere 6215 yards from the tips, ironic given its name suggests the track is lengthy. It hosts a litany of great holes, perhaps none more encapsulating the Park Mammoth experience like the par four, 394-yard opener. The tee shot goes down the hill and back up to a green that slopes forward to a false front. I hit my approach shot a few yards short, only to have it roll back the hill thirty yards. I understood what Park Mammoth was all about right off the bat.
Holes eight and nine are two great short par fours leading back to the clubhouse. I could see a world where a bomb on the 348-yard eighth leaves a short, terrifying pitch to a green covered by bunkers short and long and a two-tiered, forward-sloping putting surface. You could have fifty yards in and have the shot be one of the most difficult approaches of the day. The old age design is exactly why I enjoyed Park Mammoth so much.
The best par three at the Craig and Coyne design is the eleventh, a 109-yard beauty with a bunker short and another left. The fifth is a crazy difficult one-shotter that plays over 220 yards without any wind. The seventh is an aesthetically pleasing par three that requires a precise mid-iron. Fifteen through eighteen is a worthy finish and nicknamed “The Cresendo”. I especially loved the par four fifteenth, a 390-yard beauty played into the meandering hills and trees. If you have a moment, drop another ball and play it off the back hill to the green.
There are a few quirky things golfers might not like about Park Mammoth. The clubhouse attendant informed me that when you step on the tee box of the second hole, a short par four, to aim at the right green. To the left was the pin of the fifth hole. If not instructed properly, I could see how a golfer would take aim at the left green and be extremely confused. Also, on the third tee, it may be unclear whether to pound your drive down the left or right. Aim right. Regardless, the current layout is two years old and I guarantee the club will mature into its location as time marches on.
If you’re looking for a memorable, unique experience at a reasonable rate, Park Mammoth is an obvious choice in Kentucky. Get your round in while this place is under the radar as is. It seems poised to shoot up in the national rankings soon. I can’t wait to get back to Park City for another try.