I’ve been working near Louisville for a few weeks now and wanted to get out for some golf. Over the years I’ve managed to play two of the nicer public courses on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River, so I wanted to hit a couple on the Indiana side.

Covered Bridge Golf Club and Champions Pointe Golf Club seem to be two of the area’s top public courses. Both courses are associated with Fuzzy Zoeller. From what I can find I think Zoeller was involved in the design, but the scorecard lists Clyde Johnston as the architect here. Odd.

I started my day out with a morning tee time at Covered Bridge. The green fee was $100 (too much) and if it wasn’t prepaid I would have tried playing somewhere else. From the parking lot I could see a number of fairways with some large winterkill patches. I understand it is early in the season, but at least adjust the green fee accordingly.

The course gets its name from a bridge that crosses a creek – nothing too special if you ask me. But, I guess you gotta do something to try to be unique. As you’d expect with a name like “Covered Bridge”, there is quite a bit of water in play. Best guess, I’d say about half the holes have water that can catch a poor shot. There are some forced carries, but thankfully the water is off to the side of most holes.

The front nine is pretty flat and highlighted by the par-3’s. Both par-3’s play across water and have an intimating look. From the black tees the 3rd is 173 yards while the 8th is 195 yards. The back nine has a little elevation change and some homes that line four or five holes. The best hole on the back nine is probably the par-5 18th. It is 541 yards and has a large double green that is shared with the 9th. The clubhouse sits on the hillside in the background.

I played the black tees which are 6,832 yards. The rating is 72.8 and the slope is 134.  Not my smartest choice, but the gold tees are only 6,372 yards. Big yardage gap. Anyway, I found the layout to be fair, albeit a bit bland. Things aren’t overly narrow which was nice. My biggest gripe is that there just isn’t much variety in the yardages. The par-3’s are 168, 173, 192, and 195 yards. Every par-4 plays between 371 and 427 yards. The par 5’s are 525, 531, 541, and 547 yards. Blah.

I touched a bit on the conditions already. For such a premium price early in the season I was disappointed with my round at Covered Bridge. The fairways need plenty of work. The tees were decent. The rough was thick and tough to play from. The greens rolled slow, but smooth.

Based on what I saw today, it is hard for me to recommend a round at Covered Bridge this time of year. If the price was closer to $70 then I’d be able to overlook the early season scruffiness. For $100 with the current conditions, I’d wait to play here until everything greens up.

Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):