On Saturday morning we were back out at the University Club of Kentucky to check out the less popular Wildcat Course. The way things worked with the limited availability of tee times this trip it was easier to make two trips to the club, instead playing both courses in one day. We stayed close to the university and it wasn’t a bad drive, maybe 15 minutes.
When I say Wildcat is less popular, that was evident to even a first-timer! I booked my friend and I a tee time close to 9:00am and we checked in around 8:40am. The proshop said we could head straight over to the 1st tee and tee off! Meanwhile, multiple groups were lined up to go out on Big Blue, just like the day before! The proshop didn’t have us paired up with anyone but when we got to the 1st tee a single was waiting there, anxious to join us. In all my rounds I haven’t had anyone that excited to pair up, so we joined up with him and made our way around Wildcat as a threesome, in about 3 hours and 45 minutes. No one was in front of us and a foursome lagged behind, so it was a comfortable pace!
It was also a comfortable summer morning for golf! The cloudy conditions didn’t do any favors for my pictures, but the only time it got warm was when the sun poked out. We ended up having a nice lunch at Red State BBQ too, so life was good on Saturday!
Well, now about the Wildcat Course. From what I’ve found Daniel McQueen designed the Wildcat course the same time he designed the Big Blue course, in the early 1990’s. Then Arthur Hills redesigned Wildcat when he redid Big Blue. It turned out to be another tough course to play with a 139 slope from the four tees! Those tees are 6,638 yards and have a rating of 72.7 (par-71). I’m not sure which designer was responsible for the toughness, but it was clear Wildcat had been rerouted over the years!
Although things flowed fairly well when you consider the playability and placement of the holes throughout the round, my GPS had no idea which hole we were playing! The nines were flipped at some point and then more holes were shuffled up on the current back nine. For example, the current 11th hole showed as the 4th hole on my GPS! What was a little goofy was driving from the 16th hole (the original 9th I believe), which finishes close to the clubhouse, over to the 17th and 18th holes. The 17th and 18th holes are further away from the clubhouse and almost surprised me that I had two holes left to play! Plus, the best holes on the course are the current 7th and 8th, so you end up playing those holes earlier than the designer intended.
All that said, I didn’t mind playing the course the way it is setup. Currently, you begin the round with on the easier holes and the 1st is a less than 500 yard par-5, even from the tips. The course gets progressively more difficult with accuracy being needed to close out the front nine and a mix of accuracy and distance on the back nine.
The signature holes on Wildcat are the 7th and 8th, which bring a water hazard into play. The par-4 7th isn’t terribly long at 398 yards, however you need to hit two quality golf shots to find the green! The tee shot falls down to the fairway where two large trees pinch the landing area. More trees dot the left side and water starts up on the right. I pulled my tee shot and chopped my way down the left, fearful of the water! The green sits up against the water and anything short and right won’t be playable.
The 8th is a 167 yard par-3 that plays across the same water hazard that you just dealt with while on the 7th. If you don’t grab enough club or don’t hit it solid then the water is in play here.
The back nine on Wildcat turned out to be my least favorite of the four nines on the property. It runs out to the edge of the property and takes on a wooded feel for a handful of holes – it gets a bit tight on the 11th, 12th and 13th. Also, the remaining holes felt a bit repetitive. I thought the most interesting holes are two long par-4’s, the 10th and the 17th. Both holes force you to hit a good tee shot or risk clearing a creek that crosses short of the greens! The 10th had a great look with a tree short of the green and a hillside beyond.
As you can probably tell from my writing, Wildcat’s design takes a back seat to Big Blue. And, the conditioning was the same way. The greens here had more balls marks and little patches of crabgrass in spots. Those things didn’t seem to influence the rolls and the greens still rolled well. Somehow they were quicker than Big Blue, even after a overnight shower and the morning dew! They had that fiery trickle to them on the last five feet of putts and chips. The fairways and tees were nice. However, the course’s maintenance black eye were the awful bunkers. The bunkers were thin and filled with rocks. I used one of my old (already-chipped) clubs to play from one, even though it was the wrong club! All things considered, Wildcat is worth the $50 green fee, it just wasn’t as pristine as Big Blue.
My verdict on the University Club of Kentucky is that it is a great facility! Both courses are good, modern courses on a nice piece of property without any homes crowding the course. Big Blue is the course you’ll want to play if you only have time for one round, however if you are like us and want to play both courses I don’t think you’ll regret it! If I was a local I’d likely play two rounds on Big Blue for every one on Wildcat.
Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):