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I was asked to play 18 holes at Chapel Hill Golf course in Mt. Vernon on a beautiful September Sunday. I had to make a choice between mowing the grass, watching the Browns or going golfing, guess which one I chose.
Chapel Hill Golf Course is located just outside of Mt. Vernon Ohio, so it really isn’t on your way to any place so if you go play here you are either a local or this was your destination and you chose to drive a good bit out of your way to play here. I had heard a lot of good things so I was looking forward to seeing the course.
We had a 10:30 tee time and having never been here I was surprised when upon following the GPS directions I pulled up in front of what appeared to be a large church on top of a hill. The reason it looks so much like a church is because it was one. The folks who built the course back in the 1990’s, purchased the campus of the former Mt. Vernon Bible College so what is now the club house and snack bar used to be the chapel for the college. I guess you could say that you were going to church but actually play golf without having told a lie.
The course was pretty busy, it was a beautiful day and there were tee times lined up before and after us. Cost to play was very reasonable, I opted for 18 holes which came with a free bucket of range balls or a drink ticket, which cost $42. Another option would have been for unlimited play including food and beverages, which cost $60 I think. The hitch in the unlimited beverages was there was no beverage service on the course so you were limited to what you could take out onto the course. Pace of play was average. We were waiting on each tee on another foursome in our group but never so long as to be annoying.
I really enjoyed the course, the distances were not so great as to be difficult for a hacker like myself, and for the most part the fairways were wide enough to manage to stay in them. There is water on 7 holes but there were no long carries over water so staying out of it isn’t particularly difficult.
The course website says they have 5 different tee lengths, I only noted four, we played from the white tees which made the course length to be 6034 yards. Playing from the golds (seniors) that dropped to 5221, from the magenta (ladies) tees it was 4621. Tee boxes were bent grass, greens were bent grass and Poa annua. Fairways were blue grass. The greens were in very good shape with the exception of unrepaired ball marks. The only green I was very disappointed with was #16, the shortest par 3 which has been damaged by so many high arcing iron shots slamming into it and not being repaired by person’s who must think that fixing a ball mark is beneath them.
The 4 par five holes range from 457 yards to 521, averaging 492yards (playing from the white tees). The Par fours average 345 yards each and range from 412 to 281 yards. The par threes average 155 yards ranging from 193 to 128 yards in length.
One of the neat features of the course was the 5 holes (I think it was 5) on the back 9 that were off through the woods and across a road. These five (or was it 4?) holes were for the most part shorter with very wide open fairways. Bigger hitters than me can drive the greens on 2 of the three par 4’s with ease. The problem in doing so was that 2 of these involved sharp doglegs so for going at the green would require you to carry a lot of trees to a green you can’t see. The alternative (for me the only choice) was to club down and drive the ball to the dogleg and take the easy chip on. I’m not used to having to make a selection other than a driver on anything other than a par 3, and I liked the availability of a high risk /reward for the big hitters, coupled with the availability of potential par and birdie opportunities for less aggressive hitters who place their shots precisely.
One feature of the course I did not like was the almost total absence of yardage markers. The website say the carts are equipped with GPS to tell the distances from anywhere on the course. Maybe that was true at one time but not today. There were a few well marked holes on the front 9 at the 150 yard mark, but nothing at 100 anywhere. Sprinkler heads had yardage markings on them if you happened to find a sprinkler head, but the addition of blue, white and red markers would be very helpful and easy to do. Mowing was a little lacking in the areas immediately off the fairway. The course is well watered and fertilized so the grass is still growing well even this late in the season. It would have been preferable to mow it a bit more tightly. I didn’t’ lose a ball in the rough, but I found a few from others who weren’t as lucky.
In all I very much enjoyed my round and found the 1 hour drive to get here to be time well spent. I would encourage you to make the trip to Knox county and play a round at the Chapel Hill Golf Course

For my 2nd review I decided to visit a course I know well and at which I am a member, the Ashland Golf Club. Being a member for a couple of years and playing in leagues here, one would expect that I might demonstrate some evidence of competence when it comes to playing golf here, however, the opposite is closer to the truth. The Ashland Golf club is where I go to be humbled.
This is a beautiful course. The original 9 was opened back in the 1920’s and was designed by Willie Park Jr., one of the great early course designers and a two time Open Champion. The original drawings from the architect are framed and hung in the restaurant, and from my examination, the front 9 layout remains very true to these drawings.
Ashland is one of an increasing number of clubs that was established as a private country club and has since converted to allow public play; this allows the general public to play some really beautiful older courses.
I arrived at the course at 2:00pm on a Saturday afternoon, it was cold and overcast so the course was not crowded we paid and walked onto the first tee. Due to Covid 19 restrictions, the driving range and the restaurant are closed (except for carryout), so my review will only deal with the course on this day.
The course is in beautiful condition. The fairways and greens are very well tended and mowed in the patterns that serve no purpose I know of other than to make them look fancy. The fairway margins were better mowed than the fairways at most public courses, I don’t recall seeing a single weed in the fairway’s and it and a recent fertilizer application was in evidence.
Ashland is a tough course. For the most part the fairways are narrow and tree lined. An errant shot left or right will most of the time leave you with no good path to the green other than a punch shot to put you back in the fairway. Consequently as a result of having played here so much, I have gotten pretty good at that shot. There are significant elevation changes, raised tee boxes opening out onto the fairways most of which feature some degree of undulation. It would be fair to describe the course as being part of an urban forest. The number of trees allows for a good separation of each fairway, and the fairway for the next hole is not always evident from the tee box. I like this feature as you focus on each hole one at a time and each hole reveals itself in its turn. I have always liked the routing of the course for this reason, particularly on the front 9. While the course is mostly surrounded by neighborhoods, relatively few of the holes, and mostly just on the back 9, have houses backing up to the course.
The feature I have heard most commonly mentioned in reference to this course is the prevalence of water on it. There are 2 creeks that snake through the course and they come into play on 13 of the 18 holes. An additional hole has a pond fronting the green, so on 14 holes, water is a hazard, on a couple of holes the creeks come into play more than once. I will not claim to have never lost a ball in a creek here but they don’t cause me as much difficulty as the abundance of trees and my #1 nemesis, the greens, more on them to come.
The creeks can vary in width from only a few yards to a chasm spanning 30 to 40 yards, erosion, particularly evident in heavy spring rains last year, widened many of them considerably, removed some older trees (probably a good thing) and exposed a lot of banks in places that will need to be stabilized to prevent further erosion. Even with all of that, it is not difficult to reach the greens while still retaining a possibility of par if you manage to stay in the fairway off the tee. The course is not terribly long (the 10 par fours average 367 yards, the 4 par fives average 504 yards and the par 3’s range from 156 – 199 yards),and can be played well from the whites by golfers with only average distance off the tee. It’s when you get to the greens that you are really tested.
I played a very good round this day (for me) so far as my tee to green game, by that I mean I reached the green with at least a chance of par on most holes, certainly a single bogie would have been a realistic achievement. The thing to note about the greens at Ashland is that on a lot of them it isn’t important just to be close to the hole, you have to consider where in relation to the hole your ball is. It isn’t enough to be 18 inches from the cup if you are 18 inches above the hole, miss by an inch and you will probably end up 6 feet or further away on the down slope. Approach a hole from the side and if you don’t find the perfect line, your chances of 3 putting are very good. The greens this day were particularly fast and I paid dearly for that. I averaged almost 2.3 putts per hole and four putted more than once. My personal nightmare this day was on #4, only the 8th toughest hole on the course, if the score card is to be believed. Tee to green I agree, it is easy but this was one that I four putted.
I am by no means complaining about the greens, they are what they are and the degree of difficulty is not a result of poor maintenance or poor surface conditions, they are just tough. If you play once a week in season and want to break 80, don’t come here, it isn’t going to happen.
The only things I can really fault this course for are the sand bunkers which badly need to be dug out and have new sand put in. After heavy or sustained rainfall they become impromptu water hazards and the sand is so hard that you can frequently count on bouncing a ball through or out of the traps. Although the course has been removing trees over the last few years, particularly ash trees which have died, there remain too many in places, they are starting to become a hindrance to play, in another 10 years unless a more aggressive removal strategy is adopted, play will be adversely effected. Lastly, some of the tee boxes are also in need of some attention. I had to search around on a few to find a spot where my feet felt like they were on the same level as the ball.
Playing with my son, we finished in just over 4 hours, the course was not crowded so pace of play was as fast or as slow as we wanted to go, I typically avoid busier times, but have never found the pace to be slow. Slower players are generally accommodating about letting faster ones go through.
I highly recommend the Ashland Golf Club to players who are skilled or at least experienced. This is a tough place to come out and have fun if you don’t play frequently or haven’t played in a long while. It can be unforgiving. When I started playing 4 years ago, I wouldn’t play the course although I took my lessons here. I just didn’t feel I was ready and I think that judgement was correct. The cost to play 18 with a cart varies day of the week and time of day, ranging from $30 to $49 on a week day and $35 - $49 on the weekend.

Review Ashland Golf Club
1333 Center Street
Ashland, OH 44805
419-289-3767
Ashlandgolfclubohio.com
For my 2nd review I decided to visit a course I know well and at which I am a member, the Ashland Golf Club. Being a member for a couple of years and playing in leagues here, one would expect that I might demonstrate some evidence of competence when it comes to playing golf here, however, the opposite is closer to the truth. The Ashland Golf club is where I go to be humbled.
This is a beautiful course. The original 9 was opened back in the 1920’s and was designed by Willie Park Jr., one of the great early course designers and a two time Open Champion. The original drawings from the architect are framed and hung in the restaurant, and from my examination, the front 9 layout remains very true to these drawings.
Ashland is one of an increasing number of clubs that was established as a private country club and has since converted to allow public play; this allows the general public to play some really beautiful older courses.
I arrived at the course at 2:00pm on a Saturday afternoon, it was cold and overcast so the course was not crowded we paid and walked onto the first tee. Due to Covid 19 restrictions, the driving range and the restaurant are closed (except for carryout), so my review will only deal with the course on this day.
The course is in beautiful condition. The fairways and greens are very well tended and mowed in the patterns that serve no purpose I know of other than to make them look fancy. The fairway margins were better mowed than the fairways at most public courses, I don’t recall seeing a single weed in the fairway’s and it and a recent fertilizer application was in evidence.
Ashland is a tough course. For the most part the fairways are narrow and tree lined. An errant shot left or right will most of the time leave you with no good path to the green other than a punch shot to put you back in the fairway. Consequently as a result of having played here so much, I have gotten pretty good at that shot. There are significant elevation changes, raised tee boxes opening out onto the fairways most of which feature some degree of undulation. It would be fair to describe the course as being part of an urban forest. The number of trees allows for a good separation of each fairway, and the fairway for the next hole is not always evident from the tee box. I like this feature as you focus on each hole one at a time and each hole reveals itself in its turn. I have always liked the routing of the course for this reason, particularly on the front 9. While the course is mostly surrounded by neighborhoods, relatively few of the holes, and mostly just on the back 9, have houses backing up to the course.
The feature I have heard most commonly mentioned in reference to this course is the prevalence of water on it. There are 2 creeks that snake through the course and they come into play on 13 of the 18 holes. An additional hole has a pond fronting the green, so on 14 holes, water is a hazard, on a couple of holes the creeks come into play more than once. I will not claim to have never lost a ball in a creek here but they don’t cause me as much difficulty as the abundance of trees and my #1 nemesis, the greens, more on them to come.
The creeks can vary in width from only a few yards to a chasm spanning 30 to 40 yards, erosion, particularly evident in heavy spring rains last year, widened many of them considerably, removed some older trees (probably a good thing) and exposed a lot of banks in places that will need to be stabilized to prevent further erosion. Even with all of that, it is not difficult to reach the greens while still retaining a possibility of par if you manage to stay in the fairway off the tee. The course is not terribly long (the 10 par fours average 367 yards, the 4 par fives average 504 yards and the par 3’s range from 156 – 199 yards),and can be played well from the whites by golfers with only average distance off the tee. It’s when you get to the greens that you are really tested.
I played a very good round this day (for me) so far as my tee to green game, by that I mean I reached the green with at least a chance of par on most holes, certainly a single bogie would have been a realistic achievement. The thing to note about the greens at Ashland is that on a lot of them it isn’t important just to be close to the hole, you have to consider where in relation to the hole your ball is. It isn’t enough to be 18 inches from the cup if you are 18 inches above the hole, miss by an inch and you will probably end up 6 feet or further away on the down slope. Approach a hole from the side and if you don’t find the perfect line, your chances of 3 putting are very good. The greens this day were particularly fast and I paid dearly for that. I averaged almost 2.3 putts per hole and four putted more than once. My personal nightmare this day was on #4, only the 8th toughest hole on the course, if the score card is to be believed. Tee to green I agree, it is easy but this was one that I four putted.
I am by no means complaining about the greens, they are what they are and the degree of difficulty is not a result of poor maintenance or poor surface conditions, they are just tough. If you play once a week in season and want to break 80, don’t come here, it isn’t going to happen.
The only things I can really fault this course for are the sand bunkers which badly need to be dug out and have new sand put in. After heavy or sustained rainfall they become impromptu water hazards and the sand is so hard that you can frequently count on bouncing a ball through or out of the traps. Although the course has been removing trees over the last few years, particularly ash trees which have died, there remain too many in places, they are starting to become a hindrance to play, in another 10 years unless a more aggressive removal strategy is adopted, play will be adversely effected. Lastly, some of the tee boxes are also in need of some attention. I had to search around on a few to find a spot where my feet felt like they were on the same level as the ball.
Playing with my son, we finished in just over 4 hours, the course was not crowded so pace of play was as fast or as slow as we wanted to go, I typically avoid busier times, but have never found the pace to be slow. Slower players are generally accommodating about letting faster ones go through.
I highly recommend the Ashland Golf Club to players who are skilled or at least experienced. This is a tough place to come out and have fun if you don’t play frequently or haven’t played in a long while. It can be unforgiving. When I started playing 4 years ago, I wouldn’t play the course although I took my lessons here. I just didn’t feel I was ready and I think that judgement was correct. The cost to play 18 with a cart varies day of the week and time of day, ranging from $30 to $49 on a week day and $35 - $49 on the weekend.