GolfApparition

I believe this was the fourth time I've played here in the last decade, and each time the impression becomes more reinforced -- this is a singular golf experience in the Tri-state area of Greater Cincinnati, and a strong contender for best public course overall. Playing a course where such a large body of water influences play just can't be found anywhere else here. It's both strategic and beautiful (even though we played, at times, in a squall with gale-force winds!) The kicker is that the greens are as challenging as any course I've played in a long time, and that includes a number of larger name resort experiences where we've played. They were immaculate, fast and full of subtle breaks. You had to truly earn every good score you had for the day!

If your definition of Greater Cincinnati extends to Franklin County, Ind. (and technically I think that is considered part of the metroplex), there's no other course I'm aware of that gives you the change-up in character that Harbor Links delivers. Routed along the eastern shoreline of Brookville Lake, the location puts it next to a large enough body of water that you actually get the localized weather issues such as local varying winds based on air exchange between the warmer land the and the cooler lake surface. Now we're not talking Whistling Straits-level impacts here, but it is completely unique among all courses I can think of in this area. About a third of the holes are on the waterfront, and P.B. Dye got his money's worth in using that real estate to interject both strategy and variety into the layout. When you start to get to this point in the summer a lot of golfers are looking for something different to change things up, and Harbor Links totally fits that bill. As an addendum, as others have mentioned, the restaurant across the harbor has a real resort feel and is an excellent choice for rounding out a true change-of-pace day from the summer doldrums.

When my friend booked the tee time, I was aware of a season-long litany of complaints that conditions had really slipped at Shaker, so I had some trepidation as to what we might find. Having played our round, I think it only fair to report that those fears were largely unfounded, particularly for this time of year. Conditions were actually quite good for November golf. Greens on the Lakeside nine had been more recently aerated and still had a significant amount of gridding, but the Woodlands nine must have been done first, because conditions on that side were actually quite playable. The fairways seemed fine and ground cover by leaves looked to have been well-tended to (either by the course or Mother Nature, or both). Topping it off with a $21 greens fee o a layout as strong as this and we felt like we got great value, which is nice to be able to say and isn't necessarily something I would say all the time of Shaker during mid-season play.

Played here on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend. The golf course is in A+ shape right now. In particular, the greens are as quick and as challenging as any you will find in the state outside of the highest-end private courses. We played Woodside and Highlands and by the second nine, we were by ourselves with not a group in sight either behind or in front of us. To play this kind of golf for $24 on GolfNow was -- without exaggeration -- as good of a deal as exists in Greater Cincinnati today.