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RILEY SCOTT
05.30.19
For anyone looking to blow a couple hours and soak up the weather while it’s nice, the Ohio University Golf Course is one way to spend a day. Cheap fees and an easy course makes for a pair that a broke and bored college student can’t refuse.
Golf and springtime in Athens go about as well together as baseball and hot dogs. The weather is beautiful, the grass is green and the course never has many people playing at one time. That combo should reel anyone in to play, and $12 for a student to play 18 holes is as cheap as it gets in golf today.
Brien Vincent | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The Ohio University Golf Course hosts 2,000 rounds per month, used by students, area residents and both golf teams. About 40 Campus Recreation employs maintain the course.
The layout of the course is what makes it interesting. As is normal for Athens, the course has hills and slopes on most of its holes. Alongside that, the Hocking River separates the course, with a couple holes nuzzled around the river and the highway.
Minding all the goose crap in the fairways, the course is in good shape. Despite being only a nine-hole course, it plays very quick. A group can blow through a full round of 18 in well under four hours if you can hit the ball farther than 50 yards.
The ease of the course cannot be understated. If you have even so much as picked up a golf club before, you won’t have too much trouble navigating the links. The Hocking River runs straight down the middle of the course as a way to provide a challenge to those who don’t have their swing under control. But unless you play from the championship tees or have a hook that sends the ball sideways, the Hocking is more there for intimidation.
The simplicity can be forgiven, though. It’s a public golf course at a university, not Augusta National. People are expected to have fun while playing their rounds and not be pushed to their breaking point by how hard it is, so don’t head there looking for a challenge. Go in with a group of four, and enjoy the game.
All in all, playing a round at OU’s Golf Course makes for an easy day of leisure and hanging out with friends. There’s no big challenge or rush because there’s no need.
Grab your clubs, crack open a cold one (only if you’re legal, of course) and enjoy the day.
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This story is part of a series of specially designed stories that represents some of the best journalism The Post has to offer. Check out the rest of the special projects here.