The Club at Olde Stone

Bowling Green in Kentucky is one of the most desirable neighbourhoods in the USA, so it will come as no surprise to find out that the Club at Olde Stone is at the heart of a residential community.

Opened for members play in 2006, the Club at Olde Stone came from the burgeoning portfolio of veteran architect Arthur Hills. But it was the Ryder Cup that gave Olde Stone some very useful PR a couple of years after it first opened its tees for play.

In autumn 2008, the golfing world descended on Valhalla in Kentucky to watch the USA win the Ryder Cup for the first time since 1999. One week later, the Junior Ryder Cup was held at Olde Stone and the US juniors unceremoniously thrashed the Europeans.

Here’s what Steve Newman, Head Golf Professional at Olde Stone, had to say ahead of the Junior Ryder Cup: “To have an event of this magnitude coming to Bowling Green says a lot about Olde Stone and the potential for hosting major events in the future. The course is getting rave reviews from the various raters who have played the course, and they’ve arrived here by the dozen. The word is clearly out. They have specifically commented on the variety of the holes, the greens and surrounds. And many of them have said this is the toughest rough they have ever played.”

According to Daniel Wexler, writing in The American Private Golf Club Guide, “Routed over hilly, mostly open terrain, it offers a surprising degree of variety within its 7,372-yard frame, with front nine highlights including the 450-yard 4th (which slips between 17 fairway bunkers – seriously – before reaching a green angled behind one larger patch of sand), the 350-yard 6th (an engaging drive-and-pitch) and the 568-yard 7th, a split fairway dogleg left played to a tiny green perched above Drake’s Creek.”