Walden Ponds
Golf Club:
Easy Like
Sunday Morning
By John Eckberg,
Staff Writer
INDIAN SPRINGS, OH (Sept. 10, 2002) -- Walden Ponds Golf Club has come into its own in recent years and here at the course between Dayton and Cincinnati, you find that Toro has successfully made amends with Thoreau - America's first Walden Pond watcher.
Once considered the kid sister of nearby Shaker Run - both are owned and managed by Vintage Golf Properties - Walden Ponds can stand on its own, as it has finally blossomed into a top course in Southwest Ohio.
The layout has few blind holes and many distinctive touches, most having something to do with trouble and usually the trouble stems from the quiet water of a little pond. Was Henry David Thoreau a golfer? If so, he might have liked this track and the sense of nature evident on some holes.
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In fact, No. 8 is the only green with one trap on its edge. Most have two or three, though No. 18 has four.
Water is not spared on this course, either, as fairways are a crisp and brilliant green, off-set by the drought-like conditions of the long rough and natural fairway grasses that line most holes. Water can do amazing things to a course in the summer.
During one recent weekday round, a half-wedge to No. 4 hit once on the green, then skipped and came to a squeaky stop in the frog-hair on the back edge. Yes, the ball actually chirped like a squeegee on wet glass.
There are other compelling features. Everywhere are those deep-faced bunkers, some fairways like No. 16 are literally littered with them, and of course Walden Ponds has large greens that have become a consistent theme of course designer Michael Hurdzan.
The course winds through and past seas of roofs in a nearby subdivision but the houses are not distracting on every hole. The natural grasses bring in plenty of red-winged blackbirds and the dozen or so ponds lure ducks and predators like red-tailed hawks and owls.
The course was built on an estate once owned by Gordon Soho Rentschler, who was a former president and chief executive of CitiBank who came here to relax when he needed to get out of the Big Apple.
After one summer weekday round, Ron Kollar, an independent real estate appraiser, said he was most impressed with the par fives. What made them fun, he said, was that they were not beyond the driver-3-wood combo that most golfers wield when seeking eagles.
"If you hit two great shots," he said, "the par fives are all reachable, especially No. 10 and No. 18. It's nice to step to the tee on those holes and think that maybe you have a chance at an eagle but that the hole has length enough to make it a challenge."
"That's always fun."
Kollar, too, was taken back by the politeness and concern of the staff. "I was here for about an hour before my tee-time. I hit a small bag and then rolled some putts," he said. "I had lots of people on staff asking me how I was doing. That's always good to see."
Kollar's favorite hole might be No. 9, he explained, a tough 187-yard carry from the blues across a splendid little valley. He said it looked like a classic Roi Dan hole with an elevated green and protected on the left by a big, deep bunker that cascades down below the hole, virtually all the way into the woods.
From the bottom of this splaying bunker, it's a 12-foot sheer pitch back up to the green - enough of a challenge for any scratch golfer and too much of a challenge, probably, for the bogey shooters out there.
Golfers here can spring $5 for a GPS monitor and each foursome should probably have at least one of these high-tech guides.
Conditions are uniformly sweet and because of that consistent attention to detail - many examples of courtesy and service from the driveway turn-around to the 19th hole beer tap - management is able to offer a series of prices for a variety of club memberships.
Some of the specials have an appeal that makes this course something of a poor man's private country club. A platinum level of $2,000 tops the special offers with unlimited golf and a lot of other perks, but others go all the way down to a 12-coupon book for $495. That coupon book is perfect for any group of golfers who know they will play here at least once a season because it just about halves the regular rate for green fees.
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Getting to a course is always half the challenge of a day-on-the-road but that is not a worry here as a new highway makes the drive a quick straight-shot off I-75. For information on how to get to this course on the edge of the city of Hamilton: www.waldenponds.com/Images/img_locationmap.gif
And unlike many far-flung Midwestern golf courses on the edge of small cities, this course actually has a bed-and-breakfast nearby.
The White Rose Bed and Breakfast, just down the road in Hamilton in the small city's historic district, offers a little opulence and a relaxed and quiet atmosphere for post-round recuperation. You may get Belgium waffles with German syrup for breakfast. See more at http://www.bbonline.com/oh/whiterose/
The other major reason to come to this course is but a mile down the highway into Hamilton then onto High Street and across the Great Miami River south two miles to Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park and Museum. This collection of outdoor art is literally unsurpassed in the world - well, the Guggenheim maybe has a nicer collection.
Here's what the Atlantic Monthly has to say: "The 265 acres here, in the midst of rolling hills, are surely the most beautiful natural setting of any art park in the country" and other raves are commonplace throughout the international art world about these sculptures.
The collection includes work by Tony Rosenthal, Tom Gibbs, Marc Mellon and many others. Here, too, visitors can find a Sunday afternoon concert series in the outdoor amphitheater. For more information: http://www.pyramidhill.org/main/magic/main.cgi?a=1
Oxford, the home of Miami University is just a few miles down the road and that city has a lively and thriving performing arts community, too, if any golfer is thinking about making this trip to southwest Ohio a weekend-long excursion this fall.
Walden Ponds Golf Club
6090 Golf Club Lane
Indian Springs, Ohio 45011
Phone: (513) 785-2999
http://www.waldenponds.com
Tees Yards Rating Slope
Black 7,000 74.1 134
Blue 6,404 71.2 129
White 5,840 68.8 124
Red 4,885 68.2 121
Prices:
Cart/18 holes Monday-Thursday - $47
Cart/18 holes Friday - $50
Cart/18 holes before 11 a.m. Saturday-Sunday - $60 (includes range balls)
Twilight 18 holes (4 p.m. or after) Monday-Friday - $34
Super Twilight (6 p.m.) - $20
Global Positioning System: $5
