Elks Run Golf Club near Cincinnati is on the rebound
BATAVIA, Ohio -- It's hard to fathom that Elks Run Golf Club is a foreclosed property still owned by the bank. It just might be the most fun Greg Norman design I've played. It's playable, scenic and challenging all rolled in one.
A remote location roughly 25 miles west of Cincinnati is the only thing holding it back. Elks Run G.C., which opened in 1999, actually closed for eight months before reopening in July 2011 under Sequoia Golf, a management company based in Georgia.
Director of Golf Brad Adams said Sequoia is trying to return Elks Run to Norman's original design, allowing a regrowth of the heather lining the fairways. "It didn't have that definition it needed," he said.
That decision will only affect the most wayward shots on what Adams calls the widest fairways in Cincinnati. So many memorable shots make the day. The par 5s at No. 3 and No. 5 share a double green protected by the same pond. Creeks dominate the back nine, coming into play on holes 10 through 15.
Everybody raves about the variety of the par 3s. Long irons or woods on No. 2 and No. 17 complement dramatic downhill wedge shots at No. 8 and No. 12.
"This course you could play every day. A lot of courses you play once and you are done with it," Adams said.
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