Barry Slice's Golf Trail: UK Club

This week Barry Slice's Golf Trail heads to the rolling hills and horse farms of the Kentucky bluegrass to the University Club of Kentucky. I played this marvelous track most recently, so I felt it was most appropriate to include it on the list this week. The University Club is a massive complex, offering two championship courses with very diverse layouts, each of the two sides being very appropriately named, The Wildcat and the Big Blue. It is also the home course of the University of Kentucky Men's Golf Team, and hosts numerous competitive amateur events throughout the year. Each of the two courses are very much traditional American style layouts, with bent grass tees, fairways and greens. The rough is lush and at times can very penalizing Kentucky Bluegrass. Both courses were in absolutely tremendous condition the last time I played there. Located in the rolling hills of the Kentucky Bluegrass region, the courses offer great, expansive views of the Kentucky landscape on a few holes, which also adds to some very challenging golf at times. The Big Blue course is the tougher of the two sides, in my personal opinion. It is the longer of the two courses, playing at just over 7000 yards from the championship tees. If the back tees aren't your thing, the Big Blue side offers 5 different sets of tees for varying degrees of experience. Big Blue is more of a bombers course in comparison to the Wildcat side. It has wide, expansive fairways, allowing for room for error off the tee. There is a ton of water on the course, that comes into play on seven of the eighteen holes. The greens on the Big Blue side are large but extremely undulated, so putting can be tricky at times. Hitting the green in regulation rarely guarantees a par on the Big Blue side. The Wildcat is a little less challenging than the Big Blue but it is a very fun layout, that requires a little more strategic thinking. The Wildcat side is riddled with doglegs, meandering around mature forestry and water hazards. Driver is not the play off the tee on numerous holes, I have even hit iron off multiple tee boxes. It is much shorter than Big Blue, however, playing just over 6,600 yards. The Wildcat side features four sets of tees instead of five like the Big Blue. I think the Wildcat is a very fun golf course to play, and not as easy to play as the Big Blue without prior experience of the golf course. Both golf courses are very fun and challenging tracks. They're almost always in absolute pristine condition, so a bad experience on the golf course is rarely had. Both courses have good report cards. Big Blue Fairways: A Tees: A- Greens: B+ Rough: A Bunkers: B+ Walker Friendly: B- Difficulty: 7/10 Wildcat Fairways: B+ Tees: A- Greens: B+ Rough: A Bunkers: B Walker Friendly: A Difficulty: 6/10