The Ridge Club Cincinnati, Ohio

[BEND OF THE RIVER GC]

Bendelow Designed 1902 formeraly named Losantiville CC

We finally had a nice day and I had the opportunity to play The Ridge Club (formerly known as Losantiville CC). This course was designed by Tom Bendelow, The "Johnny Appleseed" of course designers, in 1902. The course plays to a par of 70 with a slope of 131 from the blue tees and a course rating of 71.9. I love these older layouts that are fairly compact and challenging much better than the newer cookie cutter style courses that stretch out to 7200 yards everywhere. I believe that 6500 yards is plenty given the right topography and greens. You can tell that Bendelow used the natural topography of the land here and did not move very much earth around (of course, back then it took a lot of horses and manpower to move dirt around). According to Golfclubatlas.com, Bendelow was not one to change what land he was given to work with back in the day. The Ridge Club is an excellent example of this design philosophy. This course, while just shy of 6500 yards from the tips is compact, but I never felt really squeezed off the tee, well maybe just on a few holes! When hitting into trees, it is smart to take your medicine and "just punch back out to the fairway". Of course, I did not take my own advice when I should have! This golf course really has it all; trees, a little water, nice bunkers with fine sand (the sand traps could be deeper though), great fairways, plenty of ravines and hills, doglegs, a reachable par 5, a NOT so reachable 555 yard par 5, several par 4's over 400 yards, small to medium sized greens that on many of the uphill holes, slope from the back to the front. This is especially daunting if you hit it long, past the flag. Hit it short on a front pin placement and you are probably rolling back off the green 20 yards (or more) back into the fairway on some holes. The fact that there were many uphill shots into greens really made you think (or even second guess yourself) club selection as well as the actual yardage to the pin. These greens were FAST and held all shots quite superbly, and I was playing a DT SoLo all day. I bet they are much faster in the summer as well. The course is literally landlocked between some older neighborhoods, the clubhouse is older and somewhat out of date as well. Although not considered to be on the same level as Donald Ross in golf architecture circles, Bendelow has a few famous courses in his design portfolio; Olympia Fields CC and Medinah CC, both in Illinois and East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. Enjoy the pictures:

[Bogeyman82]

I'm from Cincinnati and I have heard little to nothing about that course. Is it open to the public?

[BEND OF THE RIVER GC]

Private, but hurting for members. Located in Pleasant Ridge.

[Herm33]

This course combined membership with the former Crest Hills Golf Club. One of the few private tracks in the Cincy area I haven't played, but it's always been known for super slick greens in the summer. Nice pictures, hoping I'll get to play there someday.