Fans of John Daly

When I rank my favorite golf courses of all time that I have played I always come back to the Kokomo Country Club in Kokomo, IN. It is the course I grew up on, it’s the course I have played over a 1,000 rounds on, it’s the course where I lived my childhood, it is the course I have to play once a year. So when I heard John Daly’s top five favorite courses of all time I understood where he was coming from. When he mentioned the Lion’s Den as his favorite course over St. Andrews and others I got it and at that moment I needed to play the Lion’s Den.
This past week I got the opportunity to play the Lion’s Den in Dardanelle, AR (John Daly’s Home course). The day was not what you would call golf weather in Arkansas. It was 50 degrees, overcast, windy and on this day at the Lion’s den I almost had the entire course to myself.
My day began meeting Mark Fairbanks who is the Golf Supt. and club Manager. Mark made me feel like we were old friends right away. We spoke for a few minutes and then he had to head off to meet the fed ex guy over at JD’s house. The Golf Channel was coming and sending items to JD’s house for a shoot on Thursday.
After Mark took off, I went in to pay for my golf which cost me $23.00 with a cart (Fall Rates) and $2.00 for a small bucket of balls. I needed to warm up as it was even cold for a guy from Chicago who has played golf in 20 degree weather.
I will not take the time to explain each hole as you need to experience that for yourself however, please write this down. SPEND TIME ON THE PUTTING GREEN. JD Warned me about the greens so I took the time to chip and putt before teeing off. The greens were mighty fast and slick. If I had not warmed up on the putting green I will guarantee you my score would have been 10 strokes higher this day. JD likes to keep the greens at 11 to a 14 on the stimpmeter. According to Wikepedia stimpmeter is defined as the following; a device used to measure the speed of a golf course putting green by applying a known force to a golf ball and measuring the distance traveled in feet.
Standing on the first tee I knew that this was going to be enjoyable. I was standing on the tee box where the 1991 PGA Champion and 1995 British Open Champion had spent many days of his life. I was in for a special round of golf.
The leaves were everywhere and the deer were staying on the golf course. They must have known they were safe here on the golf course. I did wonder at times if there were some hunters out there. After all hunting season began in Arkansas that week. Mark and I did joke about wearing Bright Orange on the course.
There are your scoring holes and there are your holes if you have a little twitch in your swing your number will sky rocket. The front nine is long and plays as a par 37. My favorite holes on the front nine were 5 and 6. Five is a challenge and the view is almost too good to be true. Six is a Par five and I took the walk to the upper level and played this hole from 566. I suggest walking up there and sit down and look at the view. In Chicago you will not find views like this on a golf course.
When looking at the scorecard for the back nine you will notice that it is short and a par 33. What you don’t know is that you will score high if you don’t watch it. Holes 11, 12, 13, 16, and 18 look easy on paper. People I said on paper! On the course they are some of the toughest holes for a guy from the Midwest who does not know how far the ball will travel when a hole is 320 yards and drops at a 45 degree angle. Or a par 4 that has a fairway that is narrower than a four lane highway not to mention surrounded by trees at the edge of the fairway.
I played this course to understand why this was his favorite course of all time. I realized while playing his course I did not have to play to understand why this is his favorite course of all time. Like John, my childhood course is my favorite golf course of all time. I hope one day I can get John to play with me at the Kokomo Country Club. As I think he would understand why it is my favorite course of all time as well.