While the old nine-hole Pineville golf course was the first one I ever played as a high schooler in the 1980s, the first 18-hole course I ever played was General Burnside Island Golf Course in General Burnside State Park.
Burnside was the third golf course I ever played behind the old Pineville golf course and Indian Springs Country Club in Knox County, which is a nine-hole course still in use today.
Compared to Pineville or Indian Springs, I remember Burnside seemed huge when I first played it. The then 14-year-old or so me found having 18 different holes on a course cool to play.
This was the first course I had ever played where you had to make blind shots, as in taking your second or third shot without being able to see the green.
For those unfamiliar with golf, on a blind shot you cannot see the green. You must walk on up where you can see the green, find a landmark you can see behind the green, then walk back to your ball, take your shot aiming at the landmark and hope you were right about where to aim. I am not sure this happened much the first time I played Burnside, or maybe even the second or third time I played there…LOL.
Burnside grew into one of my favorite courses to play over the years, and I would encourage any golfer, who has not played there to give it a try.
It is challenging without being frustratingly challenging.
Burnside Island is located near Somerset. It is adjacent to Lake Cumberland as in you can sometimes hear speedboats go by on a nice summer day on certain holes.
The course first opened in 1950, according to information from multiple Internet sources.
It was remodeled in 2008 by renowned golf course architect Brian Ault, who also crafted other Kentucky State Park golf courses, including Dale Hollow Lake and Gray Lake State Park Golf Courses, according to the Kentucky State Parks website.
I played this course a few times after it was remodeled. They essentially completely redid what was the back nine on the old course and made a couple of tweaks to what was the old front nine.
The current iteration of Burnside features four tee boxes for the men and three tee boxes for the ladies.
From what I can tell from online resources, this course measures 6,394 yards from the longest tees and 5,036 yards from the shortest tees.
The course features Zoysia fairways and bent grass tees and greens.
This is a par 71 course with a rating of 70.7 and a slope of 134.
The easiest hole on the course is the 172-yard par 3 14th hole. The hardest hole is the long 222-yard par 3 5th hole.
The course is open year-round to the public.
If you haven’t played this course before, I recommend giving it a try.
It is worth a day trip over towards Somerset to play. Plus, there are a lot of great restaurants you can check out while over there.
