Course Comparisons / Kentucky

Cherry Blossom Golf Club vs. Longview Golf Course: The Georgetown Choice

Georgetown is a small Kentucky city that ended up with a genuinely interesting golf choice, because its two main courses were built for opposite purposes and both succeeded. One is a polished semi-private course in a residential community that was named the No. 1 public course in Kentucky by Golf Magazine for seven straight years, 2004 to 2010. The other is a public daily fee course on rolling Bluegrass ground that started life, improbably, as the first private club in Scott County. Cherry Blossom against Longview is polish against value, and Georgetown golfers are lucky the argument exists at this scale.

Cherry Blossom is a Clyde Johnston design, the centerpiece of the Cherry Blossom Village community. The record carries two dates worth sorting out honestly: the club lists a 1994 origin in some summaries, while LINKS Magazine describes it as opening in 2001 as a Johnston design. Either way, the course that exists plays par 72 at 6,866 yards with only 38 bunkers, which is a strikingly low bunker count for a modern community course and a clue about where its difficulty actually lives. The signature holes named by LINKS are the 150 yard island-green par 3 12th and the 439 yard par 4 18th, which carries nine bunkers and water, nearly a quarter of the course's entire bunker total saved for the last hole. That is a deliberate allocation. Johnston spent his sand at the finish.

That No. 1 public course run, seven straight years, is the fact that anchors Cherry Blossom's case. Statewide public course rankings in Kentucky are competitive, and holding the top spot from 2004 through 2010 means the conditioning, the service, and the golf all held up under repeat inspection, not just in an opening season when everything is new. Semi-private access in Scott County means the public can book it, which is why it could win a public ranking at all, while members and residents get the steadier rhythm of the place.

Longview is the older soul. Designed by Buck Blankenship, the club says it opened in 1968 as the first private club in Scott County and is now public. It plays par 72 at 6,559 yards, with a 70.7 rating and a 120 slope. Those numbers describe a course a full step gentler than Cherry Blossom, and for a lot of golfers that is the recommendation, not a flaw. The 17th is a downhill par 3 requiring a full carry over a pond, a proper shot at the end of the round. And Longview added a wrinkle neither course needed but groups appreciate: stay and play packages in 16 condo units opened in 2011 beside the course.

Which Georgetown round should you book?

On the golf first, Cherry Blossom wins. It is longer, its best holes are more distinctive, an island green 12th and a heavily defended 18th are real architecture, not decoration, and its seven year run atop Kentucky's public rankings is evidence no other public or semi-private course in this comparison can produce. In the Kentucky state ranking, Cherry Blossom is the Georgetown name, and this head to head does not change that.

On the day and on value, Longview closes the gap and might pass it for the right group. A 120 slope is a friendlier afternoon. Rolling Bluegrass ground is pleasant walking country. The condos make it the practical base for a small group trip in a way a residential community course is not set up to be. And there is a real charm in playing a course that has been part of Scott County since 1968, through a private era and a public one, still standing as the town's everyday option.

The concession to Longview's side is that Cherry Blossom's community setting cuts both ways. A centerpiece course in a residential village plays past houses, and golfers who measure a course partly by how far it feels from front porches will notice. Longview's ground reads more open, more purely Bluegrass. If setting is your tiebreaker and the scorecard is not, the gentler course can honestly win your day even while losing ours.

Verdict: Cherry Blossom wins the comparison, on design distinction and that seven year record as Kentucky's top public course. Pick Longview anyway if you want the easier walk, the lower stress round, or a condo by the course for a weekend group. Georgetown is not choosing between good and bad here. It is choosing between a course that won awards and a course that has served the county since before most of its current golfers were born, and the second of those is not a consolation prize.