![]() “We wouldn’t want a country club on the Acropolis,” John N. Then, as now, the club’s unwillingness to make way for worldwide recognition of the site drew criticism. At that point, a group led by local professors and Native Americans organized a protest campaign - and some residents began questioning whether the course should exist at all. “Even though, on paper, it shouldn’t be that hard.”Įfforts to fully recognize the significance of the mounds as more than unusual golf hazards date back roughly two decades to a period when a bid to build a new clubhouse, whose foundation would have dug into the mounds, was denied. “It’s hard to shoot what you normally shoot here,” he said. Mitchell said the mounds are a more formidable obstacle than they at first appear. The course itself, with a slope rating of 119, is medium difficult, though no one would ever confuse it for Jack Nicklaus’s Muirfield Village Golf Club (slope 130), which sits 40 miles to the west. “The ancient Moundbuilders unwittingly left behind the setting for as strange and sporty a golf course as ever felt the blow of a niblick,” an article about the course in the January 1930 issue of Golf Illustrated proclaimed. The effort might have been an attempt to connect with or communicate with the powers which appeared to control the larger universe, said Hively, who discovered these alignments with a philosophy professor, Robert Horn, in the 1980s. ![]() Members of the Hopewell culture likely intended the earthworks, which can only be fully appreciated from above, to show their moon and sun gods that they understood their movements, said Ray Hively, a professor emeritus of astronomy and physics at Earlham College in Richmond, Ind. The alignments are no less sophisticated than the arranged stones at Stonehenge, experts say. When the rising moon reaches its northernmost position, it hovers above the octagon’s exact center, within one-half of a degree. Once every 18.6 years, if you stand atop the course’s observatory mound and look up the line of parallel mounds toward the octagonal area, something spectacular happens. But their value wasn’t recognized until recent years, and many were destroyed.Ĭreated one basketful of earth at a time, using pointed sticks and clamshell hoes, the mounds at the golf course are part of the broader Newark Earthworks and widely embraced as an astronomical and geometric marvel. There were once hundreds of major earthworks built by people of the Hopewell culture, which refers to the moundbuilding groups of Native Americans who lived in North America from about 100 B.C.E. Still, if one were to encounter a ball perched atop the ancient earthworks, there is no ban on whacking at it with a 3-iron. Golfers are barred from driving carts over them except on paved paths. The clubhouse features a painting and photographs of the mounds. Many of the golfers say they embrace that importance, too, even if they have indelicately nicknamed one eight-foot mound “Big Chief.” The club has a scrapbook that tracks the history of the earthworks, known as the Octagon Earthworks, back to their creation. ![]() Department of the Interior has already selected the land for nomination as a UNESCO World Heritage site, as part of a larger proposed bid to recognize some of the similar sites in Ohio, known as the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks. The historical import of the site is clear. The dispute heads to the Ohio Supreme Court on Tuesday. An intermediate set of tees at about 5,600 could be of benefit here.The $1.7 million amount the state’s representatives have proposed under eminent domain is up from an initial offer of $800,000. I had to play from the golds because 6,600 yards is just too long for my game. The gold tees should be the whites white tees should be the blues, the blues should be the championship one. My one issue here is that the course is too long for many amateurs. The wind can play a big factor on the course, and it was howling making some holes extremely tough. But there are some holes that are very generic and feel little out of place with the rest of the layout. Course has a couple of excellent holes that really make you think, including the risk-reward par 5, 3rd hole. ![]() Layout has plenty of undulation to it, including a couple of blind shots (the second shots on 9 and 18 come to mind). Leaves weren't a problem, except for a couple of spots. ![]() The greens and tee boxes had been punched recently (it's the middle of October, kind of expected by now), but the fairways were still rolling very well. Finally got the chance to play it and it was surprisingly good. Taking I-70 by this course frequently, I've wondered for a while how good this course actually is. ![]()
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