Darby Creek Golf Course

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A blog for those who wish to immerse themselves in the culture of all things Delaware County. Diane Holefelder is a native of Aston and is the owner and publisher of the Delaware County Today Almanac, a publication that has been in existence for 96 years. A mother of three boys, an entrepreneur, and a student of life in Delaware County shares what she knows and what she learns about life in Delaware County.

Darby Creek Golf Course (Marysville, OH) Review (Courses, Review ...

To get to Darby Creek, you drive through a few towns the likes of which you'll be surprised still exist. You'll hang a right at a driving range in the middle of nowhere, drive another few miles, then take another right. A golf course appears, and suddenly you've arrived at Darby Creek.

The course takes its name from a stream which is two miles from the course itself. Designed in 1993 by the design tandem of Brian Silva and Geoff Cornish, Darby Creek blends a bit of the old and a bit of the new, just like the designers themselves (Silva graduated from college in 1973, Cornish was born in 1914). The 17th green - a downhill and then uphill, sometimes reachable par five with a moderately sloped green - is usually dead into the wind.

Darby Creek is situated in the gently rolling hills just northwest of Columbus, OH, and on what appears to be old farmland (or at least very near to existing farmland). It benefits from the rich soil, reasonable weather, and gentle terrain this area provides to provide a golf course that's in good but not great shape.

The greens and tees were exceptionally well maintained. At nearly 15 years of age, the course's greens have matured wonderfully. The greens grass is healthy, the thatch layer is low, and shots hold, skip, or bounce appropriately. Putts rolled smoothly and with a good pace, and pitch and chip shots reacted properly as well.

The enjoyable par-five sixth. Your tee shot should be just right of two large fairway bunkers, then you've got to decide between a narrow fairway left of the massive bunkers further ahead and a wider fairway to the right with a less desirable angle for your approach.

Things get just a teeny bit rougher in the fairways and rough. The fairways were rather firm and I came upon several shots that sat upon what I'd call "grassy hardpan." The rough had a few patches of similarly hard ground. I have no complaints whatsoever about the quality of the grass, and must say that with just a little more water or a more regular schedule, the hardpan problems could have been eliminated.

Bunkers are maintained adequately, though not exceptionally. Greenside bunkers seem to feature a significant amount of sand, leading my playing partners to fluff their bunker shots and leave their balls in the bunkers. Such deep sand makes it difficult to play from and difficult to rake evenly. Fairway bunkers rightly feature much less sand and are quite good.

Finally, Darby Creek features some tall fescue type grasses, and these areas were not only beautiful but well kept up. Of course, the trick to these types of areas is to not maintain them at all, and the greenskeepers at Darby Creek have done a good job of non-maintenance where it's best. Kudos to them for knowing when to leave nature to its own and not to over-help.

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