The Kentucky Senior Open heads to the state capital for the 21^st playing of the most prestigious golf tournament in the state for those aged at least fifty years. Frankfort Country Club will be the stage of this year’s competition, a club that is filled with Golf House Kentucky tournament history. The Kentucky Open has been held here in 1953 and 1987, the Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Kentucky Amateur in 1982, and last year it hosted the Kentucky Women’s Open.

The club was founded in 1913, but this location is the facility’s fourth different site. This golf course was built in 1973 by Scruggs and Hammond Incorporated. Each of the previous three sites offered some form of golf, but the current layout is certainly the best and has attracted golfers from all over the state in nearly half a century of play.
 

_{Approximate locations of the previous Frankfort Country Club sites in relation to its current home.}

A player’s round at Frankfort Country Club is going to be largely dictated by where they put the ball off the tee. Holes 1, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 13, 15, and 18 offer tee shots that might not exactly fit the player’s eye based on the contour and angles the shots provide, but because the golf course is not overly long, placement of the golf ball means everything when trying to navigate this venue. Bruce Brown, PGA Head Professional at Frankfort Country Club named two of those aforementioned holes as ones that can make or break a round.

“The 6^th is perhaps the hardest hole here for skilled players,” Brown described. “You want to hit a shot around 220 yards off the tee, then the hole doglegs left and plays over water to a perched green. And then the 18^th is a great risk-reward par-five. It’s a tight tee shot with trouble on both sides, but if you get it in play the opportunity is there to reach the green in two if you’re long enough.”

An example of a player to model strategy after would be Jacob Cook, Brown said. Cook finished runner-up and low amateur in last month’s Kentucky Open at Triple Crown Country Club, but immediately prior to that event he won the Daniel Boone Invitational at Frankfort Country Club, the oldest active invitational golf tournament in the state.

“Jacob was one of the longest players in the field that week, but he hit more long irons off tees than he did driver. A big tee ball can certainly help you out, but the golf course neutralizes some of the longer players and requires you to hit your scoring irons precisely. These greens have a lot of character and are almost all independent of one another. Players not familiar with them and how they react might be at a disadvantage to start the tournament.”

Regardless of its playing style, the golf course has been maintained by the same person for forty years now. Tim Willard, GCSAA Head Superintendent has worked tirelessly for four decades on the facility that is consistently regarded as one of the best conditioned golf courses in the state. Thanks to the hard work of folks like Willard and Brown, Frankfort Country Club will be a terrific host site to the 21^st Kentucky Senior Open.