Park Mammoth Sojourn

Is there a special golf course, a personal favorite that perhaps only makes sense to you why? Maybe it’s not a championship track like Pinehurst or Sawgrass, but a “local muni” or where you learned the game, that when thought of brings back a flood of fond memories. When I think back of all the courses I have played in 50 plus years of golf, Cave Valley at Park Mammoth is that course.

It was around fifty years ago, summer of 1970, when I discovered this little “gem’ located in the rural area of south central Kentucky near Mammoth Cave National Park. At that time, Park Mammoth, as it was known locally, was part of a Best Western resort that included tennis courts, putt-putt course, horseback riding, private cave, and a miniature train that would take you “to and from” the lodge to various points around the complex including the golf course.

That same year, I started taking lessons from L B Floyd, Raymond’s father, and was in the process of retooling my swing from “just hitting the ball to playing target golf”. And, this track was perfect for honing my new swing; wide forgiving fairways combined the small greens. Playing to a par 70, the routing offers an interesting mixed of short birdie holes, as well as, challenging ones that par is a good score and a couple, if out of position, anything less than a bogey was a small miracle.

I would never have guessed the first time I teed it up at Park Mammoth, all these years later, I would have played more rounds there than any other course over my lifetime. Perhaps, it’s just a simple twist of faith, given that I have not lived within a 100 miles, to have played so many rounds on a course so far away. 

Whatever the reason, it’s undeniable the course has become ingrained in my golfing DNA. So much so, even when my grandson and I started talking about playing golf and planning what would become my first round of golf in over 15 years, a day trip to Park Mammoth was the center of the discussion. And, now, our annual golfing sojourn to Central Kentucky always include a round at this course.

A lot of things have changed at Park Mammoth over the years. The resort closed years ago; gone, one by one, are the other attractions, but thru it all, the golf course remains the same track as when I first played. It has had a couple of “new owners” come and go, and last Fall a set of new owners took over operations with the goal of bring the course back to the “glory days” of being a little gem. The beauty is still there, the scenery has not changed much. However, as you step to the first tee, and look down the fairway, the tree in the middle is now impossible to carry, and, like me, it’s fifty years older than went it first started greeting golfers to Park Mammoth.