Lake Barkley State Resort Park - Boots Randolph Golf Course

The Boots Randolph Golf Course at Lake Barkley State Resort Park in Cadiz, Kentucky takes its name from saxophonist Homer 'Boots' Randolph, who was born in Cadiz and achieved international fame for his recording of 'Yakety Sax', one of the rare American state-park golf courses named for a musician rather than a politician or Civil War figure. E. Lawrence Packard, ASGCA, designed the course, which opened in 1972. Packard worked the natural valley-floor terrain into a routing where both nines flow along the valley with no blind shots, a rarity among state-park courses, where terrain often forces semi-blind tee shots. A meandering stream fed by the Big Blue Spring comes into play on half the holes, creating natural strategic complications without requiring manufactured water hazards. The 6,754-yard par-72 layout has Bermuda grass greens and tree-lined fairways framed by the western-Kentucky hardwood forest. Lake Barkley State Resort Park sits directly on Lake Barkley, a 57,920-acre reservoir; the park's lodge-and-cabin accommodations make it an easy overnight stay. For the Kentucky State Parks Golf Trail trip visitor, Boots Randolph pairs naturally with Mineral Mound and Kentucky Dam Village as the three anchor stops of western Kentucky's state-park golf system.