Pennyrile Forest State Resort Park Golf Course

Pennyrile Forest State Resort Park Golf Course in Dawson Springs is the architectural standout of the Kentucky State Parks Golf Trail's western region, an E. Lawrence Packard, ASGCA design that opened in 2016 as one of the newest courses on the trail (the original Pennyrile course dated to much earlier, but Packard's redesign is effectively a new course). At 7,129 yards par 72 from the tips with a 35.7 rating, Pennyrile plays as legitimate championship length for a state-park course. The signature hole is the par-5 3rd at 499 yards, a tee shot from a narrow chute with woods on the left and a creek on the right, fairway sloping toward the water hazard, and another creek crossing before reaching a severely-sloped green. That's four distinct strategic complications on a single hole, which is the kind of layered Packard design that has marked his state-park trail work (see also Boots Randolph at Lake Barkley). The front nine plays flatter with a creek running through the middle; the newer back nine climbs into gently rolling hills through pine forest. For the Kentucky State Parks Golf Trail visitor, Pennyrile Forest is the architecturally-ambitious fourth stop alongside Mineral Mound, Boots Randolph, and Kentucky Dam Village.