 Ohio's Safari Golf Club:
Welcome to the Jungle
By Carl W. Grody,
Staff Writer
POWELL, Ohio - OK, let's be honest. Safari Golf Club is not a tough test of golf.
Sure, it's fun. Yeah, it has a really cool logo. And it is nice to be able to play a round on Saturday afternoon at a public course without having to give up either six hours of your time or six figures of your money. But it's not a tough golf course.
Safari's not a pushover, either. It's 6,507 yards from the blue tees with a slope of 111, and a rating of 70.2. From the whites, it's 6,270 yards, a slope of 109, and a rating of 69.0. But eight of the course's 10 par fours are less than 400 yards, and one of the par fives is just 462 yards from the blue tees.
The biggest advantage to Safari Golf Club is its environment. It sits right next to the Columbus Zoo and Wyandot Lake, an amusement park run by Six Flags. This is the perfect place to go if you want to play golf while the rest of the family has a good time, too. Drop your family off at the zoo or at the waterpark, then zip next door for a quick nine or - if your spouse is more understanding - 18 holes.
To make you feel even better, the profits from the course support the zoo, which is recognized as one of the best in the world. You can't go wrong with that - the family has fun, you sneak in some golf, and the zoo makes some dough. Considering all that, the golf course could probably be a hacker's delight and you'd still have a good time.
At first, you might even think you're playing a hard course. The first hole is the number-one handicap hole, a 406-yard (from the white tees) dogleg left with trees on both sides of the fairway. Hit it in the trees, and you're stuck chipping out into the fairway. And from there, you're hitting a mid-iron to a green that slopes away from you and is protected by a front bunker on the left.
 But the golf course quickly eases up on you - at least, if you let it. The second hole is the first of many straight par fours that look drivable - just 282 yards from the white tees. But if you jump out of your shoes trying to nail your drive, you're in trouble. You'll either slice the ball right behind some trees, or pull your drive over the trees to the left into the first fairway.
It often seems more golfers hit their approach shots here from the first fairway than from their own. It's not rare to see an entire foursome in the middle of the first fairway, trying to loft balls over the trees toward the second green.
By itself, a hole like this would be a nice change of pace. As Ken Venturi often says, every golf course should have a driveable par four just to make things interesting. But Safari has too many of them. The fifth is a straight shot 322 yards from the white tees, and number eight is 305 yards.
The other par fours average 337 yards, and when the tees are up, they seem driveable, too. The catch is that few, if any, are actually within range for the average player. But there's a sameness to many of these par fours that hurts the overall enjoyment of the round.
But there are some fun holes. The 185-yard fourth plays uphill to a large green that slopes back to front. You think hitting one extra club is enough until your shot hits that slope and stops; then you wish you'd grabbed two extra clubs. And if you miss the green, the turkey vultures circling overhead are waiting to tear meat off your carcass if you make worse than a bogey.
The 370-yard sixth hole is a challenge, too. It seems easy enough with a dogleg right around some trees, and it looks like you can cut the corner. But the trees are a bit farther away and taller than they look, and your ball is likely to find a home amongst them if you go that route. Take the safe route left of the trees and try to fade a three-wood around the corner.
From there, you'll have about 150 yards to an elevated green protected by a bunker on the right. Don't go long, though; you'll be trying a flop shot to a green that slopes away from you, and the turkey vultures are still nearby, waiting for your mistake.
 The seventh hole is tricky from the start. Your tee shot at this 379-yard par four knifes through a pair of trees just in front of the tees, a mighty oak and a weeping willow that would look like Whoopi Goldberg if her head was thirty feet high and green. The fairway slopes steeply uphill and to the left, so you'll get no roll in the fairway; you'll also have at least 150 yards left to the green from an uphill lie. And you'll have to deal with the residue from the gallery of geese watching you from the side of the fairway.
If you slice your tee shot to the right, the hole plays much harder. Your second shot is blind, and you don't even have one of those darned turkey vultures to show you the way to the green.
After playing seven consecutive holes of less than 380 yards, the 533-yard par-five ninth is almost a shock, but you need to stay in control. Hit your tee shot to the right, and your ball either lands in waste-high brush, the driving range, or the zoo's parking lot, (for the record, any of the three would be a bad thing).
To the left of the fairway is a set of trees; an "environmentally sensitive area" (a clever euphemism for "Don't even think about hitting it in here, you dope, because we won't let you have your ball back"); and then another set of trees.
After a good drive, the long hitters will be itching to take a whack at reaching the green in two. They won't get there, of course, but they'll be tempted. Everyone else will lay up to about 100 yards, and then knock a wedge onto the wide green. Just don't use the bunkers in front of the green to help decipher where the green starts.
From the fairway, it looks like the bunkers hug the green, but they're actually 10 to 15 yards short of it. Once you're on the green, anything hole-high from more than 10 feet will have a double-break. You'll feel like you're putting on the tracks of a roller coaster (and with Wyandot Lake now in easy view of your position, you'll hear the screams from a coaster, too).
The green on number nine is not the only place you'll be distracted by noise. On several holes, you can hear kids screaming in the waterpark and the loud bell of the zoo's train ride. All you can do is learn to ignore it - either that, or imagine you're playing in front of Tiger Wood's gallery.
After a straight par four on number 10, the par-three 11th again demands your attention. It's 159 yards between trees to an elevated, small green that slopes right to left. Hit it too far right, and you're in someone's backyard. Hit it too far left, and you're behind a wooden rail fence (and probably under a tree branch). Hit the green, and it's a simple two-putt par, but you need an extra club - maybe two - to reach it.
The 12th hole is a 500-yard par five that doglegs slightly to the left on a blind tee shot. You just pick out a target on the horizon, hope it's not too far left and let it fly. To the left of the fairway is another environmentally sensitive area, but there's plenty of room to the right. If you want to try to reach the green in two, though, you might want to rethink your strategy.
 The green is puny, obviously built to receive wedge shots (and probably from no more than 60 yards from the looks of it). You'd have as much luck stopping the ball on your dining room table as you would stopping a fairway wood on this postage stamp. And if you go over the green, you're stuck under or behind pine trees, hitting to a green that slopes severely away from you.
One more caveat - a pond sits snug against the left side of the green. Pull your shot slightly, and your ball is swimming with the fishes (which they discourage at the aquarium in the zoo, but not on the golf course). Unless you've taken a sacred vow of par-five reachablity, lay up here and give yourself a chance with a wedge.
Number 15 is another tricky par five. It's 512 yards to a rolling fairway, but you have to drive the ball at least 300 yards to have a chance to reach the green in two. Anything shorter leaves you with either a downhill lie from about 270 yards - don't even think about it - or 230 yards from an uphill lie.
The fairway also doglegs to the right about 100 yards from the green, leaving the pin hidden behind a group of tall trees just waiting to knock down your approach. Again, this is a hole to lay up on, then knock a wedge stiff for your birdie putt.
Remember how the first hole was the toughest hole on the course? Well, the 18th is the second-hardest hole. It's 454 yards with a severe dogleg to the right about 200 yards out. The trees make cutting the corner too risky, so you're left laying up to about 220 yards and then trying to drill a fairway wood to the green.
The green is deceptive, too. It sits in a bowl, surrounded by mounds and more of those large trees, and it looks closer than it is. If you're tempted to take your five-wood, use your three-wood instead. If you're tempted to use your two-iron, grab the one-iron instead. (Of course, if you can hit a one-iron, why aren't you on tour? Go buy a four-wood.)
 At the end of your round, you'll have mixed feelings about Safari. The pace of play is great, the people are nice, and there's always a refreshment cart tooling past when you want one. If you par the last hole, you're left with a genuine feeling of accomplishment. And, of course, if you like turkey vultures, you've been in seventh heaven.
The course still seems to be less than what it could be. The sameness of the par fours hurts the course, as does the lack of distance on them; only two par fours measure more than 400 yards. But it's probably not fair to judge Safari solely as a golf track. It's part of an entertainment package, one that lets everyone in the family pick something to do.
And when the round is finished, you can slip on your swimming trunks for a dip with kids at the waterpark, all the while regaling them with tales of your golfing prowess.
And if the kids ignore you, head to the zoo and tell your stories to the chimpanzees. They might throw dung at you, but at least they'll listen.
Safari Golf Club
10245 Riverside Drive
PO Box 400
Powell, OH 43065
(614) 645-3444
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