Nevel Meade Golf Course

Origins

Most golf-course land in the late 1980s was laid out to sell house lots, with the course itself an afterthought. The English family that developed Nevel Meade wanted the opposite: a links-style course on a high plateau above Harrods Creek in Prospect, where golf came first and any development came second, if at all.

After interviewing several architects, the family settled on Steve Smyers, then early in a career that would go on to include Old Memorial and Maridoe. Construction began around 1990 and the course opened in 1991, with water supply and parking laid out to serve the golf course itself rather than a future subdivision.

Design Philosophy

Smyers routed Nevel Meade across open, largely treeless ground rather than carving fairways through woodland, the more common approach in a state whose courses are otherwise dominated by parkland design. Deep bunkering, broad heather-grass areas and a natural freshwater spring stand in for the trees most Kentucky courses rely on to frame their holes.

Bentgrass across the fairways, tees and greens keeps the turf firm and fast-running, encouraging the ground-game shot-making associated with genuine links golf rather than a target-golf approach through the air. Combined with sizable elevation change on nearly every hole, the course rewards trajectory control and course management over sheer length.

Today

Nevel Meade continues to operate as the English family envisioned it: a daily-fee, public-access course rather than a private amenity tied to a housing development. Lee English, the club's general manager, has been credited within Kentucky golf circles as the driving force behind establishing the course's reputation, while head professional Robert Costello now oversees its outings, junior programs and day-to-day operations.