Oldgolfdawg's best-places-to-play guide

The beauty of any golf course is in the eye of the beholder, and what revs the engine of one golfer might not have the same effect on another. But it doesn't hurt to mull a second opinion when picking a course to play, especially if you are considering a new option.

So for what it's worth, Oldgolfdawg is taking it upon himself to rate the desirability of the central Ohio public courses that he is familiar with on a scale of 1 to 5 dog biscuits. In coming up with these ratings, he took into consideration such factors as layout, ambience, greens, fairways and staff. These factors were further broken down as follows: 1) Layout -- excellent, good, moderate, poor and designed by a drunken sailor; 2) Ambience -- excellent, good, moderate, poor and as inviting as rush-hour traffic in L.A.; 3) Greens -- excellent, good, moderate, poor and you cannot be serious; 4) Fairways -- excellent, good, moderate, poor and more appropriate for a goat ranch; and 5) Staff -- excellent, good, moderate, poor and graduates of the Beavis and Butt-Head school of etiquette.

So without any further ado, here's how Oldgolfdawg thinks they stack up:

5 dog biscuits -- Longaberger (affordability is the only drawback)
4 1/2 dog biscuits -- East Golf Club (a classic layout)
4 dog biscuits -- Cooks Creek, Cumberland Trail, Eagle Sticks, Deer Ridge, Golf Club of Dublin, The Players Club at Foxfire
3 1/2 dog biscuits -- Apple Valley, Bent Tree, Chapel Hill, Champions, Granville, Indian Springs, New Albany Links, The Links at Echo Springs and Royal American Links
3 dog biscuits -- Darby Creek, Glenross, National Road, Mentel Memorial, Raymond Memorial, Turnberry, Westchester
2 1/2 dog biscuits -- Airport, Blackhawk, Blacklick, Licking Springs, Safari Golf Club, St. Albans, Table Rock
2 dog biscuits -- Airport, Mill Creek, Oakhaven, Bridgeview, Marysville Golf Club, Minerva Lake
1 1/2 dog biscuits -- Wilson Road, Big Walnut (executive courses)
1 dog biscuit -- Let's not go there

Here's a list of courses I hope to play in the future in order to rank them: North Star Golf Resort, Rattlesnake Ridge, Clover Valley, Phoenix Golf Links, Kyber Run and Buck Ridge.

It should be noted that the top two courses in this rankings list were designed by Arthur Hills, a world-renowned architect based in Toledo. Three classic courses that have played host to major championships were designed by Hills. He was instrumental in guiding Oakmont and Oakland Hills through renovations to prepare for the U.S. Open in 1994 and 1996. He played a similar role with Inverness Club in preparation for the 1993 PGA Championship. Longaberger Golf Club was named "America's Best New Upscale Public Course of 2000" by Golf Digest.

I welcome any and all feedback on my rankings. If they put anyone's panties in a bunch, let me know. If I overlooked a course or should include another one to my hope-to-play list, set me straight. These subjective ratings are based on personal experiences collected over 26 years of playing golf in central Ohio. Some of the memories admittedly are long in the tooth and might not reflect current realities. If I'm way off base, that's my alibi, and I'm sticking to it.

http://www.longabergergolfclub.com/

(Warning: Some of lyrics in the songs accompanying the video below are rated R, for mature audiences only. I wanted to show off the course but found some parts of the audio to be offensive. I'll let you decide if the views of the course are worth having to listen to some of the blue language.)