Getting To Know: Otter Creek Golf Course

An Insightful Interview With Kevin Beard, General Manager / PGA Professional

By Brian Weis

Whether you have played a course 20+ times a year or looking to play the course for the first time, insights from an insider can help enhance your golf experience. Below is an interview with Kevin Beard who shares some valuable tidbits about the course, memorable holes and must eats and treats at the 19th.

Give Our Readers An Overview of the Golf Course/Property
Otter Creek was completely redesigned in 2007 and 2008. It is now fully matured and is quickly becoming a favorite of many golfers in Iowa. Links style course features low growing bluegrass fairways that are a great surface to play from. Big undulating greens require the player to control the distance of their approaches. The putting surfaces themselves are the best around. Super smooth, you get a very true roll on every putt. Players must learn to negotiate the many water hazards, the well positioned bunkers, and the occasional wind to score well at this fine test of golf.

If Someone Was Looking To Golf In The Area, Why Should They Play Your Course?
Our course conditions are as good as any course in the state, public or private. We take great pride in having our fairways, greens, and even our hazards in great playing conditions, all the time. The greens will give you the best roll you can find in public golf, and the fairways are fast a firm. The course is just enjoyable to play.

What Tips or Local Knowledge Would You Provide To Help Them Score Better At Your Course?
You must negotiate a number of water hazards that come at you quickly in the round. Hole number two has a brilliantly placed pond on the left off the tee. The par 5 third has four different ponds waiting to catch every shot. Water hazards continue from holes 4 to 7 before getting away from the wet stuff for awhile. They come back on 13 and are in play on every hole through 18.

Recent Awards or What You Are Most Proud About The Course?
We have a huge number people that compliment us about the golf course conditions and their enjoyment of the course at the end of their round. This is what we work for every day.

What Is The Signature, Most Talked About, or Most Photographed Hole?
Holes number 13 and 14 are the most talked about. The par three 13 is a big drop off shot with a short iron while 14 features a great driving hole followed by a great approach shot as you head towards the clubhouse sitting above the green.

What Is Your Favorite Hole? Any Tips to Play It? Number 7 would be the biggest test and in many ways the most fun. A long par 4 playing directly south sometimes can't be reached when the wind is up. Tall grass and bunkers both sides off the tee, then a great green complex tests every shot. A true par 4.5 almost daily.

Must Have Dish or Drink after the round at the 19th Hole?
The Pizza is great. Handmade, it rivals any around. There are also a dozen sandwiches that are really tasty. Lots of food always, you still must have the homemade Onion Rings! You will be full when you leave, we promise.

Who Holds Course Record and What Was Their Score?
Andy Petersen has shot the lowest round to date, with a 7 under 64. Andy, who plays professionally on various mini tour circuits, caught Otter on a windless day with a comfortable game and fired a 30 on the back nine, which was his first nine of the day. Two more birdies and no bogeys on the front sealed the course record.

Back Tee Stats
Par: 71
Yardage: 6895
Slope: 126
Rating: 73.7

More Information
Otter Creek Golf Course
4100 NE Otter Creek Drive
Ankeny, Iowa, 50021
515-965-6464
Ottercreekankeny.com

Article Tags: Otter Creek Golf Course

Revised: 02/28/2013 - Article Viewed 35,356 Times - View Course Profile

About: Brian Weis

Brian Weis is the mastermind behind GolfTrips.com, a vast network of golf travel and directory sites covering everything from the rolling fairways of Wisconsin to the sunbaked desert layouts of Arizona. If there’s a golf destination worth visiting, chances are, Brian has written about it, played it, or at the very least, found a way to justify a "business trip" there.

As a card-carrying member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA), International Network of Golf (ING), Golf Travel Writers of America (GTWA), International Golf Travel Writers Association (IGTWA), and The Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG), Brian has the credentials to prove that talking about golf is his full-time job. In 2016, his peers even handed him The Shaheen Cup, a prestigious award in golf travel writing—essentially the Masters green jacket for guys who don’t hit the range but still know where the best 19th holes are.

Brian’s love for golf goes way back. As a kid, he competed in junior and high school golf, only to realize that his dreams of a college golf scholarship had about the same odds as a 30-handicap making a hole-in-one. Instead, he took the more practical route—working on the West Bend Country Club grounds crew to fund his University of Wisconsin education. Little did he know that mowing greens and fixing divots would one day lead to a career writing about the best courses on the planet.

In 2004, Brian turned his golf passion into a business, launching GolfWisconsin.com. Three years later, he expanded his vision, and GolfTrips.com was born—a one-stop shop for golf travel junkies looking for their next tee time. Today, his empire spans all 50 states, and 20+ international destinations.

On the course, Brian is a weekend warrior who oscillates between a 5 and 9 handicap, depending on how much he's been traveling (or how generous he’s feeling with his scorecard). His signature move" A high, soft fade that his playing partners affectionately (or not-so-affectionately) call "The Weis Slice." But when he catches one clean, his 300+ yard drives remind everyone that while he may write about golf for a living, he can still send a ball into the next zip code with the best of them.

Whether he’s hunting down the best public courses, digging up hidden gems, or simply outdriving his buddies, Brian Weis is living proof that golf is more than a game—it’s a way of life.