Suggestions?

Depends on your definition of "best." Are you looking for layout? Easy play? Challenging? Nicest setting? Best condition? Best adjacent practice facilities? Best teaching? There is lots of great public golf to be had in OKC, for sure.

Overall, but mostly.....course conditions and amenities. Basically, Jimmie Austin without the price

Kickingbird in Edmond has a nice layout and is an interesting topography. Hefner north course is generally in good shape and is a good layout. Lincoln west course is also a fun layout but gets beat up a lot by late summer. It seems like the golfers at Kickingbird do the best job of replacing divots, repairing the greens, etc. and generally more golf courtesy/rules knowledgeable.

Kickingbird and Hefner are the two I enjoy.

Does anyone still play at Silverhorn? Oklahoma City Golf Course | SilverHorn Golf Club (http://silverhorngc.com/)
It used to be a nice course.

if you consider Perkins the metro, I was very impressed with Cimarron Trails out there.

I may be biased because I live so close to it, but Hefner North is great.

I like Hefner South because if you're the first off in the morning you can walk it in about 2-1/2 hours, and if you hit straight you can play with the same golf ball several rounds in a row.

I like Hefner South because if you're the first off in the morning you can walk it in about 2-1/2 hours, and if you hit straight you can play with the same golf ball several rounds in a row.

I don't know...I've lost a few in the water on 10.

OU golf club is the best in the metro that anyone can play.

As for muni's Lincoln park west

Kickingbird and Hefner are the two I enjoy.

Does anyone still play at Silverhorn? Oklahoma City Golf Course | SilverHorn Golf Club (http://silverhorngc.com/)
It used to be a nice course.
Silverhorn must have new management because they seem to try a lot harder. The course is in a bit better shape than it used to be. They could desperately use for corporate to send them some new carts though.

The most walkable two courses are Hefner and Kickingbird. I just never make it up to Edmond.
I really like both sides of Lincoln.
Some decent challenges are Coffee Creek & Fairfax.

I don't know...I've lost a few in the water on 10.

Oh, I have too. But for one glorious week in 1999 I played the same ball 3+ rounds. The dimples were almost flush by the time I lost it. That course is wide open.

I grew up playing Hefner, both courses so those have a connection to me. I like Kickingbird as well, my father did the geometrics on that course. Every time we would play it he would jokingly say "I should've pulled that tree out"

Kickingbird was probably the first course I played in the metro, and first played with regularity, years before I moved to Oklahoma. When I was young I would spend summers with my dad in Edmond, and we would burn that course up the entire time. Great memories there, dating back to when I was 12 or 13.

To answer the question in the thread title -- without a doubt OU. There's a reason it's the only public course in the metro that has hosted multiple USGA National Championships.

Jimmy Austin aside, Id have to say Silverhorn. The layout is one of the better publics in the area. Like someone said earlier they have started to put some money (finally) back into the property and its starting to be in consistently good shape. Its usually not too busy and you can get a good deal on golfnow.com too. Outside of OKC Roman Nose is once of may favorite courses period, really cool layout and never busy.


I play hefner almost every week in the summer and Lincoln in the winter. Lincoln east and Hefner south are ho hum. People always rave about Lincoln West but it really doesn't do anything for me asthetic wise. Of the four Ill take Hefner north. Problem is (esp at Lincoln) they don't care about pace of play and cram as many people as they can on the course. 6 hour round on Lincoln west aren't uncommon and it shouldn't be that way.

I have only played Earlywine once so I don't have an opinion on it. Trosper and John Conrad are decent, both have a couple of cool holes. 18 at Trosper gets me every time.

As for private/public Fairfax is probably my favorite. You can lose your round really early if your aren't on your game. I feel bad for Winter Creek because they tried to make it the Oak Tree CC of south metro but they just built it at the wrong time and has really struggled to get off the ground. Neat Layout though.

I have only played Hefner North a few times since the redo, South was the one we played the most when North was under the old layout....of course when I was 10-14 we would play both in a day. My father would drop us off in the morning a few times a week and we would play all day, call mom and have her come and pick us up. The burgers in the Pro Shop restaurant were some of the best when they had the old flat top griddle.

My friend that I would play with was two years younger than me but he went on to play at BNC/SNU and OCU and worked at Westbury and The Greens CC. Sadly he passed away about seven years ago.

Did Westbury finally close?

Yes its closed. I think it was up for sale, or maybe I'm thinking of Surrey Hills

Yeah, Westbury is closed and up for sale.

I thought Westbury was being redeveloped as housing. Surrey is still active as a golf course, semi-private (or is that semi-public?).