Loved Louisville...Valhalla? Not So Much...

Need ammo? Guns? Looking for a car audio sale this week?  Stewart's Pawn Shop of downtown Louisville has you covered!

Maybe some "duds"? Or catch a high-quality, uh, independent film? The Love Boutique has all your needs!

Entrance to the Louisville Slugger Museum and FactoryYou see, as the scribes can tell you, the block next to the 2014 PGA media hotel has you covered. And across the street from this convergence of culture? The Louisville Convention Center.

But thanks to readers John Mayhugh and Josh, I had a splendid time experiencing the resurgent parts of downtown Louisville, where outstanding, world-class farm-to-table restaurants await as do several very enjoyable tourist spots.

Most impressive was the East Market District, referred to around there as NuLu, an unofficial-official district situated along Market Street between downtown to the west and the Highlands area to the east. Standouts included the exquisite Harvest restaurant and the uber-hip Garage Bar that would make SoHo types feel like time has passed them by.

The Evan Williams Bourbon ExperienceJust outside NuLu is Varanese, set in an old car garage and serving John Varanese's exquisite local farmer-inspired Italian food.

Closer to the city center's new arena is Milkwood, a Southern-Asian-Bourbon inspired small plates spot set in a basement of the Actor's Theatre building and home of Top Chef's Edward Lee and Chef Kevin Ashworth.

Fun tourism opportunities await at the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience, where an operating artisanal distillery allows you to see bourbon being made.

Just down the street was the highlight of the week for me: the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory, where you can see Major League Baseball bats being made. The attention to detail in bat quality, in production efficiency and the smell of wood is a reminder of what has been lost with persimmon woods exiting golf. Even if you aren't a huge baseball fan you'll want to go here.

Frankly, I can't wait to go back to Louisville--presumably for the 2021 PGA since it sounds like the PGA of America will be back soon--to experience more of the revitalization.

As for Valhalla Golf Club, that's a less compelling revitalization story.

Garage Bar's outdoor area includes glowing ping pong tablesIgnore the high power lines, because at one time this was an excellent site for a golf course with varied terrain and some truly beautiful features. The design, however, is severely overbuilt with some downright offensive stadium mounding that turned unsafe for fans when the rains and mud emerged.

Oddly, two holes at Valhalla resonate with nearly everyone--15 and 16--and not coincidentally, they have the least amount of shaping and mounding, perhaps because of their proximity to the natural creek separating the two long par-4s. Either way, it's a study in how nature-based design resonates so much more than manmade.

Several other design elements annoy, like the 10th tee set about 20 yards right of an ideal looking spot from the parking lot. A hideous mound backing the otherwise beautiful par-3 third. The par-4 sixth plays over a beautiful creek but somehow got worse after the most recent redo. And several of the front nine par-4s are so utterly devoid of strategy that Kerry Haigh had no choice but to move the fourth tee up to what was probably too short of a yardage.

And those mounds! Instead of making spectating easier they added nothing but headaches. They compete with nice in places where the property is genuinely pretty, such as on the third, fifth, sixth and seventh holes.

As a tournament venue the site certainly fulfills all of the PGA's needs thanks to space and the course's ability to produce consistently exciting golf. The fans there are real troopers, coming from all over the region and bringing outstanding energy to the proceedings. As dreadful as I find many of the holes due to such excessive man-made shaping, the ability to hit driver and the variety of shot shapes called upon elevates the course just enough to produce quality winners and exciting finishes.

I just wish Valhalla contained more of the character, coolness and craftsmanship found in Louisville's resurgent downtown scene.