Meet Duff and Divot, bison living on a golf course

Meet Duff and Divot, two juvenile bison who are likely munching on a stretch of grass between the 1st and 10th holes of The Golf Club at Stonelick Hills as you read this.

Scruffy 2-year-old Divot weighs in at about 700 pounds. Duff, 3, comes in at nearly half a ton. They roam on about 4¹/₂ acres on the golf course grounds.

Cheesesteak entrepreneur and golf-course designer Jeff Osterfeld got the pair last fall for $2,400 each from Clermont County Commissioner David H. Uible, who has been in the bison business since 1994.

Osterfeld, whose Penn Station East Coast Subs stores now number 294, has always found a way to stand out in the crowd. He grew up in Anderson Township, influenced by a family full of entrepreneurs. While attending Miami University, Osterfeld began searching for something to call his own.

"I'm like everybody else Uptown at Oxford Bagel Deli at 1 in the morning waiting in line," Osterfeld said, "and I'm like, 'Wow, what about doing this?' "

He didn't mind that it had already been done. The books in college had taught him that "it's sometimes best to be a close second," Osterfeld said.

Osterfeld opened Jeffrey's Bagel and Deli in Dayton Mall a year after his college graduation.

To get the cheesesteak right he traveled to Philadelphia, ate at Pat's, Geno's and several others "to copy to some degree" what they were doing.

He opened Philadelphia Steak and Sub in downtown Cincinnati on Walnut Street in 1985, about where Scene Ultra Lounge is today, across from the Aronoff Center. As his stores began to multiply, he trademarked the name Penn Station.

This year Penn Station stores opened in Atlanta and Dallas.

But his creative side was still hungry. So after tackling the restaurant biz, Osterfeld bought a bunch of property in Stonelick Township and began reading about golf course design.

He began construction on the golf course in 1999 and opened the 400-acre, semi-private club in 2004.

"I worked like crazy," Osterfeld said, "but I loved it."

This is where the bison come in.

Osterfeld always liked them as a kid, remembers seeing them at a zoo. (While in a fraternity at Miami University, he and his friends called themselves the Zoo Crew. Osterfeld chose to be called "Buffalo." He preferring to not go into full detail on the name, but mentioning that this was just a few years after the release of "Animal House.") Fast forward a few decades to find Osterfeld awestruck at the sight of bison running wild in Yellowstone National Park while on a backpacking excursion.

When he heard that Uible had bison in New Richmond, Osterfeld tracked down the rancher and made a visit.

"It was like love at first sight," Osterfeld said. "I built the course and kept staring at those 4 acres. I knew it would be a big spectacle, adds to the allure of the place."

He talked Uible into selling him the pair. Last fall, the club celebrated the mascots with a party for members and friends, with bison burgers and Hairy Buffalo, a drink that includes rum, tequila, vodka, whiskey and gin. Oh, and fruit punch.

Turns out, the big animals are relatively maintenance free. They have to be fed in the winter, but they'll eat the grass the rest of the year.

"Three things that are important for keeping bison happy are food and water and the right social mix," said Dave Carter, executive director of the National Bison Society which is based in Colorado. Carter suggested that Osterfeld consider swapping out the bison for younger ones at some point, since they're both males.

The more mature they get, Carter said, the more they'll want a mate.

Four acres is plenty of space for two animals, Carter said. In case you were wondering, an airborne golf ball will not hurt a bison, nor will they eat the ones that shank into their pen.

Bison aren't exactly strangers here. They used to roam Ohio, Carter reminds.

"(Bison) used to go from coast to coast and from the Yukon flats to northern Mexico," Carter said. "If you go just south in Kentucky, the reason they call (the bourbon) Buffalo Trace is because those were the trails that the first white settlers followed, carved out by bison."

Osterfeld sure gets a kick out of them.

"As long as I'll be here," he said, "they'll be here."