When starting a blog about the playing of great public courses, there are many stories to tell. With many trips to discuss and over 100 courses to tell you about, I think the best way to do so is to keep you up to date on my current trips and then as time allows, add posts about the trips and courses played in the past few years. Therefore, let’s begin with the present.
I am a part of a group of eight to ten great guys that play a different course each Friday. One of our group, Dan, now lives part of the year in Indianapolis. Since he cannot join us very often in Ohio, he lined up a Friday outing for us to come to Indianapolis to play a terrific Pete Dye course called The Fort. When I looked over the list of courses from the current and past Golf Digest Top 100 Public Courses that I have not yet played, I saw that this would be a perfect opportunity to play Rock Hollow (#99 last ranked 2003) in Peru, Indiana and Trophy Club (#89 last ranked 2003) in Lebanon, Indiana. I called Dan to see if he could join me on Wednesday and Thursday before the rest of the Friday group arrived and he gladly agreed. Within a day, his old buddy from our group, John and my friend Daryl told me they would also go early, so we had a foursome. In order to experience the joy of playing these wonderful courses, you have to take advantage of every opportunity to maximize the number of courses you play with the minimum amount of traveling.
Rock Hollow is a very good golf course even though it dropped off the Top 100 list over ten years ago. We enjoyed the friendly service, the condition of the course and the nice variety of holes. The course routing took you through wetlands, trees, tall grasses and water hazards. The only downside relating to course conditions was the condition of the bunkers. I will give them a pass on this one as they had some rain the night before and were not able to work them up by the time we played. This course is a great value for the $34 weekday senior rate that we paid. It is not a Top 100 in my mind but certainly one of the best in Indiana. I would strongly recommend Rock Hollow to anyone in the area and for those staying in the northern Indianapolis area. My three playing companions all agreed that it was worth the visit. We enjoyed the day and the course despite the 92 degree, very humid weather.
The next morning took us to the Trophy Club. This is a links style course that was carved from rural Indiana farmland by Tim Liddy who also designed Rock Hollow. Although they share the same architect, the two courses are not at all similar. This course was an even better value then yesterday at $29. The condition of this course was outstanding and the layout was very interesting. There was a little bit of water on the course but the main defense was a lot of natural fescue areas and demanding green complexes. Despite the long fescue beyond the rough line, you are given generous landing areas for your drives. We all felt that this was a very enjoyable and interesting golf course. The highlight of the day was when Dan holed a 155 yard blind shot to an elevated green for an eagle two. It is easy to see how this course was in the initial Top 100. I agree that it is probably not in that stratosphere now, but like Rock Hollow, it is certainly worth making the trip to play and it is also one of the top public courses in the state of Indiana. The golfers in the area of the Trophy Club are very fortunate to have this facility nearby.
Day three of our short golf adventure took us to The Fort. Though this course has never been listed on Golf Digest’s rankings, I wanted to mention it in this post as we all felt it was even better than the two earlier courses. This course was on a former army base and when it was taken over by the Indiana Park System, Pete Dye completely rebuilt it into a fantastic golf course with help from his associate, Tim Liddy. I guess you could call this three day trip the Tim Liddy tour. Golfweek currently has it ranked as the #3 public course in Indiana ahead of both Rock Hollow and Trophy Club. Golf Magazine ranks it as the #3 public course in the state. Three of our other Friday golf crew met us at The Fort. Gary, Tim and Craig made the 2 hour 30 minute drive from the Lima, Ohio area. After the round, the entire group said that they loved this layout even though it beat us up a little bit. That is very unusual for our group as we normally have a difference of opinion on the type of courses we like. One of the most striking characteristics of this course was the surprising elevation changes. I will not go into too many details of this course other than to tell you to be sure to give it a go when you get the chance. By the way, the cost is higher at $74 but you will get your money’s worth. Very interesting, challenging and in great condition.
As many of you know that do a little bit of traveling to play golf, some of the best memories are those that have nothing to do with the actual striking of the ball. This trip certainly included a few of those moments. From getting rear ended by our golf partner in the other golf cart when he took off while looking down at the scorecard to finding out that one of our group members came down with golf ball fever. We never saw this in him before but once he went into the woods looking for his partner’s ball and came out with another eight in his hands, he was hooked. We estimated that by the end of three rounds he salvaged at least 30 additional balls to his bag. Golf ball fever is catching and it can become dangerous if not kept under control. Perhaps one of the funniest memories came from the ride to dinner one evening when one of our buddies, who shall remain nameless, tried to ask Siri the population of Indianapolis but had a little difficulty in the pronunciation. After three tries and some interesting answers including the population of India he gave up amidst a car that was full of laughter.
It was a great three days of golf but it could have been even better. On day two we were going to go 36 by teeing it up for a late afternoon round at another Pete Dye design, Brickyard Crossing (#100 last ranked 2003). I have played Brickyard Crossing but I was hoping the other fellows would get a chance to experience this course. Not only is this a fantastic layout, it is known more for the fact that 4 of its holes are inside the track of the famous Indianapolis Speedway. Unfortunately, a late day rainstorm dumped about 5 inches of rain on that part of the city and closed the course on Thursday. I guess this just gives us another reason to head back to Indy in the future.
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