Course Review - Lucas Oil Golf Club

Took the drive down to Lucas Oil GC, way down in English, IN. Drive is about 2.5hrs. We’re coming back in July for a golf trip, so we wanted to take a peek.

I’m not the club historian, so I’ll be paraphrasing some; local legend Forrest Lucas (just guess his company’s name?) bought formerly called Old English CC and kinda saved it. He’s put money into it since, Michael Hurdzan has design credit and get this, they have Bermuda grass tees and fairways. In Indiana. But, yah, it works.

The course has been re-worked some, and the front 9 is a little gonzo: it crosses the street a few times, goes under a bridge and over a few more. Good chance you get lost once unless you’re following someone. All the newer holes are still kinda growing up, the rough is pretty rough, and you can lose a ball in it easily. The Bermuda was still waking up in mid-May, so I expect it to be better in July when we come back. Tee boxes were mostly level, but did have some weak spots/growth. The fairways were in pretty good shape (like I said, still waking up some). The bunkers didn’t have rakes (thank you shutdown) but we popped a few out to test them, and they were in good shape, sugary sand. Greens were very consistent, but with recent rain, they played grainy and a little hard to figure out.

The front Nine starts with a par5 around the lake, and with a decent tee ball, you can turn the corner and should have a good look for a 3rd shot approach. The second is a solid par3 up the hill and an early standout. Holes Five and Six are a tough 1-2punch, Five being a long-ish par3 and Six an ever-tightening par5 with a nasty slick green (gonzo moment on this hole is a ball being lost thru the roof of old rotting shed and having no idea how to get to next tee box, bridge was out). Eight and Nine are short and gettable par4s.

The back Nine seems less re-worked and much more hilly. The Tenth is a nice open hole and you’ll get a look at the Course’s rental homes on the right. They have 2 homes, with capacity for up to 20. The webpage has more info. From there, you bounce up and back across a ridge a few times. The Twelfth hole will probably eat your lunch, but just hit one out right of the trees, nothing too long and you’ll be fine. Fourteen is a par3 bomb down the hill to a big green with all kinds of slope; I suggest you go play the back tee, the view is sweet. Seventeen is the number one handicap and it’s a demanding 220yd tee shot (or so) with a beach-towel-sized landing area. Your approach has to cover a big holler to a tilted green. Good luck! The finisher Eighteenth is a great elevated tee shot, we all bombed our tee balls over the trees and had a great look into the green (no eagles were realized today my friends).

Coming back this July, we’re going to play a LOT of golf out there over 3 days, and I’m sure we’ll get to know ball placement and the greens much better. I enjoyed it and if you want to take a drive, see something new, the Luke is a fun, quirky course in a nice setting.

First hole, par 5

Par 5 sixth hole claims another victim

Eleventh hole, par 3

THe back tee of the par 3 fourteenth hole… you need to drive up and use it!

Par 4, fifteenth hole - see a roasted 5w above!

Victoria Natty - one of Indiana’s Best

A few weeks back, we did some coverage for the Korn Ferry Tour Finals at Victoria National in Newburgh (near Evansville), and I REALLY liked the course. I’ve been kinda daydreaming about a round there, always scheming for a hook-up. I actually had one last year but couldn’t go due to a 50th birthday party in Florida. I was supposed to meet up with Patrick Koenig as he continued his whirlwind tour of America in the RGV last year; with a somewhat fluid timetable he landed his sled in Indiana the week I had to leave and I anointed a buddy to take my place. It still stings.

The course looks like it was created by giant sandbox toys, as the fairways seem scooped out of the wooly hills that flank the sides of many holes. Throw in about 6 or 7 lake crossings and you’re starting to see how unique the property is. Tom Fazio built the course in an old strip mine area in 1996 and the place is sublime, routinely identified as Indiana’s best course. While not the hilliest of areas, the course has some bumps and swales to create great views and greens tucked into coves and corners. I walked the entire course during our coverage and the attached video captures some of the charm.

I was surprised to see the lighted putting green on the back nine that sits adjacent to the Club’s condos; they do offer stay-and-play options (the Club’s site has more info). I spent some time in the clubhouse, but didn’t get around much beyond the press area. Accommodations and amenities there looked great. From Indy, it’s about a 2.5 hour drive down the new I-69 extension and your GPS will act as if you’ve driven off the planet (and don’t count on a lot of exits or amenities near the interstate either).

I’m hoping to go back and get that round in soon. I won’t lie, if I do I’m gonna gloat and fawn all over the place.

Cantigny Golf - Wheaton, IL

I got out to Cantigny Golf last month for some client golf (the best kind, not on my dime). It was a warm and windy one out in the West ‘burbs and we had a good time. I played pretty damn bad on the front 9, but did finally get it somewhat together on the back.

Cantigny routinely makes the “best of’ lists for IL, and while I wasn’t really wowed by the place, it was in pretty solid condition, and there are enough good holes out there to help you past a few ho-hum ones. Roger Packard/Andy North designed 27 holes out there in the 80s and the facilities are run by Kemper Sports. They tout the visit as one of those “country club for a day” expeiences and mostly deliver. Bag drop, forecaddies available, GPS on the carts, club wash at the end, plenty of amenities. Like I said, a pretty good time can be had. We played the Hillside/Lakeside nines; cost was $120 per player.

Lakeside #2 is a gettable par5 with a good tee shot (you work around the lake on the right side), lots of green grass everywhere and a fairly accessible green; there's a lot of greenside bunkers out here, so plan for that. The sand was just ok; I found a few of them to be getting thin and/or wet for some reason. Only logical reason was overwatering, it’d been pretty dry the previous days. Lakeside #3 is a great hole, a tight tee shot par4 with an elevated and guarded green. A note on the greens, pretty consistent (a strength) but very hard to get right. A lot of putts look like they’ll break and just don’t and we never got really comfortable. It’s the kind of thing that will wear on you, so by the end of the day, my putter was in a dark place…so sad! Lakeside finishes with a great par4, the tee shot using some misdirection, pointing you a bit askew from your landing area, with water lurking right, and a bunkered green. See the video.

Hillside was our second nine, and the two pair together fairly well. Number one is a good opener for the nine, with a nice dogleg right, ideally set up for a cut tee ball. I hit the green and…3 slapped for bogey. They have a few really big greens and that’s another level of defense for sure. The stretch from Hillside #6 thru #8 was my favorite. The sixth hole opens the video and is a placement tee shot, then over the water to a masssive double green complex; we were dead into the fan, so hitting that bunker complex off the tee and still hitting the green felt like a hero shot. Hillside #7 is a great par5, with a well-framed tee shot to a rumply fairway; the green is guarded by a false-front and bunker trouble right (surprise!) and I managed par from just off the front in 2. The eighth is a long-ish par3, with the green a bit elevated, mounds to the right, with another big green.

Overall I liked the place even if I started so poorly (it can be hard to be a “review guy” when you’re playing, even more so when you’re jacking the ball all over the place). Tons of green grass, a lot of bunkers to negotiate, pretty solid tee boxes (in need of a little work) and the greens were consistent all the way around. I’m not convinced the course is worth the full freight we paid, but keep in mind it was Chicagoland, so there’s a differential ain’t there? I would much more like the place if it was $80-90, that just sounds about right. They have three nines, ample facilities, and a very large practice area; everyone was quite nice. If you’re looking for something out west in Chicagoland, they definitely are in the running.

Korn Ferry Finals part 2, debrief @golfVNGC

Sorry I didn’t get to a second update on Sunday - I ran out of storage on my Dropbox and couldn’t get my pictures moved over….total rookie move.

The back nine at Victoria Natty is pretty damn solid too; even bigger rookie move was my deciding to go inside for a while to cool off, write a post, grab some water, because this led me to miss Purdue-grad Tyler Duncan going into what-can-only-be-called The Zone and shooting a total of 6-under to earn his PGA card. Really solid stuff. We also got to see Indiana guy Chris Baker earn his card too, making the journey from Journeyman to PGATour player after 8 years; both of these guys deservedly got some press for the achievement and it will be cool to see how they do this season.

The back nine has more of those great carved out of rolling terrain holes, but even wilder by a few degrees. I like all the holes, but looking at 14 through 18, the closing stretch is pretty sick and looks both crazy hard and fun. Fourteen might be one of the coolest looking holes out there; the tee shot is tricky, with a big grass bowl short left of the green. Take a look at the pix below, these are #nofilter shots and came out looking awesome, just like the course. I’m dying to play out here!

In the end, a masterful Tom Lewis pretty-well torched the place, taking advantage of wet conditions and lift-clean-place to shoot 23-under.

Korn Ferry Finals - Sunday @golfVNGC

A quick update from a muggy and kinda breezy day at the Korn Ferry Tour finals in lovely Newburgh, IN and the even lovelier Victoria National Golf Club.

It’s a bit hard to capture the fluidity with the top 25, especially the bubbly boys. I spend some time watching Purdue grad Tyler Duncan see if he can make a move; he’ll have to go low out here on the back.

First observations, this is a big boy ballpark. The fairways are immaculate rows of green that look as if they we’re created by a giant ice cream scooper from a wild and wooly terrain. I’m gonna go out on a limb, it’s really easy to lose golf balls our here if you’re not one of the top 200 players in the world. Views from the tee are freezing sweet and the greens are a nice mix of big ones and little ones, bunkers strategically framing the place. Gotta figure out how to get a tee time (and maybe get some of our loyal followers out here too?).

Take a look at these pics from the front 9.

Adjacent to the fairway, a holler you can get lost in…

Huge green on six

Golf Trip - The Region

Because one golf trip a year ain’t enough, we rocked another one this past weekend up in The Region - we stayed (and golfed) in Merrillville, played 36 in Valpo and hit Demotte on the way home Sunday.

I wrote about playing Innsbrook CC in Merrillville last year for GolfAdvisor, so click here for more. As a recap, its a 100yr old private course designed by William Langford with six par5s, six par4s and six par3s. It’s in great shape and features some tricky-ass greens and brutes in the par4 category - all those par3s left some “extra” yardage and it adds up. We had lunch in the clubhouse, aptly named Langfords and had great weather. If you get an invite, GO.

Next up was 36 at The Course at Aberdeen in Valparaiso. This a Michael Hurdzan course with a cool routing, somewhat through a neighborhood and somewhat around ponds/woods/shires. My favorite hole was #12, a short par4 calling for a precise tee shot to a fairly guarded fairway. We worked with the course and got a group rate and had ton of fun. Food choices were a bit limited on site, but the cart girls were on point keeping us refreshed. The Homeowner’s Association recently purchased the club and have made strides in repairing some of the neglect that had befell the course. Conditions were pretty solid, some of the tee boxes were beat up and a few spots had been overwatered, but overall it was good.

Our Championship round was at one of my favorite courses in the state, Sandy Pines GC in Demotte (my GA review here). They’re doing something right in this place and it’s always a busy scene between the golf, the restaurant and the Hall they have for rent. The course opens up right on top of the clubhouse (almost) so you can have some fun heckling your buddies. The par5 second is one of my favorite in the state. It’s a wonderful place, and seems very much like a Florida course. The place is always in great shape and I think it’s just quirky enough to keep your attention. We played the back tees, some of which are new, and I think this showcases the course at it’s best (some of the landing areas are better). Eat at the restaurant it’s really good (specials, lots of choices).

We paid $47 plus $15 for a re-buy at Aberdeen and paid $68 at Sandy Pines. We stayed at Home2Suites in Merrillville and it was nice (relatively new); double occupancy at a group rate of $150 per night. They have breakfast in the morning and we played some poker downstairs in the dining area. We ate dinners out at Bar Louie and Hooters, both nearby. We played a Stableford Scoring for our championship and it’s a good way to keep it fun (can’t do worse than double bogey so pick it up); it allows for the flights to be a little closer in competition without having go through the hassle of handicapping everyone and building scorecards, etc. We also kept current with everyone on the course by using The Grint’s Live Leaderboard - easy to set-up and cool to check on other players (sorry I forgot to screenshot it).

Stay tuned to GolfIndy.info for more on trips you can take too; we’re going to show off some itineraries for you to check out.

Golf Trip - Island Hills Golf Club, MI

I take a few golf trips each year and one of my usual groups made a venue change this year and it was a solid success.

The Island Hills Golf Club near Centreville, MI is a Ray Hearn design, who’s done a lot of courses in Michigan. The club recently added some condos to kick up their Stay-and-Plan options and it’s a great fit. They have 3 units on the property, with multiple rooms, and each rooom is ensuite with 2 beds. They have full kitchens, most of the tableware and cooking items you need, plus seating areas inside/outside, and a gas grill. And poker can be played to the wee hours.

We stayed Sunday through Wednesday and played a stroke play round each day (for the flighted championships) and a gambling/scramble/fun round on Monday and Tuesday afternoon. I was golfed out by Wednesday (this chassis ain’t in his 30s no more).

The course is solid and proved to be a good test. Tee boxes were mostly level, consistent; the fairways and greens were well maintained, grassed well. Bunkers were on average in good condition. The heather was pretty varied, which adds to the challenges out there. Sometimes you caught a break and played away, while other times it gobbled golf balls like a machine. A little more on that later. I’d put Island Hills in good company as compared to Indy area courses; think of Plum Creek, Eagle Creek and Hickory Stick; overall pretty solid.

Something great about a golf trip to one course is getting to know a place in a hurry. By Monday afternoon, we knew how to get around there.

The club has a nice range and practice green adjacent to the first tee. The front nine kicks off with a stock par 4 with a tee box that kinda points you in the right direction…”kinda” being the operative word. Course knowledge out here is all about the tee balls and getting things going on the right line. IHGC isn’t overly long, and with a good game you can score out there, but it’s really set-up off the tee.

The second hole is an easy bogey trap (or worse) so keep your tee shot to the right or risk being blocked out by the trees. The front nine par 5s are scoring chances, not overly long. I like the sixth hole par 5, with some quirky items in your landing area and heather the whole left side of the hole. The par 4 eighth hole will confound you, I promise. My thoughts is to pound a tee ball past the trees with driver, but I only pulled this off once successfully because it’s a tight shot. The ninth is one of the better holes on the property, picturesque.

I scored better on the back nine almost everyday. Eleven and Sixteen are driveable par 4s, but the better play is keeping the ball left and in play. Unless the wind is helping, you should do the same! The stretch of thirteen-fifteen is my favorite on the course with a longer par 4 on the thirteenth, a par 5 behind that, and a tough driving hole on the fifteenth (hello bunkers). The closing stretch is fun too, with the drop shot par 3 seventeenth hole and the picturesque par 5 eighteenth. On eighteen I suggest you try to murder one left of the bunkers and catch the hill with a draw; that leaves a short shot to the green (which has some serious slope on it). We saw eagles and eights. Fun stuff (risk/reward)!

FIELD NOTES

The staff was great in all ways; 16 of us paid about 450$ per person (double occupancy) and weather was HOT. We only had a bit of rain to contend with. Centreville is the closest town, and there’s not a ton of dining options. But we enjoyed The Local and Roosters restaurants nearby. We also grilled burgers, brats and chicken and just chilled on-site. With a Sunday thru Wed stay, we didn’t have a lot of traffic to deal with, they did have league on Tue night, but it wasn’t a big deal. The putting green is faster than the actual greens, and we all kinda struggled to get the speed right on course. The heather was the real defense out there; the landing areas are pretty big, but the tee box placement does tempt you into trouble. You’ll find a lot of golf balls while looking for yours. We are giving serious thoughts to going back next year. The drive from Indy is about 3.5 hours, so not a nightmare. I was sore, tanned like a touring pro and ready for my own bed by Wed. I lost at golf but gambled well!

The 18th green can yield some low numbers - or some some big ones

Wicked golf-sock tan lines are not required (17th hole)

Color up, lads

These idiots can play hungover. Sorta.

A few quick reviews…Kampen, Prairie View

Just wanted to drop a few notes about some recent rounds I played.

First off, I played an outing at Prairie View on a gorgeous day. I had played there in late fall last year, so this was much greener and in-shape. A Robert Trent Jones Jr. design (only one in Indiana) it routinely makes the “best of” lists. I do enjoy playing here, more-so now that I know how to play a few of the holes better. It can be a little pricey, so I prefer playing with a discount. The first hole eases you into the round well, a short-ish par 4; the stretch from 6 through 9 is solid, with hole 9 a tough finish to the front. The back starts with my least favorite hole, only because there’s nothing creative about it: hit to the corner or you’re toast. Boring. But the rest of the back is better; my favorites are the shortish 16th and the great tee shot on 17. The closing 18th is a gettable par 5 with a good tee shot. Conditions are usually solid: mostly level tees, consistent greens (if a little boring) and their practice facilities are some of the best you can find. The pic at the top of this page is the par 3 sixth hole and one of my favorite par 3s in the area.

Up next was a round at the Kampen Course at Purdue. I’ve written about this place before (see my GolfAdvisor review here). Let me say this again: the is Pete Dye at his wiliest, with misdirection off the tee and strategy needed all over the place. Experience helps out here and I finally had a decent round (nothing shocking, but not ass-kicked, I now-hate-golf mad driving home). It’s always in good shape and they just updated their twilight pricing, so it’s more affordable than ever. I love all the par 5s out here and holes like 7 and 8 are fun scoring chances if you don’t goof up your tee shot. The home stretch from 16 - 18 is a great way to close out your day, and perhaps blow up your scorecard. Biggest item out here is to choose the right tee box; they have the ability to tip the course out and mortals like me can’t even dream of teeeing off from those tees back yonder (hole 9 is a great example, take a walk back there). This course is highly regarded on a national scale and for good reason. Take the drive to enjoy it. I would even consider the double shot of Kampen and the renovated Ackerman to be a day almost unmatched in Indiana Golf.

The 17th hole tee shot at prairie view is risk/reward and tons of fun

Accidentally St. Louis

I had been planning a trip to Sweetens Cove in Tennessee for months… After contacting the course, I was thrilled to learn I could lug my travel trailer down there and set-up camp in their parking lot for the weekend. (For Free!) Booking their $100 for all-day-play for Saturday, we had the makings of a cheap weekend filled with awesome golf. It was perfect.

Then spring showers decided THEY would camp at Sweetens, not us. Friday arrived and we had to call an audible. Memphis maybe? Go to Wisconsin?? Looking to the West, the weather was tracking to be 20 degrees warmer and sunny. St. Louis was only 3.5 hours away. That kinda freed up some time to get set-up Friday night somewhere, get home earlier on Sunday. So the die was cast, the call was made. We scrapped Sweetens.

We didn’t do ourselves bad though; we found some fantastic golf and we kept within earshot of our original pricing. Accidentally St. Louis was a great way to spend the weekend.

Our first round was at Pevely Farms in Eureka, MO, just southwest of downtown. An Arthur Hills course, with rolling hills everywhere and zoysia fairways, it was top-notch golf experience. I’ve played A. Hills’ courses before, and a theme I expected was dog-legs/blind landing areas. This was a little different. There are really very few flat spots out there, and this lends itself to a ton of great looking elevations on your tee ball or your approach shots. I love hill golf, even if it doesn’t love me back all the time. We played the blues (with a few stops to the black tees to see a better looking tee shot) and it was a solid test. The drivable par-4 third hole is a fun test and the par-3 fifth hole was stout at 185 yds into the wind.

The par-5 twelfth is a wonderful hole wandering down the hill and around the bend to a tucked green. The par-4 thirteenth is a great position hole with the remnants of a stone bridge deftly left on the course by Hill.

We played just down the road for our next 18 at Aberdeen Golf Club which is a Gary Kern course on markedly different ground than our morning round. Both courses are influenced by the Meramec River, this course being the bottom ground much closer to the water. When you roll around the bend from Pevely, you are kinda struck by how open and barren it seems. There are only about 10 trees in play around the course and you can immediately recognize the scottish-links styling. It was a fun gearshift from the hills; the wind was a bigger influence as you might expect. They have zoysia fairways here too, but the vibe is more about the ground game. This was April golf, and they’d had rain for days before, so we lamented not seeing this place in its later-season glory, bouncy and drier like something British. (That would be better for sure). There are shared greens, some sod-faced bunkers and some local knowledge will help you steer tee shots better. It was a fun romp. The par-5 sixth stands out for fun, strategy and can offer a birdie chance. Both nines finish well, as nine and eighteen share a green and skirt the same lake, both tee boxes guarded by an ancient sycamore tree standing by like a sentry. Neat touch.

Our trip was capped Sunday morning with a round at Annbriar Golf Course near Waterloo, IL. The course routinely gets accolades from Golf Advisor and Golf Digest. It’s a Michael Hurdzan design and in many ways, it’s a stunner. Not as hilly (outright anyway) as the ground for Pevely, but by moving around some ground, the course does a great job of weaving around the mounding and elevation. The front 9 has a bit more muted feel, as the holes march thru mounds. The stretch of 6-7-8 is solid, with the brute par-4 eighth asking a for a deep tee ball and long approach, Par is a good score. This all sets you up for the dramatic back nine. Starting with the eleventh (clearly one of those holes the architect just “found”) as it’s a gorgeous tee shot down to a fairway the swoops to the right with the creek. This kicks off a stretch of holes that move back and forth across chasms and elevation changes. We played more than a few back tees here too so we could take it all in. Annbriar reminds me a bit of The Fort in Indy, but it’s better and I’d play it a ton if it was nearby.

We were whipped by the time we wrapped 18 on Annbriar. Including the “emergency 9” we did at Aberdeen the day before, we were north of 50 holes of golf in 36 hours. Factor in way too many cigars and booze, it being only April, and you have a recipe for tired men who kinda dreaded driving home for three hours. Oh well, it was worth it. We made some great memories and can firmly attest that SLU has first-class golf chops, so bring your clubs next time you go.

FIELD NOTES: I was breaking in my new irons, Mizuno JPX tour/forged combo set. They rock. We camped north of Highland, IL, off I-70 and ate dinner in town Friday. Pevely was $70 and Aberdeen was $40, so the switch to St. Louis had only bumped us about $10 from Sweetens. Annbriar was a steal at $40, which was what we were going to spend at Sewanee if we had kept the TN trip. All the courses had zoysia, which I love; they were still a little dormant, but they played fine. All the greens were bumpy and hard to get figured out; it added a bit to our scores. They had had a lot of rain, so I have to give the courses the benefit of the doubt because they were battling. One item that seems worth noting was the rough at Annbriar. It was U.S Open penal, punch-out and hope rough; it bordered on unfair. I hope they mow it closer when it’s drier. Otherwise, you better be keeping it on the short stuff because I got my ass kicked more than few times when I didn’t. That course is too good in every other aspect to need or use rough like that. My opinion. Aberdeen stacks back-to-back Par 5s on the front nine and it’s a horrible idea. We waited 20 minutes; they need to make one a par 4 by shortening it and get play moving.

pevely - #13 Stone bridge hole

pevely - a closer look a the bridge

pevely - the par-5 ninth with the first tee on the right

aberdeen - the sycamore stands on guard

aberdeen - lot of open spaces and zoysia

annbriar - picturesque early and often

annbriar - eighteenth hole back to the house

annbriar - one of many valleys to hit over on the back

annbriar - #11 as good a hole as you’ll play

annbriar - that bunker on the right looks fun

annbriar - well i got out