Hello Indiana! Im headed to Indianapolis for a soccer tournament and would love to get a couple of morning rounds in somewhere in the west side of town. I definitely want to check out Brickyard crossing. If anyone is interested in playing on April 22 or 23 let me know!
If I wasn’t out of town that weekend I’d absolutely link up, the west side is my bread and butter. How expensive are you looking to go? Eagle Creek is my go to track (2x 18 hole layouts) and Golf Club of Indiana is solid, both in that middle price range. If you venture up north you pick up a lot of options as well (Purgatory, Bear Slide, The Fort)
Edit to say the Brickyard is absolutely worth your time if you’re willing to hit that price point
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Unfortunately, I’ll be refereeing at said tournament in the mornings before going to work.
I’d check the cart rules before playing Brickyard Crossing this time of year. If they’re cart path only your round is not nearly going to be as fun.
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Question for the group: Best Place to play in/Near Elkhart? I’m going to be spending more and more time down in Elkhart and I’m interested in playing more while I’m down there. Thanks Nesticles.
Eberhart (shoutout @country35) is very underrated. Cheap to walk, nice stroll, but still gives ya plenty of challenge. Warren over in South Bend is a must play, practice your bunker play cause there are A LOT. Blackthorn, also in South Bend, has hosted a Symetra event in the past and gets ranked highly year over year.
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Possibly the wrong side of town for you, and it’s not that convenient from the Toll Road, but I enjoyed my one game at Elbel back in the day. Warren and Blackthorn are both very good. Warren is consistently good hole after hole; Blackthorn has some strange holes mixed with very good holes.
I played Zollner at Trine University in 2019 before I shipped back to Scotland, to fulfil the “Z” on my A-Z list, and it was good enough. 50 miles or so from Elkhart, so perhaps not worth your while.
I love Zollner personally. Pretty quirky and you wouldn’t expect some of the elevation changes in the middle of northern Indiana like that. Hole 7 especially, you are hitting straight into the face of this massive hill.
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The elevation changes at Blackthorn, Elbel, and South Bend CC are dramatic in terms of what you encounter in the area as well. Certainly in terms of what you’d find at Juday Creek, for example.
Semi-lurker on this thread, as vicariously relive my happy northern Indiana years from my current home in my native Scotland.
I’m planning a 40th birthday trip to the U.S. that will mostly be golf. I’ve enough friends in the Chicago-South Bend-Indianapolis triangle to spend a good chunk of time in Indiana. I haven’t played any of Purgatory, The Fort, or Trophy Club, and am considering those three plus a private in Indy that I am currently striking out on, September 22-23 this year. Do Purga-Fort and Trophy-NorthIndy sound feasible in terms of driving each day? I’d be coming from Gas City and Greenfield each day respectively. Is it sensible to drive from Greenfield to Bloomington to play Pfau? I’d be delighted to have folks join me at any of those locations if you’re free on a weekday.
I would imagine doing Trophy-Purg one day is a better play so you don’t have to go back to that side again, being able to loop back towards home base. Similar course designs too, incredible views and greens on both. Pfau is such a drive, would probably have to be it’s own day, so I would think Fort would be a great one day thing where you play it twice or play that in the morning and pop over to Shortee’s for some short game shenanigans.
I’d love to get out with ya. Drop a note when it gets closer and I’ll make sure it works out.
Not knowing the rest of your plans, I’d almost recommend Gas City - Bear Slide - Purgatory - Greenfield - Fort. I prefer Bear Slide over Trophy and it’s less of a drive to work it into the itinerary. If you’re committed to Trophy though @papateeps nailed it. The Purdue courses are top notch too if you’ll already be on the I-65 route, could do a double with one in the morning and one in the afternoon
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100000%. Ackerman is was a nice little handshake before Kampen kicks your junk in
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- Meadow Valley in Middlebury, greens get spicy.
- I grew up playing Heron Creek in LaGrange, its cheap and fun, they need to widen the fairways and cut down trees.
- Maxwelton! in Syracuse, weird with fun rolling terrain.
- Farther Drive, Angels Crossing in Vicksburg Michigan, Rock Hollow in Peru IN
I appreciate these recs! Thanks!
I regret not traveling more to play in Indiana when I lived in South Bend but the Warren student rate was too good to pass up for a grad student. I imagine I’ll be back in Indiana every few years, so hopefully I’ll make it to each of these courses in the fullness of time.
I’ve played Angels Crossing a few times and got to Rock Hollow in 2016. Enjoyed them both. I’m hoping to get up to the Battle Creek area for BCCC and Stoatin Brae just before I move south. I suppose I am going for breadth rather than depth on this trip.
I second (or third) the Purdue courses if you’re able to swing them. Perfect 36 hole day hitting up both. I find myself debating which one I like more between the two.
Purgatory, Trophy and Fort are all great. Like them all for different reasons. Fort is probably my favorite layout in the area, but it’ll be busier there. They’re all doable in the same day for 36, just gotta time up vs. some of the rush hour traffic for I-465.
Sounds like I need to take another crack at Bear Slide. Didn’t dislike it the first few times but I have it below those other 3 personally.
Truthfully have only played each once, so could be a difference in days. Would love to get back out to each to rank em
Got to!! I think we can agree that the quality is strong either way, lucky to have a lot of nice tracks in the area. I saw your earlier post on Eagle Creek. The Pines course was my and my wife’s go-to a few summers back. I wish we lived a little closer to it as I enjoyed both courses they have out there (we’re in Fishers now).
Let me know whenever you’re up for a round! I’m in downtown Indy right now so can get to Fishers or Trophy pretty easy. Trying to take advantage of the radius while we live down here
Yeah, definitely! We’ll figure something out