This document lists and describes 18 of the most challenging golf courses in Indiana based on their slope ratings, as determined by the Indiana Golf Association. It provides details on each course such as location, designer, length, signature holes, and terrain features that make it difficult. The courses with the highest slope ratings at the top of the list include Wolf Run Golf Club in Zionsville (148 rating), Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel (146 rating), and Sycamore Hills Golf Club in Fort Wayne (146 rating).

1. The toughest eighteen: Indiana's most challenging golf
courses.
IN SEARCH OF A GOLFING challenge? We checked in with the Indiana
Golf Association to learn which Indiana courses are the toughest, based
on slope rating. Here's what we found:
Wolf Run Golf Club, Zionsville
Topping our list with a 148 slope rating is Wolf Run, a course that
designer Steve Smyers intended from the start to be ultra-challenging.
In fact, when dentist and successful amateur golfer Jack Leer first
opened the course in the late 1980s, its original slope of 151 was among
the nation's toughest.
Even the pros have found it tough--Nick Faldo said holes 12 through
15 were the hardest four in succession he had ever played. Wolf Run is
packed with challenges throughout its 7,090 scenic yards, including
ridges and ravines.
Crooked Stick Golf Club, Carmel
The first of a few Pete Dye creations on our list of the
state's toughest, Crooked Stick is one of the most prominent. Among
other honors, it hosted the 1991 PGA, the 1994 U.S. Women's Open
and last year's Solhelm Cup. It also has had the honor of hosting
Dye himself, who bought a house on the course.

2. Measuring 7,400 yards and carrying a slope rating of 146, Crooked
Stick is known for playing hard but fair. The par 3 hole No. 6 is
considered the signature, featuring water and a covered bridge.
Sycamore Hills Golf Club, Fort Wayne
Named for the sycamores that accent this picturesque course along
Fort Wayne's Aboite River, Sycamore Hills earns a 146 slope rating.
Designed by Jack Nicklaus and opened in 1989, the course always ranks as
one of the state's best and among the nation's finest.
The Aboite makes its presence known in several places, especially
on the signature 15th hole, where players must cross it four times. The
course offers a nice range of challenges, measuring 7,275 yards from the
back tees but just 5,232 from the front.
Purdue University Birck Boilermaker Kampen Course, West Lafayette
This Pete Dye design is one of the nation's top collegiate
courses, marked by waste bunkers, wetlands, ponds and native grasses. It
has served as a training ground both for university competitors and

3. students interested in golf course design and maintenance--in fact,
students helped build it back in the late 1990s.
The course measures 7,272 from the back tees and carries a slope
rating of 145, and regularly hosts a variety of collegiate and amateur
tournaments. A signature hole is No. 6, a lengthy par 5 with a dogleg right turn around a celery
bog.
Sand Creek Country Club, Chesterton
Three nines make up this scenic course, originally created by Ken
Killian and Dick Nugent for executives of Bethlehem Steel. Pick a
different pair of nines and you'll have a different experience. The
Marsh/Lake combination has earned a slope rating of 145 from the back
tees.
The Marsh course gets its name from its extensive wetlands, creeks,
ponds and rolling terrain, while the Lake course adds the challenges of
Lake Morgan. Another nearby body of water--Lake Michigan--also spells
trouble by stirring up tricky winds and adding strokes to the scores of
the unwary.
Hulman Links, Terre Haute
Designed by David Gill, this course boasts more than 130 bunkers,
eight lakes, huge fast greens, plenty of elevation changes and a slope
of 144. Accuracy is at a premium on its extremely narrow fairways lined

4. by water and trees (the joke is that on some holes, foursomes must walk
down the fairways single-file).
Two lakes bother golfers on the finishing hole--one that must be
avoided off the tee and another that must be carried on the second shot
to reach the green. Following winds are common on this hole, but not
always welcome as they can help send a strongly hit tee shot into the
second lake.
Otter Creek Golf Course, Columbus
Ever since it opened in 1964, Otter Creek has been on lists of the
country's 25 best public courses. Robert Trent Jones Sr. designed
the original 18, and his son Rees added another nine in 1995. Combine
the West and East courses and you'll achieve a slope rating of 144.
The younger Jones' East nine sports a Scottish links look. The
West nine includes Otter Creek's signature hole, No. 4 West, which
the elder Jones called "Alcatraz" because it's surrounded
by water. All three nines make good use of the site's gently

5. rolling hills and water features.
Brickyard Crossing, Indianapolis
It's hard to imagine a more intriguing place for a golf hole
than inside the world's most famous race track, but the Brickyard
Crossing has four such holes set inside the Indianapolis Motor
Speedway--holes 7 through 10. Designer Pete Dye, when he re-created the
course in the early 1990s, set the remaining holes outside the track to
the east, finishing up the course with a few holes that cross Little
Eagle Creek.
Brickyard Crossing sports a slope rating of 143 and measures just
under 7,000 yards from the back tees. It's challenging enough for
the pros, but open to the public.
Victoria National Golf Club, Newburgh
Some folks argue that strip mining is bad for the environment.
Others play golf on a piece of southwest Indiana land made gorgeous by
strip mining, which left behind deep lakes, ravines and hills. That
would be Victoria National, a Tom Fazio gem in Newburgh that
consistently ranks among the nation's best courses.
Victoria National measures about 7,200 yards from the back tees and
has a slope rating of 143. Surface coal mining created numerous pits
that have since filled with water to become hazards on 15 of the 18

6. holes. The course will host the USGA Senior Amateur this fall.
Ironwood Golf Club, Fishers
Ironwood sports three nines, which means three different 18-hole
configurations. The one with a 142 slope rating is the Valley/Lakes
pairing, which measures 6,901 yards from the back tees.
The Fishers course was designed by Bob Thompson and Art Kaser, who
have a fondness for islands. Hole 6 on the Lakes course tees from an
island, with a long carry over a lake to hit the fairway, with water
continuing to threaten all the way to the green. And the next hole
features an island green.
Purgatory Golf Club, Noblesville
That quest for a good golf challenge just might land you in
Purgatory, an imposing course with a slope of 142. But despite the
somber-sounding name, Golf Digest has declared that it's "more
heaven than hell." Just remember that when you land in one of the
133 bunkers scattered across the Ron Kern links-style design.
Adding to the challenge is length--at 7,754 yards from the back
tees, it has staked a claim as the longest regulation course in the
world. Perhaps its best-known challenge is No. 17, dubbed
"Hell's Half Acre," a troublesome hole not because of

7. length (just 173 yards) but because of the more than two acres of
bunkers surrounding its ample, three-tiered green.
Woodland County Club, Carmel
Yet another course with Pete Dye's signature, the
four-decade-old private club debuted a Dye championship course four
years ago. Measuring 7,191 yards from the back tees, the Carmel course
carries a top slope rating of 142.
The club was originally designed and owned by golf architect
William H. Diddel. It was a public fee course at first but quickly
attracted enough interest to convert to a private club. Dye was called
in to make some improvements in 2002.
Glendarin Hills Golf Club, Angola
This is a relatively new entry to the Indiana golfing scene, opened
in http://golfnewmexico.com/ 1999 on a rolling site that had been farmland. From the back tees it
measures 7,003 yards and boasts a slope rating of 141.
Water comes into play on several holes, and No. 4 is an especially
attractive par 3 that's set back into the woods. Glendarin Hills
added a large clubhouse in 2004.
Grey Goose Golf Club, Decatur

8. Ernie Schrock designed this course on 240 acres of woods and
wetlands. It's challenging with a 141 slope, yet it's not an
impossible length, measuring just 6,447 from the back tees.
Grey Goose features water on most holes, including the 10th, a par
5 with a triplet of wetlands. The daring will try to cover those three
carries in only two shots, but there's little margin of error.
White Hawk Country Club, Crown Point
Another 27-hole entry with three separate challenges, pick the
Greyhawk/Blackhawk combination for a slope of 141 and a distance of
about 7,000 yards. Dick Nugent crafted White Hawk on 250 acres of woods,
prairies, creeks and wetlands, with the course planted in bent grass.
On this combination, a particularly memorable hole will be
Blackhawk No. 6. The par 3 is only about 150 yards from the back tees,
but you'll be aiming for a small, kidney-shaped island green.
The Fort, Indianapolis
Once one of the capital city's best-kept secrets, the course
that was originally built for Fort Benjamin Harrison occupants was
deeded to the state and redesigned by Pete Dye as part of Fort Harrison
State Park.

9. The course, which measures 7,144 yards from the back tees and
carries a slope rating of 139, cuts through gorgeous, wooded hills that
seem out of place in mostly flat central Indiana. Bent grass lines the
tees, greens and fairways, and wetlands come into play along holes 5 and
6.
Liberty Country Club, Liberty, 139
Liberty Country Club is no newcomer, around since 1927. With a
slope of 139 it promises a fine challenge despite its comparatively
short length of 6,375 from the back.
For many, the highlight is hole 14, a dogleg left with trees lining
the left side. Beware the large bunker on the right in front of the
green.
Sagamore Club, Noblesville
Open less than three years, the Jack Nicklaus-designed Sagamore
Club has quickly earned a spot among Indiana's elite: With a slope
rating of 139, it's a 7,173-yard challenge, thanks to the presence
of sand and/or water on every hole.
Nicklaus was said to be more involved in this course's design
than some that bear his name. He even insisted on changing the direction
of the front nine when he determined that too many holes on the original

10. layout played against the natural contours of the site. True to Nicklaus
form, the course is tough but rewards a good shot.
USGA
Course Slope
Course City Rating Rating
Wolf Run Golf Club Zionsville 75.8 148
Crooked Stick Golf Club Carmel 77.3 146
Sycamore Hills Golf Club Fort Wayne 75.2 146
Purdue Birck Boilermaker
Kampen Course West Lafayett 76.5 145
Sand Creek Country Club
(Marsh/Lake) Chesterton 75.1 145
Hulman Links Terre Haute 77.2 144
Otter Creek Golf
Course (West/East) Columbus 72.1 144
Brickyard Crossing Indianapolis 74.0 143
Victoria National Golf Club Newburgh 75.4 143
Ironwood Golf Club (Valley/Lakes) Fishers 74.5 142
Purgatory Golf Club Noblesville 78.1 142
Woodland County Club Carmel 74.9 142
Glendarin Hills Golf Club Angola 74.0 141
Grey Goose Golf Club Decatur 71.1 141
White Hawk Country Club

11. (Greyhawk/Blackhawk) Crown Pointa 73.9 141
The Fort Indianapolis 74.5 139
Liberty Country Club Liberty 70.8 139
Sagamore Club Noblesville 75.2 139
Source: Indiana Golf Association, ratings from back tees
COPYRIGHT 2006 Curtis Magazine Group, Inc.
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the
copyright holder.
Copyright 2006 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.