Rock Hollow Golf Club

Getting To Know: Rock Hollow Golf Club

An Insightful Interview With Todd M Smith, PGA Golf Professional

By Brian Weis

Whether you have played a course 20+ times a year or looking to play the course for the first time, insights from an insider can help enhance your golf experience. Below is an interview with Todd M Smith who shares some valuable tidbits about the course, memorable holes and must eats and treats at the 19th.

Give Our Readers An Overview of the Golf Course/Property
Rock Hollow Golf Club was a reclamation project for Rock Industries, an aggregate company that was located in Peru, IN. The golf course is laid out over 300 acres of a mined-out gravel pit. Taking full advantage of its natural surroundings, Rock Hollow mixes old growth forests, cat tailed wetlands, beautiful boulders and changes in elevation to produce dramatic scenery. With four sets of tees, Rock Hollow is enjoyable for golfers of any skill level. Rock Hollow has hosted two Indiana Opens and one Indiana Amateur.

What Tips or Local Knowledge Would You Provide To Help Them Score Better At Your Course?
The key to a good score at Rock Hollow is getting your tee shot in play. Rock Hollow has very generous fairways with wide landing areas. If you hit your tee shots past the landing areas the fairways become much more narrow. Proper club selection on tee boxes is critical.

What Is The Signature, Most Talked About, or Most Photographed Hole?
Hole 14 is our signature hole. It can play to any yardage between 100 and 235 yards. The hole sits on a peaceful and beautiful natural pond. The green site is elevated and parts of the contoured, 10,000 square feet green are hidden from view on the tee boxes. The green is well protected with marshes and rock formations. Green side bunkers were not needed for this gem!

What Is Your Favorite Hole? Any Tips to Play It?
My favorite hole is #1. This is the perfect starting hole, a very short par 4. The view from the tee box is spectacular. A great start to a great course! The key to playing #1 is to only hit your tee shot about 200 yards. A 200 yard shot will leave you with a 100 yard approach at the perfect angle. Leave the driver in the bag!

Must Have Dish or Drink after the round at the 19th Hole?
Must food and drink is "the big dog" and Arnold Palmer. You should also try the Birdie Crunch!

Who Holds Course Record and What Was Their Score?
Course record is 62-Chris Smith

Back Tee Stats
Par: 72
Yardage: 138
Slope: 6944
Rating: 74.2

More Information
Rock Hollow Golf Club
669 S. County Road
250 West Peru, IN, 46970
765-473-6100
http://www.rockhollowgolf.com/

Revised: 04/14/2014 - Article Viewed 31,971 Times - View Course Profile

About: Brian Weis

Brian Weis is the mastermind behind GolfTrips.com, a vast network of golf travel and directory sites covering everything from the rolling fairways of Wisconsin to the sunbaked desert layouts of Arizona. If there’s a golf destination worth visiting, chances are, Brian has written about it, played it, or at the very least, found a way to justify a "business trip" there.

As a card-carrying member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA), International Network of Golf (ING), Golf Travel Writers of America (GTWA), International Golf Travel Writers Association (IGTWA), and The Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG), Brian has the credentials to prove that talking about golf is his full-time job. In 2016, his peers even handed him The Shaheen Cup, a prestigious award in golf travel writing—essentially the Masters green jacket for guys who don’t hit the range but still know where the best 19th holes are.

Brian’s love for golf goes way back. As a kid, he competed in junior and high school golf, only to realize that his dreams of a college golf scholarship had about the same odds as a 30-handicap making a hole-in-one. Instead, he took the more practical route—working on the West Bend Country Club grounds crew to fund his University of Wisconsin education. Little did he know that mowing greens and fixing divots would one day lead to a career writing about the best courses on the planet.

In 2004, Brian turned his golf passion into a business, launching GolfWisconsin.com. Three years later, he expanded his vision, and GolfTrips.com was born—a one-stop shop for golf travel junkies looking for their next tee time. Today, his empire spans all 50 states, and 20+ international destinations.

On the course, Brian is a weekend warrior who oscillates between a 5 and 9 handicap, depending on how much he's been traveling (or how generous he’s feeling with his scorecard). His signature move" A high, soft fade that his playing partners affectionately (or not-so-affectionately) call "The Weis Slice." But when he catches one clean, his 300+ yard drives remind everyone that while he may write about golf for a living, he can still send a ball into the next zip code with the best of them.

Whether he’s hunting down the best public courses, digging up hidden gems, or simply outdriving his buddies, Brian Weis is living proof that golf is more than a game—it’s a way of life.