Hoosier State's Top Golf Destinations

While the state of Indiana is strongly affiliated with the sport of basketball, Hoosiers have another sporting love affair -- the game of golf. It's worth noting that interest in golf by Hoosiers is not a fad or passing fancy as residents of the Hoosier state have been playing golf for more than a century. After all, once the snow melts, the sun shines, the mercury rises, and the checkered flag drops at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Indy 500, it's time to go outside to combat Old Man Par before Old Man Winter returns.

To that end, not only do Hoosiers love to play golf, they have some great places to 'pepper the pins' in pursuit of pars, birdies, and eagles. And, 30 of the best public-access courses to play golf in the Midwest can be found in southern, central, and northern Indiana. While Michigan in the summer, Florida in the winter, and the Carolinas in the spring and the fall are popular golfing hot-spots in the U.S., the state of Indiana provides golfers with everything they want and need in a golfing getaway, in the spring, summer and fall.

In the recently completed booklet, Hoosier State's Top Golf Destinations: 30 of Indiana's Finest Public-Access Golf Courses, golf writer Mike May provides a short description of those 30 public-access layouts which can be found in all parts of Indiana. Upon completion, this golf guide will be posted on IndianaGolf.com, GolfTrips.com, and GoGolfandTravel.com.

Those top 30 golf courses -- not in any specific order or ranking -- are listed below:
The Donald Ross Course, The Pete Dye Course, Sultan's Run Golf Club, Otter Creek Golf Course, Brickyard Crossing Golf Club, The Fort Golf Course, Plum Creek Golf Club, Maple Creek Golf and Country Club, Purgatory Golf Club, Covered Bridge Golf Club, Champions Pointe Golf Club, Legends Golf Club, The Warren Golf Course at Notre Dame, Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex: Kampen and Ackerman-Allen, Chariot Run Golf Club, Zollner Golf Course, Tippecanoe Country Club, Prairie View Golf Club, The Pfau Course at Indiana University, Rock Hollow Golf Club, The Trophy Club, White Hawk Country Club, Noble Hawk Golf Links, Hulman Links, Old Capital Golf Club, Walnut Creek and Club Run Complex, Blackthorn Golf Club, Christmas Lake Golf Course, and the Cobblestone Golf Course.

There is a strong element of 'star power' affiliated with many of those afore-mentioned golf courses as a number of well-known golf course architects and players have either designed or redesigned many of these 30 layouts. For instance, legendary golf course architect Donald Ross designed The Donald Ross Course (originally called the Hill Course) in French Lick. That course opened in 1917 and hosted the 1924 PGA Championship and two LPGA Championships in 1959 and 1960. The late, great Robert Trent Jones, Sr. designed the North and West Courses at Otter Creek in Columbus, while his son Rees Jones designed the East Course at Otter Creek. Longtime Hoosier resident and Hall of Fame golf course architect Pete Dye supervised the re-design of the Brickyard Crossing Golf Club and the Fort Golf Club -- both in Indianapolis. And, Dye designed the now internationally acclaimed Pete Dye Course in French Lick, which hosted the 2015 Senior PGA Championship. Dye's protégé Tim Liddy designed the Sultan's Run Golf Club in Jasper. Accomplished golf course architect Jim Fazio was the mastermind behind the design of the Legends Golf Club in Franklin. Indiana-born and raised Fuzzy Zoeller, winner of the 1979 Masters and 1984 U.S. Open, co-designed both Covered Bridge in Sellersburg and Champions Pointe in Henryville with Clyde Johnston. Chariot Run Golf Club, located in Laconia alongside the Ohio River, was designed by Bill Bergin.

In addition to a description of each golf course, this booklet contains a number of images from these 30 layouts that are built on a variety of landscapes that range from the gently rolling plains at the foot of southern Indiana's famous Floyd Knobs where Covered Bridge was built to the infield of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway where four holes at the Brickyard Crossing Golf Club appear to the Hoosier National Forest in French Lick which is the backdrop of The Pete Dye Course. Each editorial vignette contains the website, physical address, and telephone number for each golf course on the top 30 list.

In addition to the information about each of the 30 golf courses, this publication contains two 'bonus' stories about two of Indiana's most popular restaurants for golfers - The Schnitzelbank in Jasper and Rick's Café Boatyard in Indianapolis.

During May's fact-finding editorial rounds of golf in Indiana, which he played to gather notes for this publication, he wore golf gloves from Bionic Glove, played in golf shoes from New Balance Athletic Shoe, and swung JPX irons from Mizuno.