The Pete Dye Course at French Lick may be a resort course, however that does not imply it lacks any punching energy.
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Feigning weak spot to achieve the higher hand — it’s a strategic maneuver that Muhammed Ali made well-known towards George Foreman when the 2 clashed in Zaire in 1974. Over 30 years later, Pete Dye made it well-known in French Lick, Ind., shifting greater than 2.5 million cubic yards of filth to create his namesake championship course at French Lick Resort in 2009.
Golf course structure and pugilism not often intersect. Nevertheless, the 2 are intertwined right here at this 8,100-yard golf course (that’s proper, 8,100 yards!), the place its late creator displayed his mastery of the rope-a-dope. By the way, this yr marks the start of the course’s longstanding engagement because the host of the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, which suggests the present class of aspiring PGA Tour gamers will want an iron jaw — and a few critical punching energy of their very own — if they’re to succeed.
For the typical novice, nicely … the course throws nothing however haymakers. However, that doesn’t imply the combat needs to be one sided.
When requested to check the placement to all different home websites that he had labored on up till that time, Dye mentioned: “I’ve by no means had something remotely like this. Right here, we had such change in elevation from begin to end that each one we needed to do was hold combating it to melt that elevation change so someone can stroll this golf course. We needed to do a variety of pushin’ and shovin’. There was a lot space right here … you could possibly make it 20,000 yards when you needed to.”
Ultimately, 8,100 yards proved lots lengthy sufficient, particularly once you think about Mom Nature’s contributions to a spherical. “We’re out of the timber and within the huge open, and the wind up right here impacts us just about day by day,” says Dave Harner, French Lick Resort’s director of golf.
In different phrases, you may count on the course to generally play even longer than the scorecard’s posted yardage.
First-timers to this brute of a championship course must also know that the primary two holes don’t actually convey what a golfer is about to come across. (That is Dye leaning again on the ropes, letting you cost forward.) Even from the third set of tees (the blues), which play a tick over 6,700 yards, the opening duo of par fours are manageable. Right here, Dye is simply feeling you out, holding you at bay by solely throwing jabs. Chances are you’ll stroll off the second inexperienced with confidence, however it all adjustments on the third. That’s when Dye lands an influence punch. By the way, it’s the primary of many.
The third gap performs 554 yards from the blue tees — 641 yards from the championship field — and the sliver of fairway working away from the tee alongside a ridgeline that then snakes to the left and climbs uphill to an elevated inexperienced is intimidatingly slim. The fescue-covered hillside that falls away on the within of the dogleg is notably steep, which suggests when you miss your line to the left, you would possibly as nicely drop from the golf green and take a penalty stroke. If you happen to ought to in some way handle to search out your ball, you’ll momentarily really feel fortunate, however solely till you understand that your subsequent shot will extra intently resemble t-ball than golf. That’s how far above your ft your Titleist will seemingly be positioned.
“It’s the tightest golf course that you simply’ll ever play that doesn’t have a tree,” says Harner. Actually, the widest fairway on the course — the twelfth gap — measures a mere 85 ft from edge to edge. That mentioned, when you can prioritize hitting the golf green (and also you’re lucky sufficient to execute the entire photographs that accomplish that objective), the reward is substantial. “The fairways,” notes Harner, “are pretty stage.”
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So what’s the trick, you ask? Extra so than maybe anyplace else, the key to success is enjoying from the suitable tees. Relying on the place you select to tee it up, the course “has twin personalities,” as Harner acknowledges. In different phrases, enterprise to the again tees at your peril.
“We get a couple of individuals who wish to play these again tees,” he says. “However after a couple of holes with 250-yard plus carries to the golf green, they have a tendency to vary their minds.”
Even when enjoying from tees which are commensurate along with your talent stage, the course requires your very best — seemingly with each swing of the membership — in order for you the mere alternative to submit a positive rating. This, I not too long ago realized firsthand whereas enjoying from the blues.
On the aforementioned third gap, I began off sturdy, hitting a drive that drew off the broad fairway bunker on the best fringe of that slim sliver of quick grass and got here to relaxation close to the middle of the golf green about 275 yards away. I adopted it with as pure a 3 hybrid as I might hit, and watched as my ball flew over the within nook of the dogleg. But, even after these two photographs, I nonetheless had 130 yards left to an elevated inexperienced that notoriously performs as one of many trickiest on the course.
The fifteen holes that adopted launched comparatively small placing surfaces — the biggest inexperienced on the course is barely about 5,000 sq. ft in space — whereas intently mowed bailout areas outstretched the greens themselves.
And whereas it’s simple to make the belief that the golf course was designed with the intention to be brutally laborious — Dye was well-known for saying, “Golf just isn’t a good recreation, so why ought to I construct a good golf course?” — the reality of the matter is, he created the format with the motivation of making certain it was related far into the longer term.
“He at all times argued that the ball and the gear go too far,” Harner says of Dye. “He constructed this golf course assuming that no change can be made, and in 20 years, 8,100 yards can be effective. It’s a futuristic play, not a devilish play.
“As time goes on,” Harner continues, “this course will likely be considered one of many hardest and truest exams of golf.”
On condition that greater than half the sphere within the Korn Ferry Tour Championship this weekend failed to interrupt par after the match’s opening two rounds, it’s protected to say such is already the case.
