The Donald Ross layout dates back to 1916 when it was the second 18-hole golf course to be commissioned at the French Lick Resort (following an earlier Tom Bendelow design).
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The Donald Ross layout dates back to 1916 when it was the second 18-hole golf course to be commissioned at the French Lick Resort (following an earlier Tom Bendelow design).
French Lick Resort (Donald Ross)
The Tom Bendelow-designed Valley Links was the first golf course to appear at the French Lick resort in 1907 and this 9-hole layout was joined a decade later by the “Hill Course” as it was originally called, an 18-hole course which was laid out by Donald Ross.
Seven years after this course was unveiled, the 1924 PGA Championship event was held on it, won by Walter Hagen.
When the Cook Group became the new owners of the resort in 2005, they decided to revamp the old Valley track and commission a new $24 million 18-hole course on top of nearby Mt. Arie, which was then named after its designer, Pete Dye.
Around the same time, architect Lee Schmidt and Michael Fay from the Donald Ross Society were called in to restore the Hill Course. When it re-opened in 2007, it was retitled the Donald Ross course in honour of its original designer.
Ten years later, it hosted the first Donald Ross Centennial Classic event on the Symetra Tour, the official development tour of the LPGA. The same week, as part of a week-long celebration of women’s golf, the inaugural Senior LPGA Championship was held on the Pete Dye course.