Otter Creek (North & West)

The city of Columbus, Indiana is renowned for its architecture; its open-minded grants to promising designers resulted in the relatively small municipality hosting designs from I.M. Pei, Kevin Roche, and two generations of Saarinens. Don’t worry golfers: At least one prominent course architect passed through as well, when Robert Trent Jones laid out the North and West nines at Otter Creek, which are now used as the complex’s championship routing.

Minimalism was certainly not the theme Jones aimed for, bunkering the course well and stretching it for those who dared play it from the back tees (it currently sits at more than 7,300 yards from the tips).

Two of the signature holes come in order on the back nine (West). Players will finally lay eyes upon the title creek, playing a tee shot 190 yards across the flow and several bunkers to a green on the other side. Following that, strong players can make a move at the 510-yard par five’s green, if they’re comfortable carrying more than 50 yards of bunkers and rough in front of the green.

Speaking of father and son architecture duos, Rees Jones returned and added the East nine 30 years after his father.