Rock Hollow

Pete Dye is certainly Indiana’s most celebrated architect, and his designs dot the landscape across the state. That said, he certainly left room for his acolytes to contribute to the Indiana golf scene. Tim Liddy is one of those disciples and he’s the designer behind the Rock Hollow Golf Club in Peru, IN.

The name of the course is quite literal; the property was previously a gravel mine, so Liddy was free to move land and use the existing water-filled pits to create holes that combine for a thrilling mix of risk-reward and straight heroism. There is evidence of Dye’s influence on both fronts.

On the heroic front, those playing from the back tees at the closing hole will face a white knuckle tee-shot across the property’s central lake, a Cape-style hole almost as scary as anything Dye himself did (players from the shorter tees also deal with a less frightening angle to the fairway).

Don’t think Liddy doesn’t have his own design philosophy, however. The drivable par four at No. 13 is a rejection of Dye’s dislike of the short-four concept...but the centerline pot bunker that will disrupt the majority of attempts at the green is right in line with the master’s thinking.