The Dye Course at French Lick
TIMELESS ROSS
In fact, the Ross Course’s major championship pedigree dates to 1924, when it hosted the PGA Championship, won by Walter Hagen, for whom the clubhouse grill is named. At par 70 and nearly 7,000 yards from the tips, it still boasts the chops to give the world’s best players all they can handle.
A $5 million 2007 spruce-up brought some 80 of its bunkers back to their original glory and revived some of the Scot-born master’s green dimensions and trademark undulations, and some trees have come and gone through the years. But the layout’s routing has changed little if at all, which is a good thing, because with its mix of old-school back-and-forth holes that roll and tumble across a broad valley, and the more links-like ones that venture onto and around the surrounding low hills, the rhythm is well-nigh perfect.
Each nine has its unforgettable stretch.
On the front, for me, holes 7-9 are a par 5-4-4 trio that test every element of one’s game. First comes a gentle, snaking dogleg-left around a steep slope and near-hidden creek, beautifully rendered cross bunkers in the layup zone and, of course, one of 18 elevated green. But the following par 4, a sharper dogleg with nary a level fairway lie, is home to the most diabolical green of all, nearly square in shape, with a precipice about two-thirds of the way in. If the pin is back, which is most of the time, and a ball is level with or above it, via con díos (or in French, va avec dieu) — it ain’t staying on the surface. Then comes the tricky ninth, a downhill dog-right, drivable if the wind is right, but that tee shot had better land in exactly the right spot on the fairway to get a favorable kick toward the surface (which is, yes, canted quite severely).
On the back, the final five holes are sculpted well for serious competitive drama. The 14th tee is pretty much as far from the hilltop clubhouse as the course gets, playing slightly downhill to a green backed by the only lake in play; the tips for the next hole, a hefty five-par, require a big knock over that same water. No. 16 isn’t a long par 3, but a half-dozen bunkers stand sentry around its amphitheater green, and above-the-hole putts are brutal. No. 17 slopes strongly from right to left on both fairway and green, especially on the latter — the approach must be kept to the right half — while the 18th is a stellar finisher, straightaway, well-bunkered, asking for one last uphill approach.
Along the way are myriad humps, hollows and trick-the-eye features that are never forced. Ross discovered them and exploited them to incredible effect. There’s no let-up.
