 Eagle Creek Golf Club:
The Magic Kingdom
Comes to Indy
By Kiel Christianson,
Senior Writer
Indianapolis, IN - Imagine a world where all your drives are 300 yards straight down the middle, all your putts drop, and municipal courses are designed by Pete Dye. In Indianapolis, at least one of these three fantasies is reality--the city boasts one of the best collection of municipal courses in the nation, featuring Eagle Creek Golf Club, a Pete Dye original with the highest slope (139 from the tips) and the lowest rates ($17-22 walking) anywhere in the state.
Eagle Creek Golf Club is everything you would NOT expect to find on an urban municipal course: a richly appointed clubhouse complete with a newly landscaped outdoor pavilion and conference center, 27 holes of championship golf (to be expanded to 36 by 2001), length (7,158 yards from the tips), elevation changes, isolated holes, driving range, practice greens, and, as already mentioned, 18 holes of golf designed by one of the preeminent course architects working today.
Eagle Creek opened in 1974 and has been the jewel of the city's courses ever since. Characterized by several blind shots, smallish greens, and lots of trees, the course has been recognized by Golf Digest as one of the top 25 public courses in America. And in 1982, it hosted the USGA Public Links Championship. All of this, along with Pete Dye, gives this muni a pedigree that would be envied by more than a few upscale public and private courses.
The number of blind tee and approach shots makes the yardage books in the carts indispensable. For example, on hole No. 11, a creek snakes in front of the green but is totally hidden from view on your second or even third shot. It pays to take a quick walk or drive closer to the green to see just how far left the water goes. Similarly, on the 200-yard par 3 No. 15, there is a trap front left of the green that cannot be seen from the tee stand.
The turf will soon be bent grass from tee to green. The small greens are not difficult to read for break, but may be tricky for judging speed. If it has been wet, the greens may be a bit shaggy, with a bit of a spongy, bouncy feel. Nevertheless, if you can hit them in regulation, it should not be difficult to two-putt on most (but watch out for No. 10, the toughest green on the course, deep and narrow with a back to front, left to right slope).
 Hitting the greens, however, is a different story. Several are wide and shallow, making distance control with your irons critical (for example, Nos. 2, 13, 15, and 16). Others are mercilessly bunkered, for example Nos. 2, 4, 7, 8, and 12. Some greens cannot be missed long, such as Nos. 10 and 14, while others, if missed short, will be so far uphill that you'll be lucky to see the flag (take Nos. 9, 14, and 16).
The best holes on the course are Nos. 5, 9, 14, and 18. The 599-yard 5th is a long, straight, rolling par 5 that is the absolute picture of a hole on some course far out in the country, not in a city of over one million. The 549-yard 9th requires a solid tee shot up to a plateau and then down towards the green. Actually, your third shot will likely be taken from a spot out on the fairway that is about the same elevation as the green, but it will need to carry a gaping swale and a cavernous pot bunker (think Road Hole) to get to the green safely.
The par-5 14th is similar to the 9th in that your approach (possibly your second on this 519-yard par 5) will need to carry a wide swale to the green. However, this shallow green is even harder to hit, as a monstrous tree guards the right side. The tree has much the same effect on golf balls as King Kong had on those tiny fighter planes as he was scaling the Empire State Building.
 Finally, the signature hole at Eagle Creek is the 18th, a 450-yard par 4 that calls for a long drive off the elevated tees. There's all sorts of trouble left, and a creek in front of the green. This is a great finisher, where pin-placement could mean more than a stroke (good luck if it's back-right).
So maybe all your drives won't be long and straight, and all your putts won't drop, but some dreams do come true. A round at Eagle Creek will set you back all of $20 walking on a weekday ($37 with a cart), not bad when you consider that playing Whistling Straits (Harbor, WI), another Pete Dye design, costs over $200.
And while you're in town, visit the other premier Indy municipal course, Coffin Golf Club, which has recently been redesigned by Tim Liddy, a former student of Dye's and a nationally known architect himself. We are willing to bet that the words- municipal course- will never mean quite the same thing to you again.
 Eagle Creek Golf Club
8802 West 56th Street
Indianapolis, IN 46234
Tel: 317-297-3366
www.eaglecreekgolfclub.com
Yardage:
7158 (championship), 6873 (blue), 6501 (white), 4948 (red)
Par: 72
Slope: 139, 134, 123, 116
Rating: 74.5, 72.7, 69.2, 68.2
Pro: Brad Beck
Director of Golf: Jerry Hayslett
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