TERRE HAUTE — When the price of gas makes you think about every mile you drive, I can honestly say that a recent trip to Prairie View Golf Club in Carmel was worth the trip! It is Indiana’s only Robert Trent Jones Jr. course, which is much better than a trip all the way to Alabama!
I went with my son to play a practice round with him for the Indiana Open, and I was very favorably impressed. I knew I was in for a treat when the entrance to the course was on a street called “Longest Drive.” I’m not the only one who likes it either. Prairie View was voted as the second favorite Indiana Public Golf Course by tournament participants in IGA events. (Otter Creek was first.)
Prairie View sits on 206 acres in Hamilton County. It incorporates wide fairways and large greens into rolling prairie land along with lakes, wetlands, and towering sycamores, oaks and cottonwoods. The white river serves as a border for the course on five holes. There are five lakes (one with a very tempting looking fishing boat tied up at dock) and a meandering stream that players must avoid. Wind is a constant factor on the open prairie holes, and the long prairie grass is a consistently tough hazard on every hole. There are 90 white sand bunkers strategically placed throughout, making you think twice about which direction you want to go and which club to use off the tee. Conestoga wagons and wagon wheels are dotted throughout the landscape, almost giving the impression that a wagon train passed by that way, but got caught in a sand bunker and could go no farther.
The fairways are generous, but if missed, there’s not a lot of rough before falling into the tall fescue grass. The lack of trees on the prairie view holes makes depth perception tricky, but the carts are equipped with a great GPS system that gives distances to every hazard, along with distance to front of the green, back and to the pin. It even shows how far it is to all the other carts in the vicinity, so you know if they are still in your range.
Phillip’s favorite use of the GPS system though was the ability to order lunch from the eighth tee! When you get past the seventh hole, the GPS system asks if you want to place an order for the turn. If you do, a menu is displayed, you place your order, and it is ready when you stop by the clubhouse at the turn. Phillip highly recommends the hamburgers! Great Lakes Magazine ranked them as the second-best hamburgers in the Midwest, so he’s not the only one who likes them.
I enjoyed having nice wide fairways to aim at, but my favorite part of the course was the greens. They were large and undulating, but rolled very true. They were in great shape, especially for a daily fee facility. You wanted to make sure you landed on the same tier as the pin though, or you had a very long putt!
Daily Greens Fees at Prairie View, including cart, are $90. A “re-run” green fee of $35 would apply if you had time for a second round. Twilight greens fees, which begin at 4 p.m., are $55. Call toll free at 1-88-TO-GO-GOLF to make a tee time.
Another aspect of the Prairie View experience is its’ Golf Training Academy where they combine fitness, instruction, and club fitting to help players maximize their full potential. You can schedule individual or group lessons, hone in on your short game, your woods, your putting, or whatever is needed. They have eight heated bays for winter instruction, along with an indoor putting green and fitness center. Call ahead to make reservations. You could also visit for any one part of the academy. Just call (317) 816-3111 for reservations.
Prairie View hosts many tournaments and special events throughout the summer. Three times a year they hold a “horserace”, where qualifying is held on a Saturday morning. Then at 3:30 p.m. sharp it’s “post time”. All 18 qualifiers, in two-man teams, tee off on from the first tee. Teams are eliminated on each hole until a winner is crowned on the 9th hole. An individual “horserace” will be held on Aug. 16, the fall “horserace” will be sometime in October.
For more pictures and information about Prairie View, visit its Web site at www.prairieviewgc.com
I I I
Quote of the Day — “I’m hitting the woods just great, but I’m having a terrible time getting out of them.” – Harry Tofcano
I I I
Upcoming Events: The Terre Haute Women’s Golf Association will host its 69th Annual Ladies City Match Play Tournament from July 25-28 at Rea Park. Cost is $40. Deadline for entry is Tuesday. New this year is the event is now open to golfers outside of Vigo County. High school and collegiate golfers are welcome and encouraged to play. Entry forms are available at area pro shops or online at www.terre
hautewomensgolf.com
On & Off the Course
On and Off the Course: Prairie View Golf Course is worth the drive!
- On & Off the Course
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Death Notice: Feb. 7, 2013
• Gary R. Wright
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Donna Lynn Strahla Bown
Donna Lynn Strahla Bown passed away early Friday morning, Jan. 25, 2013, with her children by her side.
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‘The Match’ pitting amateurs vs. pros recalled 62 years later
Quote of the Day: “I play golf with friends sometimes, but there are never friendly games.” — Ben Hogan.
Bubba Watson has had a busy fall. Not only did he play all the way to the final round of the FedEx Championships, and in the Ryder Cup, he also played in an event commemorating a very famous match played at Cypress Point in 1956, pitting two of the greatest golf pros at the time against two of the best amateurs.
Come to think of it, all four were some of the best golfers of all time. This year’s event was celebrating The First Tee’s exceeding $100 million in pledges to reach 10 million new young people. It wasn’t televised and kept very quiet; only 225 people were in the gallery.
One of the people in the gallery was Mark Frost, the author of a book titled “The Match,” which is about that match played 62 years ago that was re-enacted in modern terms last week. The pros in 1956 were Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson and the amateurs were Ken Venturi and Harvie Ward. It was supposed to have been a private affair, built around a wager by two millionaires, George Coleman and Eddie Lowery. -
ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Golf from the wrong side of the brain
Imagine this scenario: a woman, small in stature (possibly freckled), walks into a hospital emergency room and says, “I have an emergency, I need a doctor quickly!” The admitting nurse, ever trying to be helpful, asks what the emergency is.
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Farmers looking at widely varying yields
Combines will roll through fields this weekend, bringing in the harvest from a summer with nearly no rain.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Golf debut in London would have been nice
As the Olympics get underway in London this weekend, I was thinking it’s too bad that the Olympic committee decided too late to add golf as one of the sports for this event; instead it will be added to the 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janeiro.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Getting to Hoosier country’s best golfing venue part of the fun
If you are looking for Indiana’s premier golfing destination, then you should look no further than French Lick.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Indiana's Pete Dye courses worth the drive
You’ve probably heard of the Robert Trent Jones Golf trail throughout Alabama, but you might not be aware that Indiana has its own “Pete Dye Golf Trail” comprised of seven courses.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Fathers typically a big influence on golfing sons
Some events fall naturally into place around holidays. The Fourth of July always falls somewhere during Wimbledon, giving all of the Yanks in attendance something to be boisterous about, to the chagrin of their hosts; The Masters often, but not always, ends on Easter Sunday, which is fitting since golfers find it such a reverent occasion.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Memorial just one of many visions of Jack Nicklaus
When Jack Nicklaus was a young man, the golfer he most admired was Bob Jones.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: With some tricky rules, golf is not a walk in the park
Golf is not a casual sport, even though it has a term called “casual water.”
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On and off the course: Sycamores seeded sixth heading into MVC golf tourney
It wasn’t too long ago that Indiana State University didn’t even have a women’s golf team.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: A hard ticket to come by
This is the weekend of the Masters Tournament, the first of the four major tournaments.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Some things on golf course are worse than steep putts
It’s not often that anything gets more scary on a golf course than a steep downhill putt, but on some courses around the world, things a little more on the supernatural side might give you a bigger fright!
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: The shot heard round the world
I don’t know if the Golf Channel will show a “Best Shots of 2011” highlight reel, much like ESPN does for baseball or football.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: The Red, White and Blue visits the Isle of Green
In 2006, the Ryder Cup was held in Ireland at The K Club in County Kildare.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Fall may be coming but golf season is far from over
Once the major tournaments are over with, what’s there to look forward to in the world of golf?
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Golf… simplified!
Golf is not a simple game. A golf course is made up of 18 holes, all different. There are par-3s, par-4s and par-5s; they all vary in length and elevation, and each has its own challenges. There can be water hazards, trees, sand bunkers, tall grass, hills, valleys — and then, if that’s not enough, there’s probably wind too.
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On and Off the Course: Northern Ireland builds on golf history
Northern Ireland is only about 5,452 square miles in area and has a population about the same as West Virginia, which is about 1,880,344.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Women’s Open at the Broadmoor
This is the weekend of the U.S. Women’s Open, and this year it’s being played at The Broadmoor, East Course, in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: The Fort Golf Course: A Walk in the Park…
Indiana has some pretty spectacular state parks, but one of them gives you the ability to “spoil a good walk” by chasing a little white ball.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Father’s Day is a good day for golfers
Most people consider the time around Christmas to be the gift-buying season.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Playing with lead a difficult task
As exciting as last week’s Masters was, with six players being tied for the lead at one point on Sunday, it was very difficult watching Rory McIlroy fall apart to shoot an 80.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Masters a rite of spring
This is Masters weekend, the grand kickoff to the golf season for a lot of golfers. Sure, there have been tournaments on TV, because the professionals have been playing in Hawaii, California, Texas, Dubai, and other areas not so affected by winter as we are here in the Midwest, but to me, watching The Masters is a rite of spring.
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ON THE OFF THE COURSE: Some history on the Ryder Cup
I fell asleep in way too many history classes to ever qualify as a history buff. However, since I have grown up a bit (not much), I enjoy learning about all kinds of history. I often have questions about how something began, or how something came to be.
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On and Off the Course: Purdue's Kampen Course a gem in Indiana's rough
About a month ago, Indiana was still heavily mired in heat and humidity, making outdoor activities such as golf less appealing than usual. At that time it felt like the repressive heat would never go away, it would never rain again, and all of the grass was just going to continue to wither and die. And the month prior to that we kept getting rained out of golf events!
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On and Off the Course: Successful golfers know ... focus is the key
I have a good friend who coached his daughter’s basketball team for a number of years, and told me that his theme with the girls was always “focus”, until it was ingrained in their brains. Now when they play high school ball, if they hear “focus” yelled from the stands, they know the source.
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On and Off the Course: Technology adds even more fun to the course
You’ve hit a drive into some brush in an area marked as a hazard, but you can’t find the ball to prove it is there. And no one actually witnessed it go in the hazard. You just think that’s where it probably is. What is the rule for this situation?
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On and Off the Course: Anthony Gonzalez First Tee Classic a worthwhile charity event
On Monday, I worked as a volunteer for the Anthony Gonzalez First Tee Classic, Golf Tournament and Auction at Eagle Creek Golf Course in Indianapolis. It was an absolutely beautiful day, with clear blue skies, just a few wispy clouds here and there and a high temperature of about 76 degrees.
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On and Off the Course: Trends show golf in decline
You don’t have to watch the news or read the paper to understand that America is struggling on the economic front. The evidence can be witnessed at the local golf course.
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