WEST LAFAYETTE —
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!
This summer, many of the golf courses in the Wabash Valley had a hard time with maintenance because we had a July with more rain than usual, and August with less than usual. Rainfall amounts in July were over 7 inches, and the typical July might have 5 inches of rain. August normally has 31⁄2 inches of rain, but this year Bradly Pugh, the greens superintendent at the Country Club of Terre Haute, measured a mere 6⁄10-inch of rain for the whole month of August.
All of the local courses took a beating, especially in August. They had irrigation, but too much irrigation without rainfall brings its own problems; retention ponds in this area tend have a high salt content (bicarbonate salt), and city water has chemicals in it that are intended for human consumption. In an ideal situation, golf course superintendents have chemicals they can put down to battle some of these problems, but limited budgets and such a high level of need helped Mother Nature to win the battle of the greens and fairways. The Wabash Valley area had 37 days of temperatures above 90 degrees from the middle of June through the end of August, and I recall quite a few of those with heat indexes above 100.
After playing so much golf on distressed courses, it was such a nice change when I went to West Lafayette on Labor Day to play Kampen Golf Course with my husband, my son and my brother. It was my first time to play it, and since I had heard so much about it I was really looking forward to it. The first thing we all noticed was the abundance of green grass.
Kampen was in great shape, and it was a beautiful fall day, with a strong wind, so the links course really played as it was intended. You really had to think about your club selection, depending on if you had the wind at your back or if you were hitting into it. Andy said it was almost like when he played in Scotland, except that it was only a two-club wind that day. (Only a golfer would understand what a “two-club wind” is).
For those of you who are not golfers, it means that if you would normally hit an 8-iron a certain distance, that wind in your face means you’d better hit a 6-iron or you’re going to come up short!) It was a fun day, and we all agreed that Kampen was one of the best courses we’d ever played.
Kampen is a Pete Dye course, built in 1996 with the collaboration of Mr. Dye, Superintendent Jim Scott and 32 Purdue students. The departments of Forestry, Entomology, Water Quality Testing, Agronomy and others all were involved in its construction. One of the benchmark features of the course design is the water reclamation process in which all of the water used on the course is recycled.
The course has five sets of tees, ranging in total distance from 7,465 yards to 5,260 yards. The black tees have a slope of 143, which is where the NCAA Men’s Championship in 2008 would have been played from. The blue tees are 6,874 yards with a slop of 139, the whites 6,411 yards with a slop of 135, and the golds 6,067 with a slope rating of 131. The most forward tees, silver, are at 5,260 yards with a rating of 121, making Kampen playable for wimps like me! Kampen is rated one of the top collegiate courses in the nation and Golf Digest rates it 4.5 stars on its’ “Places to Play” list.
Besides Kampen, Purdue also has another course called Ackerman Hills, which is also a fun course to play, though not of the caliber of Kampen. The rates for Kampen normally are $70 with a cart. Ackerman Hills is $39 with a cart Monday-Thursday and $44 Friday-Sunday. Or you can play unlimited golf on either or both courses with a cart for $99. However, due to aerification coming up, the rates on these courses will go down this fall. Ackerman Hills will be $25 Monday-Thursday with cart, and $30 Friday-Sunday beginning on Sept. 20 when they aerify the greens. Kampen will be $50 every day with a cart beginning on Oct. 11, when those greens will be aerified.
We have still have some beautiful fall days left to play golf, so get out and enjoy them while you can!
• Quote of the Day —“They say golf is like life, but don’t believe them. Golf is more complicated than that.” — Gardner Dickinson
• Upcoming Events — Tee It Up/ ISU Women’s Golf Junior Clinics will be staged at Hulman Links Golf Course from 2 to 3 p.m. on Sept. 4, 18 and 25 and Oct. 2, 9 and 16. Chipping, putting etiquette, course management and much more will be covered. The event is free. Call (702) 250-0426 for more information.
On & Off the Course
On and Off the Course: Purdue's Kampen Course a gem in Indiana's rough
- 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.
- More On & Off the Course Headlines
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Death Notice: Feb. 7, 2013
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Raw: Tearful Reunion After Okla. Tornado
Obama Pledges Urgent Aid for Tornado Victims
AP Photograher: 'It Was a Miracle' They Got Out
Active Search for Utah Missing Mom Ends
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Voters Could Elect LA's First Female Mayor
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Huge Tornado Kills Dozens Near Oklahoma City
Raw: Rescue Workers Search Oklahoma School
Tim Cook Defends Apple's Tax Accounting
Raw: Rescuers Pull Tornado Survivors to Safety
Arias Tells Jury What She'd Do if She Gets Life
Raw: Aussie Zoo Shows Off White Rhino Calf
Oklahoma Gov: 'Hearts Are Broken' After Tornado
Kate Middleton's Dress Flies Up
VIRAL: Baby makes epic soccer goal
The Hangover Baby All Grown Up
Olivia Munn Flaunts Her Bikini Bod
Britney Spears Under Fire Once Again For Being A Bad Mom
The all-new Xbox One
RAW: Massive tornado strikes Oklahoma
Nidal Hasan paid $278K while awaiting trial
VIDEO: Teacher reunites mother and son after tornado levels elementary school in Oklahoma City
Okla. tornado survivor finds dog buried alive under rubble
Jennifer Lawrence Gets Naked and Painted Blue as X-Men's Mystique
Pickler's Dance Moves Cause A Stir
Obama to tornado survivors: The country stands beside you
Reporter Cries Over Devastation
Sneak Peek: 'Modern Family' Says Good Bye
Trailer: 'The Last Stand' Available on Blu-ray Disc, DVD, Digital Download
IWitness Look at Moore, OK Tornado
RAW: Moore, OK tornado touches down near school
Robert Pattinson Moves Out
