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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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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On and Off the Course: Remembering former South golfer Ian White
It’s usually a bit of a struggle for me to figure out what my topic will be for this column. This week I could have written about Tiger’s withdrawal from the Players’ Championship due to a bulging disc in his neck, or by association, the health hazards a violent golf swing can have on the human body, or any number of other golf-related topics.
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On and Off the Course: Ochoa’s departure to impact LPGA
LPGA Commissioner Michael Whan already had a tough job, trying to promote the LPGA tour and keep the 25 events that they have on the schedule, but that job was made tougher last week when the tour’s No. 1 player announced her retirement from the game at the ripe old age of 28.
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On and Off the Course: Examining the square groove rule change
Even though the Masters is going to have its own little drama going on with the return of Tiger Woods, an interesting thing to note will be how well the players are able to hold the hard fast greens at Augusta. An underlying part of the bigger picture that everyone might not realize is a rule change that could dramatically affect most, if not all, of the players. That rule change took effect on Jan. 1.
- On and Off the Course: President's Cup should be entertaining Just when we thought golf season was over, and it was time to concentrate on football, we must awaken from our naps, because there’s going to be some exciting golf for us to watch next weekend. The President’s Cup will run from Oct. 6-11 at Harding Park in San Francisco.
- On and Off the Course: The obscure of golf's rulebook Golfers know that the rules that govern the game are abundant. The game originated in the 15th century on the links of Scotland, and somehow as time went on and people became more civilized, rules were adopted.
- ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Women’s City Match Play had tough competition I played in the Terre Haute Golf Association Women’s City Match Play Tournament a couple of weeks ago.
- On and Off the Course: One for the ages … well, almost! I wonder how long people will be referring to last week’s British Open, as “one for the ages.” They could also refer to it as “one for the aged!” Tom Watson’s near miss of a 9th Open Championship (as the Brits prefer to call it, and as it rightly should be by virtue of its longevity) was a rallying cry to all those golfers who have toiled for so many years at their game, but had given up hope as for ever getting it back to where they had it twenty years ago.
- ON AND OFF THE COURSE: In a bad economy, should LPGA raise its fees? For 31 years The LPGA’s Corning Classic was held at Corning Country Club in Corning, N.Y., with Corning Glassware as its title sponsor. This year, however, was the end of an era as LPGA players played their final rounds in its’ longest-running event. Due to many factors Corning chose to not renew their contract for 2010.
- ON AND OFF THE COURSE: ‘Average golfer’ ready to face challenges of Bethpage Black Golf Digest, in association with the USGA and NBC Sports, has asked the question, “Can the ‘average golfer’ break 100 at Bethpage Black under U.S. Open conditions?”
- On and Off the Course: Golf is for Mother’s, too I’d like to wish all of my readers who are mothers, whether they play golf or not, a Happy Mother’s Day — and if you do play golf — I hope you have a fine day today and that you find the time to get out on the course.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: With some tricky rules, golf is not a walk in the park
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