French Lick Resort - Donald Ross Course

French Lick Springs Hotel owner Thomas Taggart already had one course, Tom Bendelow's Springs Valley links beside the hotel, when he added a second 18 and hired Donald Ross to build it on hill land a few miles outside town. The Donald Ross Society and Tufts Archives directory lists it as a new Ross course of 1917, backed by Tufts documents and on Ross's own 1930 list. Golf Club Atlas puts Ross's layout of the ground in 1916. According to the resort, Ross rode the area on horseback with Taggart while choosing the site. Golf Club Atlas says Ross spent time on site here, with foreman Sandy Alves building the course. The resort and most later accounts give 1917 as the opening year. LINKS records that the first greenkeeper, Oral Carnes, objected during construction to the strength of the green contours, and that Ross prevailed.

The course was known as French Lick Springs Golf Club when it hosted the 1924 PGA Championship, and as the Sheraton Hotel Country Club when the LPGA Championship came in 1959 and 1960. Over the following decades bunkers were removed. In the early 1970s an irrigation pond changed the 14th and 15th, the only fundamental change Golf Club Atlas records to Ross's holes. In 2005 the Cook Group bought the resort and commissioned a restoration by Lee Schmidt of Schmidt-Curley Design, working with Michael Fay of the Donald Ross Society. The course reopened as the Donald Ross Course in September 2006.

Holes to Know

From the Medal tees the card reads par 35 and 35, with twelve par 4s, four par 3s and two par 5s. The two par 5s are the 7th and the 15th. Three of the four par 3s measure 240 yards or more; the fourth is the 151-yard 16th.

The 476-yard 5th from the Medal tees is the longest par 4 (stroke index 3). Golf Club Atlas describes its fairway as running along the top of a ridge that falls away on both sides. Today two bunkers sit right of the fairway in the driving area. A large bunker juts in from the left about 150 yards short of the green, and Golf Club Atlas notes it was not there in 2005. More bunkers line the approach.

The 538-yard 7th from the Medal tees is the shortest par 5 but the hardest hole on the card (stroke index 1). Woods line the left side all the way. The hole bends left at about 380 yards, where a bunker sits on the corner just right of the line and another lies left of the fairway. Golf Club Atlas lists the 7th among the holes whose centre-line bunkers were restored in 2006.

The 392-yard 8th from the Medal tees (stroke index 9) turns sharply left, with a single bunker on the inside of the turn. Golf Club Atlas describes a deep grass ravine in front of a green that once fell seven and a half feet from back to front and now falls about six. It quotes an old course guide calling the 8th "one of the most talked about holes in Indiana golf." The green has no bunkers today.

The 252-yard 13th from the Medal tees (stroke index 6) plays across a steep valley to a three-level green, each level with a backstop. A deep bunker sits left of the line about 50 yards short of the green centre, with short grass between it and the putting surface.

The 665-yard 15th from the Medal tees (stroke index 2) is the longest hole. Its tee sits behind the early-1970s irrigation pond, which lies in front of the tee and down the left, its right edge on the line of play for about the first 185 yards. A bunker wraps around the back of the green.

Ross's Design Here

Golf Club Atlas describes a routing that puts tees and greens on the high spots. The 1st and 10th run parallel before the nines loop off in opposite directions, so the direction of play keeps changing on an exposed site about 600 feet above sea level. Golf Club Atlas also notes that the course never had a tree problem, and the open interior gives long views across the property.

The greens have always been the course's main feature. Golf Club Atlas calls them largely untouched and describes their interior movement hole by hole. Being above the hole is costly on the 1st and 8th. The 13th and 17th have tiers, with the right half of the 17th about four feet higher than the left. The 11th and 18th have spines. The 3rd green is benched into a hillside and pitched steeply from back to front, beside a large right-hand bunker. Golf Club Atlas credits Ross and Alves with building up the 10th green into a pulpit pad on a natural high point. At the 151-yard 16th, a ring of bunkers surrounds a steep green, with a pair of bunkers behind it.

Ross's drawings of the holes were found in the resort's vault, and framed reproductions hang in the clubhouse. LINKS describes margin notes on tee sizes, bunker grades and green slopes. The 2006 restoration worked from old drawings and photographs, according to Schmidt-Curley.

Historical Significance

The Hill Course hosted the PGA Championship in September 1924, when the event was decided by match play. Walter Hagen beat Jim Barnes 2 up in the 36-hole final for the second of his five PGA titles. Taggart donated the $5,000 purse.

As the Sheraton Hotel Country Club, the course hosted the LPGA Championship in 1959, won by Betsy Rawls, and in 1960, won by Mickey Wright.

The resort says the 2010 PGA Professional National Championship was played on the Ross and Pete Dye courses.

Women's professional golf returned in 2017 with the Symetra Tour's Donald Ross Centennial Classic. Erynne Lee won it on the third playoff hole over August Kim. The event stayed on the Ross Course through 2021 before moving to the Pete Dye Course.

GOLF ranked the course No. 42 in its Top 100 Courses You Can Play for 2024-25. Golf Digest recognised the 2006 restoration in its 2007 list of America's best new courses, in the remodel category. The resort lists the course as runner-up for GOLF Magazine's 2007 Renovation of the Year. It also lists Golfweek ranking it second among courses you can play in Indiana every year from 2011 to 2026, and Golf Digest placing it among America's 100 Greatest Public Courses in 2013 and 2015.

Changes Since Ross

Golf Club Atlas records the early-1970s irrigation pond as the only fundamental change to Ross's holes. In Ross's day the 14th was a three-shotter of more than 600 yards, with its green about 150 yards beyond the present one. It became a par 4 with the pond behind its green, and LINKS notes that par fell from 71 to 70. The 15th, a shorter three-shotter under Ross, now starts from a tee behind the pond.

Bunkers were lost over time. Golf Club Atlas says the pair in the middle of the 2nd fairway was taken out in the 1950s.

The 2005-06 restoration was led by Lee Schmidt of Schmidt-Curley Design, with Michael Fay of the Donald Ross Society, for the Cook Group. Benchmark Hospitality, the resort's operator, put the cost at $4.6 million. Golf Club Atlas counts 36 bunkers reintroduced, 29 of them in fairways. They include centre-line bunkers on the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 15th and 18th, the bunker inside the dogleg at the 8th, and the deep bunker short of the 13th green. Schmidt-Curley's release adds new sand and drainage in existing bunkers, new irrigation, rerouted cart paths and back tees taking the course past 7,000 yards. A visitor's report on Golf Club Atlas from October 2006 says the greens were restored to about their original sizes. Fescue now edges the fairways. Benchmark announced the course finished and open to the public on 27 September 2006, and it reopened under the Donald Ross Course name. No course work since 2010 was found.

Uncertainties

• Opening year: the Ross Society directory, the resort and Golf Club Atlas give 1917 for the course, but a LINKS article from about 2005 says it was designed in 1917 and opened three years later. This listing follows 1917.

• Slope of the 8th green: Golf Club Atlas gives about six feet of fall today, while the older LINKS article says more than nine. This listing follows Golf Club Atlas.

Sources & Notes

1. Donald Ross Society and Tufts Archives, Directory of Golf Courses Designed by Donald J. Ross (2025 revision). https://www.rosssociety.org/resources/Documents/Ross%20Course%20List/Final%20Ross%20Directory%20of%20Courses%20Jan%202026%20website.pdf (Hill Course, new 1917, Tufts documents, Ross 1930 list)

2. French Lick Resort, "100 Years Ago: The 1924 PGA Championship at French Lick," 18 September 2024. https://www.frenchlick.com/blog/100-years-ago-the-1924-pga-championship-at-french-lick/ (horseback scouting with Taggart, 1924 venue name, format, final, purse)

3. French Lick Resort, "Teeing Up Historic Golf Photos," 8 April 2025. https://www.frenchlick.com/blog/teeing-up-historic-golf-photos/ (Taggart's second course, Hill Course name, 1921 clubhouse, 1939 fire, Bendelow course)

4. French Lick Resort, Golf page. https://www.frenchlick.com/golf.htm (access, range and caddies, awards list); Courses page https://www.frenchlick.com/courses.htm (tee ratings, 2010 PGA Professional National Championship)

5. Ran Morrissett, "French Lick (Ross)," Golf Club Atlas, 2009. https://golfclubatlas.com/?p=2564 (routing, greens, Alves, 14th and 15th change, restored bunkers, hole details)

6. Golf Club Atlas forum, "French Lick Restoration," October 2006. https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,26208.0.html (greens restored to original sizes, framed Ross drawings)

7. Benchmark Hospitality International, "Benchmark Completes Restoration of Donald Ross Course," 27 September 2006, via HotelExecutive. https://hotelexecutive.com/newswire/784/benchmark-completes-restoration-of-donald-ross-course (completion, $4.6 million, Lee Schmidt)

8. Schmidt-Curley Design release, 14 December 2007, via The Golf Wire. https://thegolfwire.com/124449-2-2/ (scope of restoration, Golf Digest 2007 remodel recognition)

9. LINKS Magazine, "French Lick's Third Century" (about 2005). https://linksmagazine.com/french_licks_third_century/ (Oral Carnes, vault drawings, par 71 to 70, 1959-60 LPGA, opening-year claim)

10. Dan Hauser, "The Donald Ross Course at French Lick Resort," LINKS Magazine (about 2017). https://linksmagazine.com/?p=33425 (Schmidt and Fay, 29 fairway bunkers, fescue)

11. GOLF, "French Lick (Ross Course)," Top 100 Courses You Can Play 2024-25. https://golf.com/courses/top-100-ycp-french-lick-ross-course/ (No. 42 ranking, par and yardage)

12. Wikipedia, "1959 LPGA Championship." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1959_LPGA_Championship (Sheraton Hotel Country Club, Betsy Rawls)

13. Wikipedia, "1960 LPGA Championship." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_LPGA_Championship (Mickey Wright)

14. LPGA and Epson Tour, "Erynne Lee Outlasts August Kim on Third Playoff Hole to Win Donald Ross Centennial Classic," 9 July 2017. https://lpga.com/news/2017/2017-erynne-lee-wins-donald-ross-centennial-classic-final-recap (2017 event)

15. Wikipedia, "French Lick Charity Championship." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Lick_Charity_Championship (event on the Ross Course 2017-2021)

16. Top100GolfCourses, "French Lick Resort (Donald Ross)." https://www.top100golfcourses.com/golf-course/french-lick-donald-ross (Cook Group purchase in 2005, renaming)