French Lick Golf trip review

[sp0rtsfan86]

Background:

My buddy and I have started doing yearly golf trips last year and we both have handicaps in the double digits. I'd put us more toward the serious golfer than the casual one.

This year we decided to do French Lick Indiana because I had played Donald Ross years ago and enjoyed it. I booked earlier this year and got the hall of fame package--a 2 night 1 day 2 course package (This has changed recently). We decided to get an extra night so that we could travel out on Sunday and not feel rushed Saturday. It came to around 1500.

The area:

If you haven't been there before:  French Lick resort is in rural, rural Indiana far from any city. From Indianapolis, you travel south past Indiana University, end up taking a county road or two and then a bunch of winding, hilly, rural roads to get to West Baden/French Lick. There is nothing but goat pastures, corn/wheat farms, and occasional vehicle riding the center line in the opposite direction. It can be jarring for those who are used to more suburban/urban areas. If you're from the country, you've seen hundreds of small towns like this before. 

The non-golf experience:

One huge negative is that the food options are lacking at best and are abysmal at worst.

Places we tried: The hotels breakfast buffet: Sodexo quality at $21 (the definition of it's fiinnnneee but not anything more than that). A catch-all asian/Hawaiian place that used duct tape to cross out steak on the wall (I had pork was not exactly prime despite labeled as such). A fairly typical Mexican restaurant in middle America (salsa was tomato puree with not much else), and a decent restaurant in the atrium of the West Baden hotel. *I'll note we may have played ourselves:  two steak houses in the area are highly rated, but we avoided both due to a group member not preferring steak. Everything in town and around the area closes around 8 to 10 PM so if you're out late options become limited really quickly.

My buddy brought his non-golf playing friend, who mostly hung out at the pool and walked the area. There wasn't much to do in terms of anything else in the general area so it's a pretty much golf/gamble trip if you do go.

Positives: I have no complaints about the hotel room or transportation. The hotel has a lot of history and does have live music and other things going on to at least give it charm (Jazz band at one hotel Saturday night.) The shuttle was perfect to get around the complex: whether it's going to the golf course or shuttle in between hotels. I had no problem catching a shuttle after midnight from one hotel to another. The casino wasn't big but had some table games and a lot of slots (blackjack was min 15 dollar bets so no real discounts there).

The Golf:

We played the Donald Ross on a Friday and Pete Dye the day after it reopened after aeration. Both were in excellent condition, I'd even go as far to say as pristine condition other than the punches. The punches themselves were small and barely affected our putts or lines. (Major props to the greenskeeper.) Honestly, both courses were amazing and easily in top 10 if not 5 of courses I've played.

Course architecture:

The Ross is by far the easier of the two despite being extremely tougher according to course rating and slope for fairly similar distances.

When you play the Ross course, expect a lot of blind second shots. Every green is elevated, there's tons of uneven lies even from the fairway, and sight lines can be difficult. Overall it is a fair, but more importantly fun challenge even if you aren't perfect. One note: from the bronze every par three except one is over 200 yards.  Don't be shocked to pull driver with any headwind if you hit 225-250.

Dye has the more spectacular views (by far), but also felt narrower and much more of a "hit this ball to this place otherwise pay the penalty" course. One playing partner made a comment about missing an iron by only a few yards and then paying for it with three strokes around the green... which is Pete Dye in a nutshell. On 18 and a few other holes, if you miss the fairway you will have a side hill lie that may force you into true baseball swing. The views are simply spectacular, with 11 offering a great sight and fun off the tee with a driveable par 4. Dye's course felt a lot, lot more difficult but it could have been my swing on the day which felt off.

Pace of Play:

I wasn't sure whether put this in a review of a course on the chance it was a one-off but as I searched through Reddit R/golf, it was clear that someone else had the same exact experience. Plus ur caddie and another employee who was working the course confirmed what we experienced was fairly typical. The pace of play is simply brutally slow and it is considered normal at the Ross course on Fridays. 

Things we saw: two groups in front of us merged becoming an 8some on at least a few holes, multiple groups bunching to watch each other hit drives on one tee box, and a group on 18 tallying up scores near the green preventing us from hitting onto the green for minutes instead of seconds. There were multiple holes with one group waiting on tee, one in the fairway, and another putting out with the next group arriving on the tee before the last has even hit a shot. Several of the par threes became backlogged with 2-3 groups waiting to tee off after finishing the previous hole. Without wading too far into the golf culture wars: expect screeching tires from carts purposely stopping short to mess with friends back swings and a ton of "let's go" and screams from the greens. I'll sum it up this way: the Ross course on Fridays seems to cater directly to the "Golf bro" and not the type that is there just to play 18.

As for the staff: the starter did nothing to promote pace of play after tee off, there was no ranger on duty to move things along even as a hole or two gap opened in front of slower groups, and the assistant golf pro was very nonchalant at the turn about a 5 1/2 hour round that was edging close to 6 as if that was to be expected.***

At the Dye course, it was refreshingly normal: the tee-times were spaced so that you never felt rushed and would take 4 1/2 hours even with a lot of lost balls and searches. There were no issues with pace of play and several times it felt as though the course was wide open despite being busy.

Other Golf Notes: 

The forecaddie is required at the Dye. He did most of the caddie things other than carry bags: he kept the round fun and generally was a big, big plus. His lines off the tee were spot on, putting reads were beyond helpful (sometimes keeping us from making a fatal error), and generally gave advice on what to hit and where to avoid around greens. Expect a good bit of lost balls on both courses if you hit into the fescue.

Random Notes:

After the round at Dye, you were given speciality name tags, a bottle of whiskey and a cigar. Not sure why the last two gifts are given, but wasn't about to argue. The "napkin" is all over the place and really cool to see how the doodle became a vision, became a course.

If you want swag, it is not cheap at all and there wasn't much of a discounted section. I made the mistake of promising someone a golf shirt, but both courses shirts were $125 which were a bit more than I was expecting. 

The mansion at the Dye has some great views. Grab a beer and watch some action from the patio. The Ross patio is still awesome, but I'd rate Mansion at the Dye higher. It's still a great time to watch others tee off from either either post-round or pre-round.

Overall: 

We had a great time on the trip. The Ross course is perhaps in the top 3 of my favorite courses. The Pete Dye course is everything I wanted it to be but super expensive. The Dye is now 400 to play by itself, with the Ross coming in around 90-150.  We managed to snag the deal where you can get free replays with a hotel stay, however it seems as though they are going away from it. A recent check online shows the deal cheaper by a few hundred but also no free replay.

Final thought: I cannot get over how poor the pace of play was at Ross and how that ruined the experience. Frankly if you're even a semi serious golfer, avoid Fridays at Ross at all costs. The little/bad food options aren't deal breakers but won't have me reminiscing about a meal at French Lick. 

If you are making the trip:  More than likely plan on playing golf, hitting the casino and not spending too much time doing anything else locally. If planning a trip, expect a drive to any major airport.  In terms of replay, I'm not sure how much I'd be willing to go back to French Lick especially if it wasn't geographically as convenient as it is now considering how many golf-centric spots are around.

 

[Ben_Howell34]

Thanks for posting. Have this place on my list in the future. One thing about these resorts is pace of play can suck. 
 

How did you go on a golf trip with someone who “doesn’t prefer steak?” Ha

[S.IN Golf]

Great post! I also played both of these courses this Summer on a stay and play package and had a similar experience. The Dye Course was great and I would definitely play it again, the Ross course, however, I was personally not impressed with as much as I thought I would be. Understanding that the Ross is 1/4 the price of the Dye, they do market them in the same breath so I thought they’d be a similar experience and they just weren’t for me. Like you said, the Ross course is painfully slow and in my opinion, if it wasn’t for the challenging greens and the history of the course, it really isn’t that special of a golf course with regard to layout or beauty. It didn’t help that we played the Dye Course on Day 1 so our expectations were very high after having such a great experience there, but I don’t think it’d be an over-exaggeration to say that it felt like I was playing on a well maintained muni at the Ross. A small side gripe for me too is that I like to collect tee’s and/or balls from the courses that we play and the Ross doesn’t provide tees for a $125 per person tee time in the cart which felt odd since I’ve played at small city courses for $25 that do this. Again a petty, small gripe but I was just surprised for the price and what the Dye Course provided. 

Thanks for the in-depth review on the other aspects of the resort as well!

[sp0rtsfan86]

On 8/24/2024 at 8:27 AM, Ben_Howell34 said:

Thanks for posting. Have this place on my list in the future. One thing about these resorts is pace of play can suck. 
 

How did you go on a golf trip with someone who “doesn’t prefer steak?” Ha

It was my buddy's wife who isn't a huge fan of cow meat.

 

15 hours ago, S.IN Golf said:

Great post! I also played both of these courses this Summer on a stay and play package and had a similar experience. The Dye Course was great and I would definitely play it again, the Ross course, however, I was personally not impressed with as much as I thought I would be. Understanding that the Ross is 1/4 the price of the Dye, they do market them in the same breath so I thought they’d be a similar experience and they just weren’t for me. Like you said, the Ross course is painfully slow and in my opinion, if it wasn’t for the challenging greens and the history of the course, it really isn’t that special of a golf course with regard to layout or beauty. It didn’t help that we played the Dye Course on Day 1 so our expectations were very high after having such a great experience there, but I don’t think it’d be an over-exaggeration to say that it felt like I was playing on a well maintained muni at the Ross. A small side gripe for me too is that I like to collect tee’s and/or balls from the courses that we play and the Ross doesn’t provide tees for a $125 per person tee time in the cart which felt odd since I’ve played at small city courses for $25 that do this. Again a petty, small gripe but I was just surprised for the price and what the Dye Course provided. 

Thanks for the in-depth review on the other aspects of the resort as well!

I personally love the Ross course, but I can see why you think it's a glorified muni-- frankly I think it's almost treated as such instead of a "destination course". I didn't even notice the lack of tees, but it's another small thing that does add up.