Land of Legends

By Matt Ginella
Photos by Joey Terrill July 2009

During his 22-year coaching career at Springs Valley High School in French Lick, Ind., Gary Holland led his basketball teams to six sectional championships. In 1974, he was 26, a first-year head coach, and his top senior starter was a knobby-kneed, 6-foot-7 Larry Bird. Later nicknamed "the Hick from French Lick," Bird averaged 30 points and 20 rebounds a game in high school, and he was already so good at passing that Holland had to warn the other kids to keep their hands up or risk a broken nose. Holland, 62, is retired from coaching and has made enough money on a big piece of property in southern Indiana to live comfortably. But he wanted to stay busy, so he recently took a job mowing fairways at the new Pete Dye Course in French Lick, which opened April 24.

Bird, who is the president of the NBA's Indiana Pacers, says he grew up running the hills where the new Dye layout is located and thinks his old coach and the new course are a perfect fit. "He used to push-mow five acres of his own property," Bird says. "I'll bet his fairways look real good."

The fairways look great, but I'd argue they're not wide enough. To protect against big hitters, Dye narrowed the fairways at the 300-yard mark on long par 4s and the four par 5s. The landing areas, nine paces wide in some spots, look like grass-covered tightropes. They're edged by steep slopes and funky bunkers leading to an area of flat rough that Dye insists will be kept short enough for "Joe Golfer to go hit it and find it."

Map By John Burgoyne
* Star listings from 1 to 5 are derived from readers' Best Places To Play ratings.

Don't underestimate the need to play from the tees that match your skill level. I played the course the first time from 7,100 yards and almost quit golf at the turn. I played it the second time at 6,400 yards and almost shot my handicap. The good news: There are plenty of tees (five) to choose from. The bad news: Joe Golfer isn't going to like the green fee. At $350, management is looking to attract high rollers and about 6,500 rounds per year. This course seeks an air of exclusivity -- a head-scratching strategy in an anxious economy.

A former mansion at the top of the property serves as the clubhouse. Built on the second-highest peak in the state, at 950 feet, the course features panoramas of a region working hard to erase past failures. Dye started the project three years ago and made more than 100 visits during construction. But why French Lick?

Bill Cook, the richest man in Indiana, who made his money inventing such medical supplies as the coronary stent, has spent 15 years and $500 million restoring the French Lick Springs Hotel, the West Baden Springs Hotel and a 1917 Donald Ross golf course. He also built a casino, a spa and the new course by Dye, all near the tiny neighboring towns of French Lick and West Baden, which have a combined population of 2,600 and one traffic light.

The French Lick Springs Hotel (443 rooms) and West Baden Springs Hotel (243 rooms) were built in 1901 and competed for tourists who visited from surrounding big cities. French Lick is about a three-hour drive from Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Lexington, Ky., and it's four hours from St. Louis, Nashville and Columbus, Ohio. My drive from the Louisville airport took a little more than an hour.

The area's draw for tourism in the early 1900s was its 13 casinos. Back then gaming was illegal, but authorities looked the other way. By 1949, all of the casinos had closed, and the county's economy was worse than it is today. The French Lick Springs hotel survived. The West Baden hotel had various lives as a seminary and a military hospital before it fell apart to the point of being condemned, and the area became one of the poorest places in the state.