Existing golf rounds alone would be keeping French Lick Resort abuzz with activity. It’s another record-breaking year of golfers from Maine, South Carolina, California and all points in between trekking here to tackle French Lick’s Pete Dye and Donald Ross Courses.
But then there’s the brand-new, 9-hole short course that French Lick Resort plans to unveil this fall. There’s the collaboration with Good Good Golf, which brought a whole new audience of golfers pouring through (even sprinting into) Pete Dye’s hilltop gates earlier this summer. And there’s the biggest event on the Korn Ferry Tour calendar on its way to — you guessed it, French Lick.
While the Dye and Ross just celebrated a 14th consecutive year of being Indiana’s #1 and #2 ranked public courses in Golfweek’s “Best You Can Play” ratings, no one around here is content resting on the status quo.
“We’ve made it a priority to look for new ways to enhance the golf experience here. You can see by the growth trend we’ve had that we’ve done things along the way to help move that along,” said Dave Harner, French Lick Resort’s Director of Golf. “We’ve changed, we’ve evolved and added things, streamlined in places and advanced in others, and the goal is to keep doing that. You never stop innovating.”
The next big step? A true short course.
The Sand Creek Course at French Lick Resort is being etched into the resort landscape —down the hill about a mile or two from Dye and Ross, and adjacent to French Lick’s 9-hole regulation course, Valley Links. Sand Creek isn’t a par-3, it’s not Topgolf or mini golf, but rather the sweet spot in between all three.
For golfers who just had their nerves and drivers tested up at Pete Dye, Sand Creek should be a refreshing wind-down round and an opportunity to chase a hole-in-one with holes playing as short as 35 yards and no higher than 90.
Harner’s been fielding plenty of questions about what to expect at Sand Creek, and his feedback usually includes a promise.
“It’s some of the most fun you’ll ever have on a golf course,” he says.
“A simple, easy place to play,” Harner adds. “It adds to our experience in that it gives you an alternative to the championship course – a place where beginners, families, corporate groups, whether they all play golf or not, they’ll be able to play this course. When people get out there and play, they’ll get hooked on it.”
Word has gotten out fast. Recently, Sand Creek’s first official tee time was booked for 8 p.m. — yes, p.m. — which gives a glimpse into what type of course this will be.
Sand Creek will be lit for late-night play, piped-in music will play on the course, and a food truck will keep the party rolling all day. And while short yardage and a casual atmosphere give Sand Creek a wide appeal, the experienced golfer will be able to spot features borrowed from the resort’s two championship courses.
“It’s going to have a few miniature versions of the Dye volcano bunkers, and some of the Ross greens contours. The rock formation that we use around the lakes at Dye we’re using around the water retention area at Sand Creek,” Harner said. “You’ll see a few things that are common to both golf courses.”
If a brand-new course wasn’t enough to stir excitement, French Lick found itself in the national spotlight on a Tuesday in the middle of June. That was the day Good Good Golf came to town and put on a show for golf’s new generation of fans.
The future of the sport? That’s how some have described Good Good, the group of golfing buddies-turned social media stars who’ve built a following of 1.6 million YouTube subscribers since launching in 2020. Good Good initially discovered French Lick in 2023, touting Pete Dye as “Our New Favorite Course in the USA” in a 45-minute video fetching 800,000+ views.
When Good Good recently started branching out into organized tournaments, they found an eager partner in French Lick.
Bringing together tour pros, fellow influencers, celebrities and pro athletes — including Michael Block (who won the event with son Dylan), Paige Spiranac and Austin Reaves of the L.A. Lakers — the Good Good Midwest Open proved what a tour de force social media can be. Teen and twentysomething fans streamed into Pete Dye 2½ hours before the first tee time to get in line for the putting contest and grab autographs and selfies with the Good Good cast. Good Good’s merch flew off the racks, and while Harner figured he’d have a safe surplus of French Lick merchandise on hand, he sold out of nearly everything.
Nearly 3,000 fans watched in person, with thousands more tuning in for the livestream on Peacock and Good Good’s YouTube channel.
“The fantastic thing about that is that’s 3,000 on a Tuesday in French Lick, Indiana – not a weekend or a holiday. That’s a pretty good draw,” Harner said. “I’d say the average age of fans up here that day was late 20s, early 30s at the oldest. For us to have that event really opened us up to a whole new demographic.”
Same could be said about the Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance, which moves to French Lick this fall. Running October 3-6, it’s the start of a five-year partnership to host Korn Ferry’s annual season-ending tournament and the hallowed PGA Tour Card Ceremony at The Pete Dye Course.
“Another big deal for us,” Harner says. “It brings us to the next level of championship golf.”
It’s a localized effort to grow golf, too, evidenced by the 320 kids who visited French Lick Resort’s three courses for this summer’s Indiana Age Group Championships.
Golf has been steadily trending upward around here every year since 2009, when The Pete Dye Course was built to complete the revitalization of French Lick Resort. That year, French Lick did $1.16 million in golf round. That figure should reach $8.7 million in 2024.
Sure, the post-pandemic spike partly explains the continued upswing. But there’s also something to be said for the luxury of playing two of the Midwest’s elite courses together at the same resort.
“We also provide an experience like nobody else,” Harner says. “You don’t find the quality of golf with the old-school architecture and the new school architecture anywhere else in the country — anywhere else in the world, actually.”
