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A Quest to Play the Top 100 Public Golf Courses in the United States
A Quest to Play the Top 100 Public Golf Courses
PURGATORY
PURGATORY GOLF CLUB
... (written byJim Dee - 7/14/07) I had the opportunity to drop in on the #87 course on the list --Purgatory Golf Club in Noblesville, Indiana (4/18/07). Designed as a Scottish links style, it's a fairly good course, with lots of bunkers (more than 125 of them), and tight fairways with tall fescue rough that you can find anytime you get off the fairway. Hole #7, named the River of Flames, is a long par-3 with much of the carry of water to a fairly small green.
The name comes from the brownish tall fescue that lines the water, giving the effect of a brown-gold river along the banks.
I bailed out to the right side of the hole, away from the water, chipped on the green and settled for bogey. This also happens to be where I joined up with another single player, a friendly local Hoosierwho knew the course very well. His course knowledge helped a lot for the rest of the round.
Another interesting par-3 was the 160 yard #17, nicknamed Hell's Half-Acre, and it lives up to its name. Standing on the tee box, the entire distance between tee box and green is a sea of bunkers, very intimidating. If you hit anything but a perfect shot, it’s either sand or tall grass, and a large score for the hole.
However, I must say, after playing more than thirty top 100 courses, this course just didn't measure up. Sure enough, when the new top 100 ratings came out in Golf Digest a couple of months later, this course dropped off the list. I admit that I played the course fairly early in the season for Indiana, and that could have been part of the course condition. The greens were inconsistent, the fairways needed a lot of repair, and the “tall fescue grass’ was not much more than stubble.
I was assured by the locals that the course would be in much better shape with about four weeks of warmer weather, but at the time I played it, there is no way that this course should be included amongst the ranks of Pebble Beach, Bandon Dunes, or Pinehurst. ...
| Playability & Challenge |
B |
| Quality of Course |
D |
| Memorability |
C- |
| Service Levels |
B |
| Pro Shop |
B |
| 19th hole Experience |
B |
| Overall Experience |
C |
... (written byJim Dee - 7/14/07) I had the opportunity to drop in on the #87 course on the list --Purgatory Golf Club in Noblesville, Indiana (4/18/07). Designed as a Scottish links style, it's a fairly good course, with lots of bunkers (more than 125 of them), and tight fairways with tall fescue rough that you can find anytime you get off the fairway. Hole #7, named the River of Flames, is a long par-3 with much of the carry of water to a fairly small green.
The name comes from the brownish tall fescue that lines the water, giving the effect of a brown-gold river along the banks. I bailed out to the right side of the hole, away from the water, chipped on the green and settled for bogey. This also happens to be where I joined up with another single player, a friendly local Hoosierwho knew the course very well. His course knowledge helped a lot for the rest of the round.
Another interesting par-3 was the 160 yard #17, nicknamed Hell's Half-Acre, and it lives up to its name. Standing on the tee box, the entire distance between tee box and green is a sea of bunkers, very intimidating. If you hit anything but a perfect shot, it’s either sand or tall grass, and a large score for the hole.
However, I must say, after playing more than thirty top 100 courses, this course just didn't measure up. Sure enough, when the new top 100 ratings came out in Golf Digest a couple of months later, this course dropped off the list. I admit that I played the course fairly early in the season for Indiana, and that could have been part of the course condition. The greens were inconsistent, the fairways needed a lot of repair, and the “tall fescue grass’ was not much more than stubble.
I was assured by the locals that the course would be in much better shape with about four weeks of warmer weather, but at the time I played it, there is no way that this course should be included amongst the ranks of Pebble Beach, Bandon Dunes, or Pinehurst. ...
This site was created on June 15, 2007.
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