Indiana Golfers Guide Featured Course Story

The four-man scramble is one of the most enjoyable formats for team competition in golf. After all, finding one decent shot out of four is a welcome proposition to many golfers. Beginning this spring, golf clubs across the country will be able to compete in The Great American Scramble and vie for the coveted title of National Champions in Las Vegas.

After the longstanding Buick/Oldsmobile Scramble shut down in 2005, golfers were left without a national scramble competition. PGA Professional Wayne Stone decided to change that. Stone created an event aimed at bringing excitement, camaraderie and team-building experiences back to golfers through the scramble format.

Stone, who is the director of Golf at Windermere Country Club in Windermere, Fla., decided there was enough interest to create a national scramble just by gauging the response of his members to the loss of the Buick event. Encouraged by the feedback, Stone set out to create the national tournament that was currently missing from the golf world.

It is the Catch-22 of golf. If we only scored a little bit better, we’d be more excited about practicing more, which would lead to even better scoring. Yet most every infomercial you’ve ever watched says the “key” to a better score is a new club or a training aid when what we probably need is obvious; some time with a teaching professional who is passionate about helping us improve our score so that we can conquer that Catch-22.

But we’re afraid to break the cycle. “Golf School” sounds more like a prison sentence than an opportunity for a golf epiphany. We fear we’ll be embarrassed in a group of players who are better than we are.

The United States Golf Academy at the Indiana National Golf Club at Swan Lake Resort in Plymouth, Indiana wants to smash that stereotype. The Academy has some revolutionary thoughts, and passionate pros, who want to change the way you think of “golf schools” and get you on the road  to enjoying the game more than ever.

A Plum Experience

When you think of Pete Dye courses, the first inclination is to imagine coastal routings, lots of marshland and yes, all those railroad tie-bulkheads separating land from water. Maybe that’s one of the things that makes Dye’s layout at Plum Creek Golf Club in Carmel, just outside the I-465 loop, that much more special.

True to his Hoosier roots, Dye’s designed a delightful links-style layout in an old cornfield of  what used to be the old Lynnwood Farm, the Percheron horse farm of longtime Eli Lilly executive Charles Lynn. Dye himself walked the property for months back in 1989, before picking the routing, careful to save the venerable barn that had become a landmark for the area, and is still featured on the course’s logo.

Yes, there’s still plenty of water, with man-made ponds and a stream coming into play on 12 of the 18 holes. But no railroad ties, just a gorgeous journey through the countryside, while tackling a remarkably challenging course.