Anyone up for some golf? It's a question we've been asking around here for more than a century. French Lick Resort boasts 110+ years of golf history, and as you'll find in the photos we're sharing today, the game of golf has tightly linked to the resort to the resort experience. Right in the backyard of the hotels, even.
Believe it or not, in the early days of West Baden Springs Hotel, golfers teed off right from the hotel terrace on hole #1 of the golf course, which was adjacent to the hotel at the time. Built by Tom Bendelow, a renowned course designer of the era, this course was finished in 1903 or 1904 (1-2 years after West Baden Springs Hotel was built) and was known as the "lower course." The "upper course," also designed by Bendelow, was built on the slopes of nearby Mt. Airie in 1917.
Bendelow was busy at this time, as he was also hired to expand the golf course at French Lick Springs Hotel from a 9-hole course to a championship 18-hole layout. Known at the time as the Springs Valley Golf Course Links, this course was completed by 1910 using a plot of ground adjacent to the hotel that had formerly been used as a race track. This photo is circa 1908, with the hotel in the background; it expanded a few years later with another wing built on.
The lower course at West Baden was originally a 9-hole course, then expanded to 18 holes in the 1920s. Even as business at the hotel diminished after the stock market crash in 1929, the golf courses remained open and were frequented by residents of surrounding towns. They ceased operations when the hotel was sold to the Jesuits in 1934.
French Lick Springs Hotel owner Tom Taggart added a second golf course in 1917, hiring acclaimed designer Donald Ross to build a new course a few miles outside town. Locals referred to Ross' new layout as the "Hill Course."
More photos from the 1924 PGA Championship are below.
Built in the 1921, the original clubhouse at the Ross Course stood until it was destroyed in a fire in 1939.
Today, this green on French Lick's lower course would be on the hotel's front lawn. The former Monon Railroad train station is in the background.
The Ross Course, circa 1924.
As you'd expect, the golf course was a popular stop for many of the big-time celebrities of the era who visited French Lick, including Bing Crosby (left).