Golf

In 1896, Philip Watson, J. A. Barnard, Robert Martindale, and Alvin S. Lockard laid out a two-hole golf course on land northwest of the city known as Martindale’s Addition. Lockard, who had witnessed the game on a trip to India, purchased a set of clubs, a box of practice balls, and a guidebook in England on his way home. In the spring of 1897 the four men built a nine-hole, 2,400-yard course in a field adjoining the Indianapolis Country Club (see Country Clubs) at 38th Street and Northwestern Avenue. The course was accessible by horse and buggy, and only country club members were permitted to play.

As interest in the game grew, more private golf and country clubs began building courses. Highland Golf and Country Club opened links on West 30th Street (now Coffin municipal golf course) to members in 1908 and moved to its present location on West 52nd Street in the mid-1920s. In 1914 the original Indianapolis Country Club split into two clubs, Woodstock (located at the original site) and the Country Club of Indianapolis on Crawfordsville Road, both of which had golf courses. Other early private golf clubs were Broadmoor (1921), Meridian Hills (1923), and Avalon (now Hillcrest, 1926).

In 1900 Mayor Thomas Taggart and the Board of Park Commissioners established Riverside, the city’s first municipal golf course and the fourth in the nation, in Riverside Park. In 1901 the board opened a second nine-hole course called South Grove in Riverside Park. Over the next three decades, the city built four more courses: Coffin (1904), Pleasant Run (1921), Sarah Shank (1925), and Douglass (1928) (see African American Golf). By the mid-1950s all of the municipal courses except Douglass had been expanded to 18 holes.

On September 11, 1900, Francis Herd, president of the Country Club of Indianapolis, held a meeting of golf devotees from private clubs in seven cities around the state at the Denison Hotel in Indianapolis. The group, which included former President Benjamin Harrison and humorist George Ade, established the Indiana Golf Association (IGA) and scheduled its first state tournament for October 11-13 at the Country Club of Indianapolis. Twenty-five players participated in the tournament, which the IGA has sponsored every year since 1918. Originally a private organization, the IGA, in partnership with the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA), is now open to both private and public courses throughout the state. Of Indianapolis’ 12 municipal courses, only Thatcher is not an IGA-PGA member. Eleven of the city’s twelve private courses are also members.

In 1914 a group of local golfers founded the Indianapolis District Golf Association (IDGA) to promote the sport in the city and surrounding area. Any golf club within 60 miles of Indianapolis was eligible to join the association, which sponsored an annual tournament open only to residents of the Indianapolis district. The tournament, held from 1914 through 1988, was a multisite event played at different Indianapolis district clubs from year to year. The IDGA disbanded in the 1980s and its tournament, taken over by the IGA-PGA, became the IGA Match Play Tournament in 1989.

In 1964 the IGA-PGA established the Indiana Golf Hall of Fame and Broadmoor Country Club hosted the first annual Hall of Fame tournament and induction dinner. Since then, several Indianapolis clubs have hosted the annual ceremony, which travels to the home cities of each year’s inductees. The IGA-PGA is currently working on plans to establish a permanent home for the Hall of Fame at its headquarters near Franklin.

In October 1935, Highland hosted the Veterans of Foreign Wars Indianapolis Open, the city’s first national tournament. Many of the nation’s top professional golfers, plus several members of the British Ryder Cup team, competed for $5,000 in prize money. Later that year the United States Golf Association chose Coffin as the site of its annual National Public Links amateur championships, a tournament for amateur golfers who do not hold a membership in a private club. Coffin hosted the tournament again in 1955 and 1972. In 1982 the tournament was held at Eagle Creek, making Indianapolis the only city to host four National Public Links championships.

From 1960 through 1968 the Speedway Golf Club hosted the 500 Festival Open, a PGA tournament that initially attracted many of the world’s best golfers. But the tournament, once the world’s third largest with a $50,000 purse, suffered financially throughout its nine-year history and disbanded after 1968.

In 1991 the PGA Championship was played at Crooked Stick in Carmel. The tournament received great attention locally and nationally as unknown John Daly claimed the first title of his career. Crooked Stick also hosted the U.S. Women’s Open in 1993.

*Note: This entry is from the original print edition of the Encyclopedia of Indianapolis (1994). We are currently seeking an individual with knowledge of this topic to update this entry.