Indian Hills Golf Course

Indian Hills Golf Club is a parkland style golf course located on rolling land with moderate tree cover. The course has five sets of tees ranging from 6,769 yards down to 5,399 yards, with the middle men's (white) tees at 6,416 yards. The course had experienced several days of rain prior to the date we played, so the rough was high and very wet and the fairways and greens were very soft. This meant that balls in the rough stopped almost immediately and we got very little roll on our drives in the fairway so the course played longer than we expected. The soft greens were very receptive to middle and short iron approach shots. The greens were beautifully manicured, relatively fast despite the wet conditions, and rolled smooth and true. The round started with a 370 yard par 4 with a slight dogleg left. The tee box aims you toward water that is reachable with a decent drive, so you need to be sure to resist the suggestion and just aim left. Cleverly placed water hazards are a feature of several other holes on the course. Where there isn't water, fairway bunkers await the careless drive. The 5th hole, a 349 yard (from the white tees) par 4 has ponds both right and left of the fairway in the landing area. In addition, the approach shot requires that you carry water that crosses the fairway in front of the green. None of our foursome managed to par this hole. The back nine starts with a 354 yard par 4 that is similar to the 1st hole, except that the water enters the picture on the approach shot. Depending on your fairway position and pin placement, you may have to carry the pond all the way to the green, and long is no good because of the slope of the green. Probably the most visually striking hole on the course is the par 3 11th. From an elevated tee you have 170 yards to a long green that curls around water on right. Bailing out to the left will leave a difficult up and down. As a private club, Indian Hills is not easily accessible to non-members. However, the club does host a number of tournaments sponsored by outside entities. Finding and playing in one of these (under drier conditions, hopefully) would be truly worthwhile.

This is a walkable and challenging private course. It's beautifully kept, has no unfair holes or blind shots. If you're playing well you can score, but if not, you'll get into trouble.

Lots of scoring chances on the back 9, and 10 and 11 are beautiful holes that play tough.