It’s 2000 and we’re attending the NCAA Final Four Basketball Championships for the 13th year in a row.  The venue is the RCA Dome in Indianapolis Indiana.  Usually I would take my son, brother and a few associates to the Final Four and this year would be no different.  We would always schedule golf in the mix by arranging a private club and/or a popular venue for a round on Sunday in between games and on Monday when the championship game is in the evening.  2000 was a year in which Easter is early and so the Final Four weekend collides with the Easter holiday.

The weather doesn’t always cooperate with the ability to play golf in the Midwest but this particular weekend was a more typical late March of cool but pleasant weather.  When the Final Four is in Minneapolis or Detroit-golf is usually a non-starter.  For this particular weekend, we were able to secure Crooked Stick in Carmel, Indiana a short drive from Indianapolis.  Our starting time on Sunday would be early afternoon.  We were playing an unaccompanied round without a member, which is a bit unusual for a private club.  I don’t travel with golf clubs so we had informed the club that I would need to rent a set for the day.  When we arrived for our round, the course was essentially empty–Easter being a significant Christian holiday, members and their families were having their Easter meal at the club.  There were no clubs available for me to rent and it looked like I was going to have to play out of the bags of my group.  In a remarkable demonstration of Midwestern hospitality, head professional, Jim Ferriell offered to let me use his own clubs free of charge to play that day.  I don’t believe this would have been offered in any other private club in the country.  Our group of two foursomes were greeted warmly, and we had the golf course to ourselves for a memorable round.

Crooked Stick is one of famous architect, Pete Dye’s best creations.  It is Dye’s first major masterpieces where John Daly won the PGA Championship in 1991.  Dye’s designs incorporate a combination of US and British designs utilizing pot bunkers,(Scotland), sprawling waste bunkers (US), wooden bulkheads shaped by railroad ties framing water hazards and greens and sumptuous fairways.  A  suggestion  box  protrudes  from  the  pond adjoining  the  17th  hole.  

Being in the right position on this golf course was critical to scoring but also necessary to avoid big numbers.  The closing three holes are a fitting conclusion to a wonderful layout that rewards shotmaking but punishes the misses severely.  It reminds me a bit of the last Mile at Quail Hollow in North Carolina.  The 16th hole is a 470 yard par 4 with a pond on the right and bunkers on the left.  While the fairway is generous, the approach shot is not with a very narrow opening to the front of the green bounded by the pond and the bunker.  Heart panting a bit after surviving this hole, you advance to the 215 yard, par 3, 17th hole virtually surrounded by water with the only option to be short or go deep.  The green is a Redan style, where pin placements are deceptive so the green adds to the treachery of this hole.  Huffing and puffing, it’s the final hole but it’s so manicured, you take a deep breath and enjoy the setting as the fairway is a rolling verdant route from right to left.  The strength of the hole appears as the approach shot will require an accurate shot to the green with the menacing pond on the right where the pin is diabolically placed.  It’s a great finishing hole and a great testimony to Dye’s masterpiece.

By the time, we had putted out on 18, club members had finished their Easter meals and the place was empty,  but the club opened the bar for us to celebrate our wonderful round.  It was another wonderful gesture of midwestern hospitality.

The RCA Dome has been supplanted by Lucas Oil Stadium to accommodate over 50,000 as a rotational Final Four venue.  By the way, Michigan State won the National Championship with a 89-76 over Florida.