Few publicly accessible golf properties in the Midwest possess the mystique of French Lick Resort in Southern Indiana.

It’s a bit out of the way, sure, but we’ve all heard stories of its other-worldly terrain and the massive feats of engineering that were required to make it happen, and of course seen photos that blew us away from the world-famous Pete Dye Course.

Six hours south of Milwaukee, it’s not the easiest to get to, but a lot of times that’s the case with the greatest of golf destinations. Bandon Dunes in Oregon comes to mind, as does the Sand Hills of Nebraska (where we’re heading in two weeks), Kiawah Island, Pinehurst, the Upper Peninsula and Northern [mainland] Michigan where the WiscoGolfAddict content team will be visiting later this summer.

Actually getting to French Lick was a dream come true for me.

Over the past 11 years I was supposed to visit it four times, and the first three of those fell through. One time a media day was canceled without me knowing – I even had a rental car ready to go before getting an email back the night before that the trip had been canceled.

I wish I had a rental car this time around as my wife, Kelly, and I headed to Indiana following work on a Wednesday evening. We dropped our kids off at my brother’s in Pewaukee at 4:30 and started the six-hour drive south. We got a flat tire on I-94 near Pleasant Prairie. After installing the spare we drove an hour and 37 minutes on backroads (no faster than 50 mph) back home, transferred everything to Kelly’s car and restarted our adventure.

As we approached French Lick, a thick fog enveloped the roads and surrounds. We couldn’t see more than 30 feet in front of us as we navigated sharp turns and rolling topography that reminded us a lot of the travel to Eagle Ridge Resort in Galena, Illinois.

We finally arrived at the French Lick Springs Hotel at 3:55 am, got our room keys and went to bed. I got about an hour of sleep before my alarm went off, awakening me for a monumental day on the Dye Course.

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The Pete Dye Course

I’d seen a lot of photos of the Pete Dye Course in the past and knew it’s photogenic. I wasn’t totally prepared for how ridiculously photogenic it is, though.

Situated about two miles from the resort, the Dye Course is straight up an almost vertical drive that leads to a right turn taking visitors toward its clubhouse.

I parked the car near the The Mansion and walked around the ceremonial putting green, absolutely awestruck by the long views that perpetuated for miles atop the mountain.

There’s no great lake or ocean in French Lick, but the thick layer of fog that canvassed everything below the course might as well have been one.

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The entire scene was beautiful and serene. Bright golden hour hues lit up the course, enflaming its fairways and greens and reflecting off its ponds.

This is what French Lick is all about: Beautiful, sophisticated splendor. I couldn’t get enough of it.

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I used every watt-hour on the six Mavic 2 Pro batteries I brought, and by then my drone controller was equally spent. I was pretty sure I’d captured it all, and I was more than grateful to have not hit the snooze or off prompts on my alarm that morning.

For much more than the morning photography, the Dye Course at French Lick delivered. I have it in the top 10 courses I have ever played, in fact.

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With a 1:10 tee time on the books, I returned to the hotel, took a one-hour power nap and enjoyed lunch with Kelly at the Power Plant located in the French Lick Springs Hotel.

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I returned to the course afterwards for what would be an epic round of golf and a wonderful four and a half hours spent with “Texas Wedge Eddie,” one of the resort’s longest-tenured and knowledgeable professional caddies.

After meeting Eddie on the range, he had me practice what would become one of my favorite shots of the trip: the Texas wedge.

The size of the Dye Course’s greens complexes are in direct opposition of the scale of the rest of the property. They are tiny! Almost all the greens are elevated with false fronts and runoff surrounds, leading to a ton of short approach shots from tight lies.

I’m usually not a big fan of the Texas wedge. I typically prefer to hit 8- and 9-irons from these spots, but decided that day I was going to listen to everything my caddie had to say.

Eddie taught me all about reading greens, and about finding the right entrance points that will influence long putts toward pin positions.

It turns out – and this is one of the key things he taught me – what I had been missing in my Texas wedge shots was opening my stance to add top-spin. Once I practiced that a bit, I was a fan.

Teeing up in the afternoon as a single [behind numerous foursomes] our round did not have much flow, but we made the best of it and enjoyed the time together. It also gave me the opportunity to take supplemental photography, hit the occasional Player B ball and of course learn all about the Pete Dye Course.

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I loved the Dye Course experience. It was regal and intricate, and in true Pete Dye fashion was intimidating off the tee while providing more room to miss than can initially be seen. The putting surfaces were highly contoured but Eddie had me dialed in on pace and line by the back end of the front nine.

The course is replete with signature holes, but if I had to pick a couple favorites they would probably be the seventh, 12th or 18th.

Gallery of favorite shots from my morning on the Dye Course at French Lick

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Our Day at French Lick Resort

Following golf Kelly met me for a drink at The Mansion, next door to the Dye Course clubhouse. She’d spent the day working remotely from the room (and said they have excellent WiFi) and the previous 45 minutes winning almost $200 on the slot machines, which I’ll return to later.

I made her take the shuttle from the resort so she could see the views. Like me, she was amazed. The Dye Course is mesmerizing like that. We did a little shopping in the pro shop, headed back to the hotel and got ready for dinner.

The home of tomato juice, 1875: The Steakhouse (also at French Lick Springs) was extravagant in all the right ways. My steak was cooked to perfection, my sleep-deprived body and mind were soothed by their Award-Winning French Lick Manhattan (I was a big fan of their Woodford Reserve French Lick Select, by the way!) and – if you go, you need to get this – the Wagyu Meatballs with Herbed Ricotta was one of my favorite appetizers I can ever recall.

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It was not cheap, but 1875 was a fantastic dining experience that I will highly recommend to anyone visiting French Lick.

After dinner it was game time. We had great vibes as we made our way to the French Lick Casino (again, in the French Lick Springs Hotel). Kelly was still riding her high from winning earlier in the day and I was just happy to be exactly where I was with who I was with.

I started on the craps table, joining a group of 20 or so other golf enthusiasts from around the country for some great medium-stakes action. It was an up-and-down kind of night on the tables as I started with my regular $100 and saw it whittle to $15 before finding a hot shooter. I got my $100 back and then some, spent time chatting with other guys in town for golf (including one Michigander who told me he played all 30 of Wisconsin’s best courses according to Golf Digest and… WiscoGolfAddict!) and then found my wife.

I’d never been a big fan of slot machines. They always seemed boring and I couldn’t find the appeal. Not anymore… Not after playing “Phoenix Wicked Wheel” with Kelly. Within five minutes I used my surplus from craps to win $75, and then it kept hitting. I was hooked on the lights and sounds, and especially the bonus games.

I needed more “Wicked Wheel,” and immediately! At one point I was up a bit over $200 before cashing out around $125.

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It was awesome, but we were spent and I had another early morning ahead of me to photograph and play the esteemed Donald Ross Course the following day.

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French Lick Resort’s Guest Rooms

Originally opened in 1845 as a mineral springs resort, the hotel at French Lick Springs is on the list of National Historic Landmarks.

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A massive campus-style building with 443 guestrooms and suites, multiple wings with restaurants, bars and other attractions, we found the single-king guest room we stayed in at French Lick Springs to be perfect for our needs.

The hotel’s guest rooms (as a historic property) are on the smaller end in terms of size but are well-appointed with elegant finishes, a mini-fridge, powerful shower, workspace and incredibly comfortable bed that I melted into both nights.

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Up by five (French Lick is in the Eastern time zone), I collected all my recharged drone equipment and left the room for a morning photo session on the Ross Course – not before a nine-minute Austin Powers-esque unparking job made necessary by an SUV that parked me in the night before.

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The Donald Ross Course

The Ross Course is a two and a half mile drive from French Lick Springs, and during normal operating hours is a simple shuttle ride from/to the hotel. It only took me six minutes to get there, and I arrived with plenty of time ahead of the sun rising.

After chatting with Assistant Pro Cooper Stalker, I grabbed a cart and made my way to the northwest section of the property to start photography near the course’s only water feature.

Gallery of favorite shots from my morning on the Ross Course at French Lick

What struck me immediately about the Ross Course is how true it feels to Donald Ross’s architectural philosophies. It is more common to find a course of this pedigree altered from its original design: narrowed fairways and reduced greens sizes with unintended bunkers around them, and oftentimes flashed sand features added or manipulated over the years according to the game’s current trends.

The Ross Course has none of that. The greens complexes are huge, and they’re not just contoured internally but towards the edges. The design screams original intent and I couldn’t wait to play it.

Playing otherwise as a single for my 8:30 tee time, the pro shop was able to pair me up with two other singles including Donald, Jim and his wife, Farel. Donald was in town with his wife for an investment conference and Jim and Farel were visiting from St. Louis for his birthday celebration. The two have come to French Lick for decades, and this was his first time playing on-site. A member at Glen Echo back home, he had a solid game – especially around the greens – and everyone played well down the stretch.

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We had a ton of fun on the Ross Course and I could not have asked for better playing partners. I played the Bronze tees while the others played from the Blacks. From the Bronze, the course stacks up to ~ 6,517 yards, but it honestly felt closer to 7,000 (the Gold tees are 7,030).

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Like on the Dye Course, there is a ton of land movement on the Ross and many of the greens require carries to reach them, especially with significant false fronts and built-up green surrounds.

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The Ross Course reminded me of one of my favorite Wisconsin layouts, Kenosha Country Club, which is the home course of WGA Contributing Writer Gregg Thompson.

Kenosha’s course was altered a lot over the years, though, and so efforts have been made over the past five to ten in partnership with Drew Rogers to return it to its Ross roots while updating for modern length and technology.

French Lick’s greens are still original, the playing corridors are wide and the bunkers classic in style, lowered beneath target surfaces and with beautiful sod-laden edging.

This is a fantastic golden age track that had me constantly thinking “which course do I like better?” The Dye layout with its $400 price tag (before caddie fees/tips) is unbelievably impressive, but – similar to the way I felt playing Mid Pines in the Pinehurst area of North Carolina – there’s something about the architectural elements and brilliant routing of the Ross design that got me in a deep, cathartic way.

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Was French Lick Worth it?

With a six-hour drive ahead of us, I spent a bit too much money at the Ross pro shop (pro tip: the shop at the Ross Course is bigger than the one at Dye and has a better selection of apparel for women and kids, if you’re looking for gifts to bring home from French Lick) before returning one more time to the hotel.

I got some drone shots of the French Lick Springs Hotel for this article, we packed up and took to the road.

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The entire drive down to French Lick we kept asking ourselves if we were crazy to continue the adventure after car problems and with such a then-aggressive schedule, and saying “this better be worth it!”

Even with what turned into a 12-hour drive on day one for a 36-hour visit, French Lick was absolutely worth it.

The golf was world-class (I didn’t even have a chance to check out Sultan’s Run, which is also associated with the resort and a 35-minute drive southwest to Jasper, or the Valley Links nine-hole Bendelow track adjacent to the hotel) and spectacularly memorable, the casino was clean, smoke-free, fun and paid out (have you ever been to a casino that everyone seems to lose in and you feel like you’re on a losing team? That’s the worst!), the food was terrific and the amenities were everything I expected at a first-rate resort like French Lick.

There were a lot of families staying there, too. The resort has pools and plenty of entertainment to keep the whole family smiling. While we did not have Charlie and Quinn along (thank God, considering the travel fiasco), we talked on the way back about how this would be a great destination to return to with them.

French Lick was everything I hoped it would be: a seamless blend of classic and modern, timeless elegance with the new-era amenities you’d expect at a resort you know will set you back a pretty penny.

I would personally love to get back again someday and check out the rest of what the resort has to offer, including its esteemed West Baden Springs and Valley Tower hotels. With such a limited amount of time on-site and a whirlwind itinerary we definitely did not get to experience as much as we’d have liked.

If you’ve been to French Lick before, what was your favorite course associated with the resort?

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What experiences did Kelly and I miss out on while there that you would recommend we give a go during a future visit? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section, below.

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