August 27, 2007

LEBANON, IN — Voted "Golf Digest's 47th Best Bargain in America," The Trophy Club was formed on 247 acres of natural beauty with Prairie Creek meandering through the rolling terrain with a breathtaking, relaxing environment perfect for National Championship.

The Captains Club announced today that the Trophy Club in the northwest suburbs of Indianapolis, IN has been eliminated as a possibility for a future tournament. The Trophy Club is booked on both Thursday and Friday with traditional golf outings.

In addition to its current ranking as affordable, the super golf course was ranked the best public golf course in the state of Indiana by Golf Digest in their May 2007 issue.

"It was worth a shot," says Greg Long, Chairman of the Captains Club. "The closer we get to larger cities, the more difficult availability becomes."

Unique doesn't begin to describe the layout or conditions at The Trophy Club. This is a true links style course, with wide swaths of knee-high, ball-eating, club-grabbing fescue grass, 129 bunkers (some deep, some wide, some both), enormous greens with more undulations that you can find in the entire state of Nebraska, spacious fairways that you will need to hit to find your ball, and an honest-to-God "out and back" layout. Throw in a couple of ancient ruins, seashore, and maybe a leprechaun, and ye'd think ye were in Ireland.

The greens, similar to the Grande, are probably some of the largest you will ever see, and the undulations in each and every one are just about enough to turn your stomach. If you don't check the pin positions, and then throw darts, you might be in for a long day of three or four putts despite the immaculate condition of the bent grass turf.

The hallmark of The Trophy Club, however, is the fescue rough. If you can hit the wide fairways, you'll have a fighting chance at a good score. But if you don't, God help you, because it is nearly impossible to get back out of the hay cleanly.

The fescue is everywhere, and, unlike most courses in the Midwest that claim to be links style, only one hole here (the 16th) has any trees to speak of. In fact, if you were to remove the trees from the distant horizon on some of the holes (e.g., the 553-yard 11th), you could believe that you were in Scotland. This is one course that can live up to the links moniker.

The 2008 Carl Spackler Open Championship begins on June 8. The annual Red Zone Alert runs through September. A tournament venue announcement is scheduled for October 1 in either Indiana, New York, or Kentucky.