Tee-off time.

• Author: Schaefer, Mike
• Position: Indiana golf courses - Recreation

Some new, top-flight Indiana golf courses will be ready for play.

Expect more excitement this May on West 16th Street in Indianapolis. Golfers have reason to join their racing brethren at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

After two years' construction, a redesigned golf layout joins the growing list of new golf courses being opened in the state. Called Brickyard Crossing, it is a world-class venue, already designated for the GTE North Classic on the PGA Senior Tour scheduled for September 19-25. The good news is that, unlike many courses that host professional golf championships, Brickyard Crossing will be open for public play.

The other good thing about this Pete-Dye-designed course is that it has not lost sight of the great tradition of golf that developed along West 16th Street. For many years in the "500 Classic," the leading members of the PGA (including Arnold Palmer and a young Jack Nicklaus) took their four laps around the Bill-Diddle-designed track. While Pete Dye has put his own personality on the Brickyard Crossing, one does not need a super-fast camera to catch a glimpse of the original course on one's round.

The wanderings of Little Eagle Creek must be contended with on eight of the holes, and it remains the dominant hazard on the last five holes. It must be carried from the tee on each of these holes and be cleared a second time on the par-5 15th, whose green is 572 yards away. (It also is played into the prevailing wind.)

There are four completely new holes built within the race course. Two of the three new lakes are inside the track. On the eighth hole, the golfer can contemplate the consequences of carrying all five acres. The more that is bitten off, the less it will seem like the 475 yard par 4 that it is. The ninth hole has no water, but 26 sand traps lining both sides of the narrow route to the green on this more humane length par 4.

In construction, more than a million-and-a-half cubic yards of earth was moved, giving the Brickyard Crossing a contour not often seen in Central or Northern Indiana topography. The tees, fairways and greens are bent grass. From the championship tees the course measures 7,186 yards, and the par reads 72. An electric cart is required and is included in the $60 green fee. It truly will be a feast for golfers.

While auto racing is the definite frame of mind on 16th Street, another new course owes much to racing of another sort. The rolling hills and valleys of Southern Indiana were home to...