The toughest eighteen: Indiana's most challenging golf courses.

• Author: Kaelble, Steve
• Position: Cover story

IN SEARCH OF A GOLFING challenge? We checked in with the Indiana Golf Association to learn which Indiana courses are the toughest, based on slope rating. Here's what we found:

Wolf Run Golf Club, Zionsville

Topping our list with a 148 slope rating is Wolf Run, a course that designer Steve Smyers intended from the start to be ultra-challenging. In fact, when dentist and successful amateur golfer Jack Leer first opened the course in the late 1980s, its original slope of 151 was among the nation's toughest.

Even the pros have found it tough--Nick Faldo said holes 12 through 15 were the hardest four in succession he had ever played. Wolf Run is packed with challenges throughout its 7,090 scenic yards, including ridges and ravines.

Crooked Stick Golf Club, Carmel

The first of a few Pete Dye creations on our list of the state's toughest, Crooked Stick is one of the most prominent. Among other honors, it hosted the 1991 PGA, the 1994 U.S. Women's Open and last year's Solhelm Cup. It also has had the honor of hosting Dye himself, who bought a house on the course.

Measuring 7,400 yards and carrying a slope rating of 146, Crooked Stick is known for playing hard but fair. The par 3 hole No. 6 is considered the signature, featuring water and a covered bridge.

Sycamore Hills Golf Club, Fort Wayne

Named for the sycamores that accent this picturesque course along Fort Wayne's Aboite River, Sycamore Hills earns a 146 slope rating. Designed by Jack Nicklaus and opened in 1989, the course always ranks as one of the state's best and among the nation's finest.

The Aboite makes its presence known in several places, especially on the signature 15th hole, where players must cross it four times. The course offers a nice range of challenges, measuring 7,275 yards from the back tees but just 5,232 from the front.

Purdue University Birck Boilermaker Kampen Course, West Lafayette

This Pete Dye design is one of the nation's top collegiate courses, marked by waste bunkers, wetlands, ponds and native grasses. It has served as a training ground both for university competitors and students interested in golf course design and maintenance--in fact, students helped build it back in the late 1990s.

The course measures 7,272 from the back tees and carries a slope rating of 145, and regularly hosts a variety of collegiate and amateur tournaments. A signature hole is No. 6, a lengthy par 5 with a dogleg right turn around a celery bog.

Sand Creek Country Club, Chesterton

Three...