[John Burzynski]

I have been trying to do a bit of reading and research about the architects of some of my local courses here in South Bend / N. Indiana, more out of passing interest than anything, as most of the courses around here aren't from 'big name' architects.

Of course we have Coore and Crenshaw for the Notre Dame Warren Course...a great course.

Anyhow, the local muni that I play the most is Erskine Golf Course in South Bend, it is five minutes away, I really could walk there from my house, if I had to, and our KofC League is played there on Friday evenings in the summer, so I get out on this course a lot.  It was designed in 1934 by Bill Diddel, an architect who designed quite a few courses in Indiana and elsewhere in the Midwest.   It is a nice tree lined in places course, nice especially for a muni, a bit challenging in spots (long par 3's).  I don't think that much earth was moved for the course (the area where the course is built is a bit hilly naturally, at least hilly for our general geographic area), nothing 'special' or memorable as a course, but great for a quick 9 or 18, and the price is certainly right for my weekly + games.

There is a basic website about Diddel, and some other spurious information here and there on the internet.  The only other design of his that I have played is the Purdue Course, which again is a nice course, nothing memorable (except for the beating on course that I took there at the hands of two Purdue grads / friends; I am an IU grad, and I still don't live that one down almost 20 years later).

Does anyone else have opinions on Diddel's work, what are considered his best designed courses?   Any recommended Diddel courses to play in the Indiana / Michigan area?, as I travel around by car for business at times in these two states.

[Brad Klein]

http://cgi.cnnsi.com/golfonline/travel/architects/diddel.html

for a profile I wrote a decade+ ago on Diddel. He was Pete Dye's mentor
and lived in a cabin behind the old 12th tee at Woodland GC in Carmel, Ind. Let's hope Tim Liddy didn't destroy it during his renovation of the place a few years back.

[Andy Troeger]

John,
I used to live in South Bend and am very familiar with Erskine, my St. Joe girls golf team that I coached played our matches out there the past few years. It is a fun course and more interesting from a design perspective than one would think at first glance.

Bill Diddel was very active in Indiana. He built a lot of good courses, although generally not great by today's standards. Of the ones I believe are attributable to him the best are Fort Wayne CC, Meridian Hills CC (Indy), Forest Hills CC (Richmond), and Elcona CC (Elkhart). All of those are private. The best public layout of his that I've seen is Beechwood in LaPorte which is a really good track that suffers some from too many pine trees and poor drainage. Highland CC in Indy also I believe is Diddel and is a nice private club there. Brookwood in Fort Wayne is well though of and might be Diddel but I can't confirm that one.

Other Diddel courses I know of in general order or preference:
Purdue Cse--Ackerman, Hillcrest CC (Indy), Erskine, Kokomo CC, Rozella Ford (Warsaw), Oak Hills (Elkhart), Honeywell (front nine--Wabash), South Shore (Syracuse), Martinsville CC, and Brookshire CC (Carmel). None of these are going to blow you away by any means, but they're all worth your time if you have the inclination.

Hope that helps...there are more but those are the ones I've played personally.

[John Kavanaugh]

Contact Ron Kern...he is the Diddel King.  Perhaps my favorite template architectural feature is the Diddel bump as featured at Purgatory.

[Lou_Duran]

Diddel is credited with The Northwood Club in Dallas.  I am fairly sure that Ralph Plummer either built it for him or made significant changes for the U.S. Open held there in the early 1950s.  Morrish and Weiskopf renovated it some time in the 90s.  It is a compact, parklands course that requires good distance control and shotmaking.  A creek comes into play on some holes and the ground has some nice movement.  Though separated by roads, it is a fine member's club and among my favorites in the Dallas area.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Just out of curiosity, who maintains a Bill Diddel website? Is it Ron Kern? Or some relative? 

[Chris_Blakely]

Here is a great link on William Diddle:

http://www.billdiddel.com/index.htm

Of the courses he has designed I have played the following:

The Otsego Club - Classic Course (Gaylord, MI)
South Shore CC (Syracuse, MI)
Sims Oak Hills GC (Middlebury, IN)

He used to own a course called Woodbury CC in central Indiana that he designed and built.  The course was to be bunkerless.  He used to live in a house on the course.  I believe this course still exists, but has been completley rebuilt by Pete Dye.

Of the courses I have played the Otsego Club is a solid course that I enjoyed a lot.  I would definetely recommend playing the course if you are in the area.  Sims Oak Hills has some good holes, but is not a great course by any stretch.  They also suffer from about half the holes either being built on old swamp land or a flood plane; thus, they have very patching conditions.  South Shore is nothing special.  I have heard good things about the muni in LaPorte, Indiana as well as Rolling Hills CC (Newburgh, IN).

Chris


Chris

[Jeff_Brauer]

We have done some work at Wichita CC, designed by Diddell in 1950. I think I learned a little bit about him from that.

Very practical. 

Greens seem to be influenced by Maxwell, but toned down.  However, I never saw a poof in the middle of his greens - his big rolls come in from the outside.

I saw a fairly distinct correlation between green size and approach length. In a few spots, I thought I saw a relationship between easier putting and approach length but all the greens were difficult to putt at modern speeds.

He designed his holes with wind in mind, as you would expect from a good player.  His tee shot dog legs varied from 200 yards into the prevailing wind to 266 yards downwind.  His greens tended to tilt with cross breezes (ie wind left, green angles left)

While most of his bunkering was fairly simple, on the sixth hole at WCC he used a cluster of four small pots that was totally different from the other bunkering.  The club wouldn't let me restore that saying it was out of character, but I could see his thought process of having one hole stand out as different.  And, the visual intimidation may have been meant to protect the very close 4th tee.

On the second green, the bunker was well short of the front right of the green. I am convinced it was meant as a bounce in feature.  Alas, no one else saw it that way, and along the way, someone added a drain swale and that feature wasn't restored.  Of coruse, I am not 100% (even with old plans in hand) that it was meant that way and restoring that feature would have meant adding a catch basin in the green side area to keep the fw dry.

[John Nixon]

Brookshire, in Carmel, IN, was recently purchased by the city of Carmel. I think it's still undecided whether the city is going to continue to run the place, or if they'll look to hire an outside entity, or what. The course has suffered for years, IMHO, from misguided maintenance and ill-advised "improvements". Recent activity suggests that the maintenance problems may be addressed. It's a pretty good routing - a nice variety of shots required off the tee and into the greens, mostly tight driving holes but with a few open fairways.  Lots and lots of trees, if they manage to reduce it to just lots of trees the course will play much, much better. And probably give the greens a better chance to thrive.

[John Burzynski]

I do know that at Erskine here in South Bend,  there are three 200+ yard par 3's (the other two are 155 and 185), they are monsters length wise as far as my game is concerned.  One of them is from an elevated tee to an elevated green, I have yet to birdie that par 3 more than a couple of times in all of the years I have played there; I generally lay up and chip onto the green and am happy with par there, that hole has a curse on me for the last 20 years. 

The fairways can be tight in spots, but the course is a good play especially for a regular / weekly play type course.   I can bump and run onto some of the greens when the ground is firmer in the summers, which suits my game fine. 

I find as I study more golf architecture that there are a lot of these niche or regional architects through the years that seemed to design a lot of lesser known courses in somewhat anonymity name wise, often nothing spectacular or breath taking as courses go, but certainly playable courses for most golfers.  You won't walk away from these types of courses saying 'wow', but you won't walk away saying 'dogtrack' or 'I never want to play there again' either. 

[John Nixon]

Bump   

[Jim Sweeney]

Two courses in CIni tha might interest you. Miami View GC is rather short and tight with two very tough opening holes and a smaterring of good holes. Fun to play. Recently undergoing some tree removal.

Kenwooc CC has 36 by Diddle. The Kendale course is considered one of Cinci's best. It hosted the US Womens' Open in the early 60s. Kenview is very short and quite hilly with views to the downtown skyline.

[Jim Sweeney]

I see now in "The Architects of Golf" that Diddle did some public courses in Cinci as well. California GC  (1936) is a fun, short course built on hilly property on the far east side of town.

Reeves GC (front nine, 1965) is rather non-descript.

Sharon Woods (1935) is a very good course, very hilly in spots. Bobby Jones hit the first shot at the grand opening, and then, so the story goes, left and caught the next train for Atlanta.

Western Row (1965), which recently closed, was long, very flat, back and forth, and boring. Really not much more than a placeholder for future development.

Neuman (1965), gets good reviews, especially for its greens. I have not played it.

Winton Woods was redone a few years ago. I had not played it before the renovation and do not know who the new archtect was.

Anyway, Diddle seems to have had a commanding influence on Cincinnati golf course design, public and private, from 1930 to 1965.

[Steve Burrows]

Just a point of clarification, the house that Bill Diddel lived in near the 12th tee at the Woodland Country Club in Carmel, IN was removed either during the construction of the new course, or shortly thereafter.  However, I don't believe that this happened according to the Pete Dye/Tim Liddy plan for the the renovation/re-routing of the course.  The current 6th tee sits where the old 12th tee was located, and there is no good reason why the new golf course would have called for its removal.  It was an old dwelling and may well have collapsed in on itself and was them fully demolished, in spite of its history.

I used to work there on the grounds crew during the summers when I was in college, and, if I may say so, the former course had a wonderful charm to it, and some very intriguing features which the Dye/Liddy plan unfortunately had no intentions of respecting.   I personally lament the loss. 

Interestingly, there is actually some work being done a woman who works for WFYI, the local PBS affiliate, to create a documentary of the life and work of Mr. Diddel.  She grew up playing Woodland Country Club as a child, and, in fact, grew up just a few doors down from the former Diddel cabin.  Apparently, Mr. Diddel's former assistant/secretary is still alive and is a valuable resource for this woman during her initial research phase.  I have been informed that his project is in the works, but has been tabled for at least a short while.

[Paul Stephenson]

Bill Diddel helped lay out my home course, Whitevale GC, with the original owner Jack Boyes.  Boyes was a pharmacist, and by the looks of it chose well when asking for Diddel's help.  Construction began in 1955 and the club opened in 1958.

I wonder if this was the only course in Canada that Diddel worked on?

[Thomas MacWood]

John
I've also seen George O'Neil's name associated with Erskine Park, along with Chick Evans. The 1934 date would probably make Diddel more likely. Indiana has an interesting architectural heritage. Lanford's Culver Academy course is worth checking out and is not that far from South Bend.

Diddel did some very good courses in Ohio too. Sharon Woods in Cinti is a fun course.

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