Photo Tour of Victoria National

[Eric Smith]

I have never played golf on a property quite so bold as this.  The golf course is built on land that was a former strip mining operation.  All the trenches and pits are now filled with millions of gallons of spring fed water and the fescue covered mounds of the spoils frame many of the holes much like the great links courses.   

Our host knew we were coming in as 10 and 12 handicappers so being the gentleman that he is, he set up our game on a mish mash of different tees (some holes having 8 or 9 tee boxes!), probably totaling no more than 6,200 yds.  So very reasonable - and very fun as there were several par 4's under 300 yds. 

The native rough was tame compared to in season, as they had recently burned it all off, so you could find your ball most of the time.

Victoria National Golf Club
Newburgh, Indiana




Into# 3


From the right berm at 3 green.


3 green.


Behind 3 green looking back up the fairway.


4 tee.


another look at 4 from a forward tee.


4 fairway looking left.  80 foot deep lakes.


Looking back to 4 tee.     Notice the variety of teeing options, both left and right.


The bunkerless 6th.  With a monster sized green awaiting.


A closer look at 6 green.


Behind 6 green.  An enormous putting surface. 


Setting up for a 140 footer at 6.


The setting is surreal.  Never played in a coal mine before.


One of the holes where I was out of the hole early. 


The par 5 15th has tons of movement in the fairway.  This one and #2 are my favorites.


A look at the peninsula 16th green from 15 fairway.


16.  Eight different tee boxes allow many different types of shots into this cool par 3.


Approach at 17.  That mound left is huge.


A closer look at 17.


18 from the fairway.


At 18 green.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Here are some more:

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/victorianational1.html

[Anthony Gray]

  I like the sense of isolation of each hole. The suroundings framed each hole and very seldom could you see the other holes. Very scenic and strategic course. Although ther is alot of water it did not seem to be overly penel. A wonderful course.


   Anthony

[Rob Rigg]

How much ammo is required?

It looks like a lot of holes do have a bail out option, but if you are going pinseeking, or even just green seeking in some circumstances, then you better be really on your game or you'll be out a dozen platinums.

Great pics Eric!

[Anthony Gray]

  I forgot to mention that the course has wonderful elevation changes. A little up hill and a little down hill. A very good mix. Clever green locations. The surrounding land is flat but the course is pleasently rolling.

  Anthony

[David Whitmer]

Thanks for the pictures, Eric. A buddy of mine is a former club professional from Evansville, who worked at Congressional and has played many courses considered to be top-50 tracks. He always raves to me about just how good Victoria National is. Apparently Fazio did a great job here, from what I understand.

[Scott Warren]

Eric, I have to ask: that looked like a hell of a long way home from the front edge of the 6th, up over two ridges. How many taps did it take to find the botom of the cup?

I love these GCA photo tours, though they do ram home just how limited the good golfing options are in Sydney where I spent my first quarter of a century.

[Joe Bausch]

Pack one of those traveling rod and reel and slide it into your bag.  If you run out of golf balls, slap a big ole rubber worm on a hook, throw that baby into one of those old strip pits, drag it along the bottom and wait for a lunker to attack.  As a young boy I fished in those exact lakes since I grew up about 2.5 miles from there.

[Jim Nugent]

This course always looks so good to me in the pictures.  Anyone care to compare it to top courses we talk about a lot here? 

[Steve Pozaric]

How much ammo is required?

It looks like a lot of holes do have a bail out option, but if you are going pinseeking, or even just green seeking in some circumstances, then you better be really on your game or you'll be out a dozen platinums.

Great pics Eric!

Rob:

I played it a number of years ago and remember that there were a lot of places you could lose balls on that course.  So, if you are "seeking" your swing that day, you will be seeking extra balls in your bag quite often.   

[Michael Wharton-Palmer]

Hmmmmmm.
Not your mommas Fazio course!

That is very impressive looking. Certainly less spacious/generous than most Fazio courses...must make a trip there.
It really does look very impressive....love the green complexes and the shape of the holes...more movemnet on the fiarways than the typical Fazio course.

I am impressed!
Thanks for the pictures.

[Jim Franklin]

I have played 86 of the Top 100 and Victoria National is in my top 10. I love the place and it is my favorite Fazio.

[Adam Clayman]

Hmmmmmm.
Not your mommas Fazio course!

That is very impressive looking. Certainly less spacious/generous than most Fazio courses...must make a trip there.
It really does look very impressive....love the green complexes and the shape of the holes...more movemnet on the fiarways than the typical Fazio course.

I am impressed!
Thanks for the pictures.

MWP, Apparently Mr. Fazio spent a lot of time on site and from what I gather, it shows. The par 3's are top notch and the par 5 3rd(?) is pretty cool with it's movement. I wasn't a fan of the fairway ribbons coming off the mounds on the channel side of the hole. But, the temptation to go for the green in two was accentuated by their presence.

It should also be pointed out that VN was not always that open. I believe it was Mr. Meeks who recommended some trees be felled to make the relatively recent senior competition more playable.

 

[Eric Smith]

Eric, I have to ask: that looked like a hell of a long way home from the front edge of the 6th, up over two ridges. How many taps did it take to find the botom of the cup?

I love these GCA photo tours, though they do ram home just how limited the good golfing options are in Sydney where I spent my first quarter of a century.

Scott:

I estimate that putt was nearly 140 feet. 

JakaB rolled it hole high to about 5 ft and lipped out his par putt.

[Richard Boult]

posted: http://delicious.com/golfclubatlas/Indiana

[Tony Ristola]

The last paragraph is most interesting.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HFI/is_1999_Dec/ai_57650513

Through the 1990s, Tom Fazio has catered primarily to the captains of industry, who have collected Fazio courses as more expensive substitutes for trophy wives. Tom instilled in those beauties charm, grace and refinement that belied their youth, and they in turn gave their owners bragging rights and countless weekends of escape. But for all their sparkle, Fazio's assembly line of trophy courses eventually turned into a blur. Each layout began looking like the previous one, all little more than cosmetic confections deposited onto a variety of terrains. We'd pretty much given up on Tom Fazio for anything original. But then we met Victoria National.

Victoria National is still a trophy course-the cumulative evaluations of our national panel determine it to be Golf Digest's Best New Private Course of 1999-but it isn't polished and plastic. She's coarse, earthy and downright scruffy off the back collars.

There's been no attempt to mask her past life. Victoria National is on the site of an old strip mine in Newburgh, Ind., just east of Evansville. For decades, as veins of coal were scraped from long, deep trenches, excess dirt was piled alongside in serpentine spoil mounds. Eventually, the mine closed and the trenches filled up with spring water, creating some 80 acres of "strip ponds," so labeled by the locals who used to skinny-dip in them.

Fazio didn't envision much potential for golf when first shown the site, but he found just enough room between the finger lakes and the parallel spoil piles to hold fairways. He didn't touch the mounds, now covered in native grasses and clusters of mature trees, but he tucked tees and greens into every notch and crevice where they'd fit. The result is a remarkable demonstration not just of land reclamation, but of land recognition.

Victoria's secret was that Fazio didn't just toss a topo map to an assistant and fly on to the next job. His firm was juggling so many projects at the time that

no single assistant was available. So Fazio ramrodded the project himself, visiting the site early and often. Designers and shapers were shuffled in and out with such frequency that the only guy who truly knew front from back was Fazio himself. Tom paid as close attention to this project as any in recent memory.

[Glenn Spencer]

Victoria National is awesome. The view from the 2nd tee is fantastic!! 15,17 and 18 aren't my favorite holes ever, but the rest of the place is perfection. I know I will never forget this place though, played it on 9/11.

[Mike_Cirba]

From a routing standpoint, are any of the holes routed "across" the pilings, or diagonally cross them, or are they all routed "along" the pilings?

The greens look to be very good.

[Anthony Gray]

From a routing standpoint, are any of the holes routed "across" the pilings, or diagonally cross them, or are they all routed "along" the pilings?

The greens look to be very good.

  Mike,

  All the holes seem framed by the mounding. Very few places can you see different holes. It gives you a neat since of isolation. The course map looks full of water but the use of water as a hazzard does not feel overdone when playing. Less than a handful of forced carries over water. VN has a unique feel.

  Anthony

[Eric Smith]

From a routing standpoint, are any of the holes routed "across" the pilings, or diagonally cross them, or are they all routed "along" the pilings?

The greens look to be very good.

IIRC, there are three tee shots that allow for biting off the corner with a blind diagonal play over the pilings.  15 the par 5 comes to mind.   A couple of short 4's, can't remember which right now, one where John and I both drove over the mound and both our tee shots ended up just off the green.

Again we played some forward tees, which made the decision to try some of those heroic blasts a little more plausible.

[Mike_Cirba]

Thanks, Eric...nice profile.

[Wayne Freeman]

 I don't rate VN quite as high as Jim Franklin, but it is definitely top 100 in the country.  The posted pictures to me don't do the course justice.  It is a fantastic layout with great variety and the cool thing about it is that even though a bunch of people ride, it has all these hidden  paths that make it a joy to walk.  And there are a lot of expansion bridges to traverse which add to the fun.
    I was told that the owner couldn't get Fazio to go to Evansville for the longest time because he didn't believe that area could have anything worth building,  but that when he got there he was just blown away and said that there were 1000 potential holes there.
    If you ever have the chance to play VN............ do it.  It's awesome.

[Doug Ralston]

There it is folks. I have played exactly ONE private course in my entire career. That was due to the generosity of the great gentleman John Kavanaugh, who invited me and when I told him it was prohibitive paid my expenses himself. He treated me with light-hearted grace. What a great memory.

Victoria National is very tight. It had quite spacious fairways, actually, but missing them is usually fatal. Remember my perspective is that of about a 20 handicap, so the slope of 140 is something i give credence.

That said, it is a blast to play. You certainly cannot just hit away on most of those holes. And as you probably gather, I am impressed with natural beauty too. VN has it in spades.

Thanks for the pix. Great memories for me.

Doug