Ft Wayne Country Club (w/ pics)

[Brian Laurent]

I had the good fortune of playing Fort Wayne Country Club (Indiana) on Friday with superintendent Brian Chalifoux and two of his assistants.  The club was established in 1908 with the original nine laid out by David McIntosh and later finished by William Langford.  It was quite an enjoyable day and a very good golf course.  Compliments to Brian and his staff for maintaining such a wonderful facility.

#1 - Short Par 5 slight dogleg left and uphill.  The best position off the tee is on the right hand side of the fairway which allows for a great chance of getting home in two.


#2 - Par 4 going back down the hill.  This hole uses the rolling terrain very well.  You do not need to hit driver off the box, but a shorter tee shot leaves you with a downhill approach where you can just see the top of the flagstick.  Anything right or long of this green will leave you with a very difficult up and down.


#3 - mid-range par three up the hill


#4 - Another great par 5 on the front that fits in very well with the land.  This dogleg right has a fairway bunker guarding the inside of the dogleg with a fairway that slopes from right to left.  A tee shot staying on the right side of the fairway has a chance of going for it in two but usually needs to hit a fade from a hook lie around a tree guarding the right side of this hole. 


#5 - Tough par 3 with water left and bunkers right.  Played about 180 from the white tees.  Tough hole this day as the wind was blowing strong from right to left.


#6 - Long par 4 playing a bit uphill and usually into the wind.  One of my favorite holes on the course!  It looks a bit bland off the tee with just a fairway bunker on the right side, but the fantastic green makes this approach one of the most difficult on the course.  Long left goes straight down hill and the green has a severe back to front slope.  There are some scary (fun) pins on the left side of this green.

view from behind


#7 - Par four with an uphill blind tee shot and downhill approach.  Yet another very good hole, especially where the pin was on Friday.  With the right side pin placement, you have to bee extremely accurate if going pin-seeking, otherwise you're wet or in the back bunker facing a downhill lie with a green sloping away from you towards water. 



#8 - uphill par 3 with a two-tiered green.  (no pics)

#9 - Par 4 playing back to the clubhouse.  A front pin on #9 makes this hole very intimidating.  Knowing that we were playing a match in the afternoon, the assistant put the pins in some of the most difficult spots...said assistant put his approach on the very back of this green and then four-putted to lose two ways on the front nine. 




#10 - Short downhill par 4.  My favorite hole on the course as it presents the most options.  Playing 315 downhill and downwind, you can either lay-up with a mid-iron or have a go for the glory.  There is enough room to the right of the water to bail out with a driver...unfortunately, I didn't miss right as usual.



#11 - Par 4 moving right to left.  One of only two holes on the course that go left. 


#12 - Straight forward par 4 playing uphill to a punchbowl green.


#13 - Par 5 downhill off the tee and back up to the green.  OB guards the right side the entire length of the hole.  Nice cross bunker about 130 yards from the green and a putting surface that is very deceptive. 


#14 - Downhill par 3.  The wind can play some tricks on you being tucked in amongst the trees.


#15 - Very good par 4 dogleg right.  Need to either cut the corner with a driver or lay-up with a long iron or fairway wood.  The fairway here again slopes right to left, so it's very easy to hit a drive through the fairway.


#16 - Short par 4 with another punchbowl style green.  Some great fairway bunkers making the tee shot interesting.  (kicking myself for not getting any pics of this hole as it is very good)

#17 - Shortest par 3 on the course to the smallest green on the course surrounded by five bunkers.  Good opportunity to get a shot back before the finishing hole.
(Pick from the left side of the green)


#18 - The 18th is a good par five once again hitting downhill off the tee and back uphill to the green.  The second shot is tested here with water pinching the fairway about 120 yards from the green.  Any shots missed right here will find the water or roll downhill leaving a difficult pitch shot.

[Chris_Clouser]

Brian,

Thanks for the post.  You don't hear much about FWCC.  Usually all of the talk out of that area of the state is about Sycamore Hills.  I've never seen FWCC so the pictures help me a lot.  I've seen Langford attributed to the course before, but from what I have seen of other Langford projects in Indiana, that looks nothing like the rest of his work.  Do they know if someone else has gone through and really changed the course since Langford?  Not that it is bad or anything it just doesn't look like his other work.

[Phil McDade]

Chris:

I agree; looks distinctly un-Langford like, for the most part, particularly the bunkering.

[Andy Troeger]

Brian,
I'm curious where you got your information on the design--I'm assuming from the superintendent that you played with? I'm not trying to contradict--just curious since I have a relative that's a member and we've played it a couple times but he had little luck trying to help me find out who might have designed the course. Somehow or another I ended up with the impression that Bill Diddel might have had something to do with it, but I don't remember where that came from. It certainly LOOKS more like Diddel than Langford. I also have written down that Bob Lohmann's group has done some work there, which I think was documented on their website.

Its a very nice golf course in any case--perhaps as good as or better than some of the public courses that populate the Indiana "Best-in-State" lists. I'd put it very close in style and quality to Meridian Hills.

[Tom MacWood]

It sounds like this course has an interesting history - Langford, Diddel and I also believe William Watson was involved from what I understand. I suspect there were some more recent changes too, the course has a very modern look, especially with all the water hazards.

[David_Tepper]

To my untrained eye, #3 certainly has a Redan-ish look to it. Does anyone agree?i

[tlavin]

Yawn.   

[Dan Moore]

I have seen documentation of McIntosh having done the intial nine and Langford the 2nd nine.  McIntosh and Langford were very good friends. 

It certainly looks to have had a modern makeover with all the water hazards and the bunker style. 

Some of the green sites do have a Langfordesque look to them;  2,9,13,14 and 18.  The blind tee shot on 7 looks familiar and Langford built a few punchbowl greens like on 12 in his early days. 

[Brian Laurent]

Andy-

I did get my info from the superintendent and also from their website.  He did mention that Lohmann has been doing some work out there in recent years (I assume some of the mounding and bunker work).  I've only played two Langford courses, both in the Ft Wayne area...I definitely see some similarities between the two, especially green complexes and blind tee shots. 

[Chris_Clouser]

Brian,

Is the other course Maxwelton?  My reference is with Harrison Hills and Culver which feature much more dramatic features than what FWCC is showing in your photos.  I wonder if Lohmann has softened the features around the course.  I've seen his work at Twin Bridges in Danville and it was ok and looks somewhat like what your photos show.  But not blow your mind out of the water like some of the Langford stuff I saw at Harrison Hills the first time there.

[J Sadowsky]

The nice thing about Fort Wayne is you can play Pine Valley [Golf Club] and Cherry Hill (not Cherry Hills) all in one day. 

They also have a top 100 modern course in Sycamore Hills - Nicklaus, I believe.

[Bart Bradley]

The nice thing about Fort Wayne is you can play Pine Valley [Golf Club] and Cherry Hill (not Cherry Hills) all in one day. 

They also have a top 100 modern course in Sycamore Hills - Nicklaus, I believe.

I am from Ft. Wayne...I know Pine Valley and the Pine Valley in Ft. Wayne ain't no real Pine Valley!

My father-in-law as a young salesman met with a man from New Jersey who announced that he was a member of Pine Valley...My father-in-law, in his youthful naivete, responded "Oh, we have one of those in Ft. Wayne too".   

Bart

[Carl Nichols]

The nice thing about Fort Wayne is  . . . . .

I haven't heard that phrase very often.     [My parents lived there for about 8 years...]

[Tom MacWood]

Here is an article from May 20, 1915 on William Watson. I'm not sure if the new course in Ft. Wayne is FWCC or not, but I suspect it is.

[Tom MacWood]

This is from the club's website:

"For nearly a century, the Fort Wayne Country Club has been nestled on 355 acres southwest of downtown Fort Wayne. Since it’s founding, the club has been a retreat that members and their families can call their own. Today’s members still enjoy the same time honored traditions as our members did in 1908. Our members enjoy a spacious 38,000 square foot clubhouse with room for formal and casual dining, as well as the Grill room, the Gazebo, men and women locker rooms and a card room all with spectacular views of our Scottish style golf course.

The Fort Wayne Country Club 18-Hole Championship Golf Course enjoys a fine reputation as a premier golf course. David McIntosh, fresh from the fairways of St. Andrews designed the original nine holes and later, golf architect, William Langford from Chicago designed the back nine in McIntosh’s parkland style. It is said that our eighteen greens, thirty bunkers, and thirty-nine traps create a championship golf course second to none in the West."

I did some checking it looks like Ft. Wayne CC was the only 18 hole course in Ft. Wayne in 1915. McIntosh and Watson both hailed from St. Andrews, so there might be some connection there too. That being said the course looks to be mostly Bob Lohmann at this point. 

[TEPaul]

"It is said that our eighteen greens, thirty bunkers, and thirty-nine traps create a championship golf course second to none in the West."



"Thirty bunkers and thirty nine traps??"     


Hmmmm! Is there a definition for "trap" in Fort Wayne, Indiana? Can you ground your club in one of them thar Fort Wayne Indiana Golf Club traps? I'd say the Fort Wayne CC might have a championship course second to none not just in the West but in the entire United States because it may be the ONLY golf course in the USA that has ACTUAL "traps."

[Chris_Clouser]

I just got the mental image of some poor member fallling through a bunch of leaves on the ground into a hole with large spears sticking up and his partner looking down into the pit saying, "I told you to play along the other side."

My guess is that this is some verbage from the early press of the course, considering they refer to themselves as a course in the West.  No one here thinks of Indiana as the West anymore.  I have also seen some people in those early years and articles make a distinction between bunkers and traps.  I'm not sure which is which, but one of them refers to a naturally created depression filled with sand and the other refers to something cut into the ground (an artificial hazard) during construction.  Maybe Tom MacWood can provide some clarity as to the difference between the two terms. 

[TEPaul]

"Maybe Tom MacWood can provide some clarity as to the difference between the two terms."


Chris:

Please don't say something like that unless you're completely joking or you meant to say confusion rather than clarity. He doesn't even realize that Donald Ross used the term "top shot" bunkers. He thinks it's some modern invention.