Maple Creek Golf & Country Club

Maple Creek Golf and Country Club in Indianapolis is one of American golf architecture's most historically significant courses: Pete Dye's FIRST 18-hole design, created in partnership with his wife Alice Dye in the early 1960s. The course opened in fall 1961 as Heather Hills Country Club, then was rebranded to Maple Creek in 1989 and still carries that name today. Every Pete Dye course in the world, from TPC Sawgrass to Whistling Straits to the Ocean Course at Kiawah, traces its architectural lineage back to this humble semi-private track in suburban Indianapolis. Maple Creek features the compressed Dye vocabulary that would later explode across his resort courses: small tees, small greens, narrow fairways lined with mature trees, and natural long-grass areas that frame each hole. The signature hole is the par-5 13th, where (per the Dye Trail's own materials) 'you'll find great optical design features from the teeing ground as well as the second and optional third shot approach.' The view from the 16th tee is considered one of the most picturesque in Indiana. Both Pete and Alice were named honorary life members in 1991; the clubhouse serves as a lasting memorial to their work. For the Pete Dye Trail visitor, Maple Creek is the architectural pilgrimage that started it all.