Valley Links Course

The Valley Links Course at French Lick Resort is the historic piece of the resort's three-course portfolio, a Tom Bendelow original dating to 1907 that predates the Donald Ross Hill Course (1917) and the modern Pete Dye Course (2009). Thomas Taggart, the resort's transformative owner, hired Bendelow, the 'Johnny Appleseed of American Golf', to design French Lick's first championship course, known at the time as the Springs Valley Golf Links Course. Bendelow, working with rudimentary early-1900s earthmoving equipment, took the path of least resistance and sketched holes across the flat valley floor. The original 18 has since been converted to a fully walkable 9-hole par-36 routing at 3,478 yards. The park-like atmosphere of the Bendelow course remains intact, rolling fairways, Scottish-style fescue grasses, and strategically placed bunkering. For French Lick Resort trip visitors who want the full historical arc of American resort golf architecture (Bendelow 1907 → Ross 1917 → Dye 2009), Valley Links is the essential first-round stop, genuinely walkable and priced accordingly. The Bendelow + Ross + Dye lineup gives French Lick one of the most-layered three-architect portfolios of any American resort.