Golf course offers enthusiast something different every day.
By Howard Greninger
Using a 6-iron, Floyd W. Shassere's golf ball hit the left front of the No. 13 green at Hulman Links Golf Course.
It was the only swing he needed for a hole-in-one on the par-3 shot from the white tee earlier this year. That day, the tee was about 175 yards from the hole. His score for the day was 74.
"It was my second hole-in-one at Hulman Links," Shassere said. His first came from the blue tee on the 155-yard No. 16 in 1983.
"I've actually had six hole-in-ones over the past 38 years. You get lucky now and then," said Shassere, 60, retired from Prudential Financial.
Shassere's shot was one of five holes-in-one recorded so far this year at Terre Haute's eastside championship golf course.
"It's a great golf course," Shassere said. "At Hulman, every day you play, you hit different golf clubs. It's a great test of golf." The course this year has a new logo, sporting a pole/flag in front of three lines representing hills. It replaces a longstanding logo of an owl sitting on a golf club.
"We decided we are going to make changes to the facility and thought we'd have a fresh start with a new logo and give it a more modern look," said Jon Holloway, the course PGA director of golf.
City officials also hope to make physical changes to improve the 27-year-old course, which attracts about 20,000 players a year.
The Terre Haute Parks and Recreation Department commissioned Roger Jones Golf Design of Kildare, Ireland, this year to look at the course. Jones issued a report in June suggesting changes to the fairways, greens, bunkers and drainage.
The first step this fall is to make the course's "pump lake," deeper and longer. The lake rests between the No. 3 and No. 6 tees. That will allow more water for the course. "We know that we use over 200,000 gallons a night during a normal period," Holloway said. Water pumped from the lake keeps the grass green.
To gain more ventilation around the 14th green, city park workers this fall will clear back the tee shot on No. 2 and No. 7 as trees have encroached over the front of the fairway, Holloway said. "We will cut them back from the fairway, removing about 10 yards of trees down a length of about 100 yards," he said.
Trees already have been cleared along the No. 11 hole.
Holloway said another future step includes rebuilding and reducing the number of bunkers to 50 or 60, from the current 115. "Augusta National has 44 bunkers," Holloway said, referring to the resort in Georgia where golf's Masters is played.
In the report, Jones said that overall, the golf course "is a very fine golf course, one that is well laid out on a very interesting piece of land. Hulman Links has the potential to be an even more spectacular golf course than it is at present, one that will rank with any public golf course anywhere."
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HULMAN LINKS FAST FACTS
--Terre Haute philanthropist Tony Hulman and the Hulman family helped start and later improve Hulman Links Golf Course.
--Tony and Mary Fendrich Hulman signed over 226 acres of land to the city of Terre Haute for the 18-hole course in October 1974. The donated land was valued at $495,000, plus the Hulmans made a $250,000 monetary donation. A matching $493,241.50 grant from the U.S. Bureau of Outdoor Recreation financed the construction of Hulman Links, which opened April 15, 1978.
--The Hulman family and Hulman & Co. donated $155,000 in 1984 toward the construction of an 8,000-square-foot clubhouse, built at a cost of $400,000.
--In January 1989, Mari Hulman George donated $72,100 for the construction of a new water line to the golf course. The parks department raised the other $72,100.
--Hulman Links is on the Web at www.hulmanlinks.com.