French Lick Springs Hotel and West Baden Springs Hotel

News Release

INDIANA — Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation for recognizing and celebrating the finest historic hotels across America, has announced The 2024 Top 25 Historic Hotels of America Most Historic Golf Courses list. French Lick Springs Hotel and West Baden Springs Hotel were highlighted in the list. This unique list of historic resorts chronicles the history of golf in the United States through many of the most beautiful, prestigious, and iconic American golf courses that continue to attract both leisure seekers and serious athletes. Among the list of golf courses were Indiana’s French Lick Springs and West Baden Springs Hotels.

Golf and history enthusiasts are in for a treat at French Lick Resort in French Lick, which boasts three courses designed by three greats of 20th-century golf course design. Notably, the resort’s most historic golf course—on account of its age, closeness to the original form, and the distinction of its designer—is the Donald Ross Course.

Designed in 1917 by Donald Ross, who is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential golf course architects of the game’s Golden Age, this namesake course was an immediate success. The resort first hosted the PGA Championship in 1924, won by Walter Hagen. Hagen played a major role in popularizing the game as a professional sport and was the first golfer to become a millionaire playing the game.

In the years since, the course has also gone on to host LPGA championships and Senior PGA events. Along with the greats of the game, world-class golf has attracted scores of celebrities to French Lick over the years, including singer Bing Crosby, comedian Bob Hope, business magnate Howard Hughes, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and professional football player Peyton Manning.

Before he became basketball’s “Larry Legend,” French Lick native Larry Bird worked and played on the French Lick golf course in his youth. The French Lick Resort encompasses two historic hotels, French Lick Springs Hotel (1845) and West Baden Springs Hotel (1902), where guests have access to the Donald Ross Course, as well as courses designed by Pete Dye (2009) and Tom Bendelow (1907). French Lick Springs Hotel was inducted into Historic Hotels of America in 2000, and West Baden Springs Hotel was designated a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior in 1987.

Many of the golf courses at these Historic Hotels of America resorts that ranked on the list were designed and renovated by legendary golf course architects ranging from Golden Age architect Donald Ross to more recent visionaries, such as Pete Dye.

Scottish-born Donald Ross started his career in golf at the venerable St. Andrews course in the 1890s but spent most of his career and life in the United States. He designed many of the country’s Golden Age courses, including some of the courses at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina, The Omni Homestead Resort in Virginia, and The Broadmoor in Colorado. His influence on the game and its architecture continues to this day, both on his historic courses and on new courses that his designs inspired.

In addition to claiming famous architects and championships, each course has earned a reputation, in part, based on the many famous people who have played on their greens: U.S. presidents, world leaders, golf champions, film and entertainment celebrities, and famous inventors and industrialists. The golf courses included in The 2024 Top 25 Historic Hotels of America Most Historic Golf Courses list are some of the country’s most historic and treasured spaces. Today, guests can make their own history when they stay and play where champions have played.

To read the full list, click here.