Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex
Ackerman Hills Renovation
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Renovation work on the Ackerman Hills Course will begin tomorrow.
Spearheaded by world-renowned golf course architect Pete Dye, who is donating his services, the renovation is designed to make the course enjoyable for all to play and suitable to host championship-caliber events.
The project will be environmentally friendly. Some tree removal is necessary to ensure suitable sunlight and wind movement needed to grow grass on the course and greens. Those trees that are removed - primarily along McCormick Road - will be replaced, at a ratio of 3:1, by native hardwoods and some conifers. The project also will address wetlands mitigation and storm-water runoff issues that impact the course as well as the Purdue University campus footprint south of Stadium Avenue. Similar work - a unique collaboration among the Purdue athletics department, the university and the city of West Lafayette - was successfully completed at the corner of Northwestern Avenue and Lindberg Road in 2013.
The renovation also will serve as a working laboratory for Purdue School of Agriculture students.
Nine holes on the western portion of Ackerman Hills were closed Sept. 8, while nine holes on the eastern portion will remain open for play until approximately Nov. 1. Football game-day parking will not be affected and will, in fact, be enhanced by the upgrades to the course drainage. The entire course will remain closed for all of 2015 and reopen in the spring of 2016.
Upon reopening, the course will be included on the Pete Dye Trail, which presently consists of seven unique and challenging golf courses throughout Indiana, including Purdue's Kampen Course. The Kampen Course hosted the 2003 NCAA Women's Championships and the 2008 NCAA Men's Championships.