The Lafayette Elks Golf Club is a tradition rich course that has served Lafayette and West Lafayette for many years.

The course was built on rolling terrain that has remained magnificent over time. Throughout the course you will encounter mature trees, sand bunkers, and water hazards. As you play the Elks you will be reminded of the great traditional golf courses that feature well manicured fairways and greens that require brilliant shot-making to reach.

Who Designed the Lafayette Elks Country Club Course?
By Wayne White

I have always known that our club used to be the West Lafayette Country Club. Our club’s history documents this fact in an Elks brochure published by Robert Cloyd in 1990. The Elks purchased the frame clubhouse and the course in 1942 for $15,419.16.
 I wanted to learn more about the old club that originated the course and more importantly, the architect who designed it. After researching the internet, newspaper archives (Bob Kriebel), the Tippecanoe County Historical Association and our local libraries I came up with practically nothing about the West Lafayette Country Club. What I did learn was that the course opened on June 25, 1930. Probably bad timing for a golf course, considering the Depression had started. Its first Pro was Joe Pottlitzer. At the time, it was opened to the public and later became private. The course was designed by Bill Diddel. He was contracted in 1928 to design and build it.

Fortunately, I was able to learn more about our course’s architect. There is a website devoted to him and it lists his one hundred or more courses: www.billdiddel.com.  Some of his courses in our area are: Purdue South (Ackerman) 1934, Ulen CC 1924, CC of Indianapolis 1923, Coffin 1931, Crawfordsville Muni, 1931 and Brookshire CC in 1971 (his last).

It turns out he was a rather remarkable man. Most of what I learned about him came from a variety of sources, but none better than one of his best friends, Harry Cooler. Harry is a charter member of the Woodland Golf Club in Carmel, Indiana.  It was founded in 1954. It too, was designed by Bill Diddel and it was Bill’s home course. Harry played many rounds of golf with Bill over three decades.

I tracked down Harry at his winter home in Florida by way of Woodland’s pro, Pat Welsh. Harry was very accommodating and agreed to a phone interview. Here is what I asked him:

How would you categorize Bill’s style of golf course design?

Harry: “If you think of the three types of design: Penal, Heroic and Strategic, Bill mostly applied strategic designs. In the early days of his work, money was tight and owners looked for maintainable courses. All courses back then were easy to walk, had smaller greens than today’s courses, employed well placed bunkers and used grasses that were capable of wet and dry conditions, but Bill stood out in many ways. He would make exceptionally narrow fairways because they needed less mowing. He liked trees to be an obstacle. He liked to make you shape a shot off the tee to make the player think about where to place his drive. He liked to put the greens on the best points on the course where you would have to play to different elevations. He designed the greens to be canted a few degrees toward the fairway because it was the best way for a player to be able to hold a small green. Landing the ball above the hole was usually trouble.  Strategic golf requires the player to place each shot so that the next shot is not so demanding. That was Bill’s philosophy in a nutshell. He gave you at least one safe way to get to the hole. He usually would leave one side of a hole accessible. This gave the average player a chance to score par. I have seen Bill’s designs altered by members who believe adding bunkers improves the hole.  It certainly adds to the upkeep.”

Our Elks course has many elevation changes, five fairways are uphill, five are downhill and there are five blind shots. Bill did a good job of incorporating the terrain on our course.  What were his favorite courses he designed?

Harry: “I would put Woodland on top. He purchased the land for it himself and made it his home course. It was designed with no bunkers and is one of the toughest in the state. Others in his top five are: Country Club of Naples in Florida, Shanty Creek in Michigan, Meridian Hills, and perhaps the Speedway 500 Country Club.”

What other course architects did he like?

Harry: “Pete Dye was a protégé of his. Pete would visit to get Bill’s ideas on things. Bill admired his work. When Pete came along, owners wanted tougher courses.  Pete made his reputation designing penal courses.” He also admired Donald Ross and knew him personally.

You played a lot of golf with Bill what was he like?
Harry: “Bill was a very competitive golfer. He was friendly with you but he liked to stay focused on his game, like Ben Hogan. He liked a small wager to keep it interesting. Playing for a good cigar worked for him. Did you know
that Bill shot his age over 1700 times? He was written up in Ripley’s Believe It or Not. He was quite an athlete in his younger days at Wabash College, lettering in four sports.  He won the state amateur golf title five times, but he never bragged about his accomplishments. He was a real gentleman.

Bill had friends from all over the world. Whenever he was in town, Fred Waring, the band leader and inventor of the Waring Blender, would fly in on a helicopter to the course for a round with Bill.”

What would you like people to remember most about your friend?

Harry: “That Bill was a good guy, very approachable. He loved golf.
He took it and his golf design seriously and wanted to excel at both.”

Bill died in 1985. He was 100 years old.