Tournament-tested French Lick to host 2026 U.S. Senior Challenge

The importance of being sharp from 100 yards and in cannot be overstated when it comes to teeing it up at a Donald Ross course. This certainly holds true at French Lick (Indiana) Resort’s Ross Course.

Short game will be a difference-maker as the Ross Course hosts the U.S. Senior Challenge on June 1-3. The national event features four-man teams of senior amateurs with the best three scores counting toward the team total in each of three rounds.

“(Donald Ross) tries to get you to play in the right direction but in all honesty, it’s open enough that you’ll have a shot,” Director of Golf Dave Harner said of the challenge presented by the Ross Course. “The challenge is from 100 yards in. If you miss the greens, you’ll have to miss them short. If you miss right, left or long, it’s pretty tough to get up and down sometimes.”

French Lick, which claims the top two courses (Pete Dye and Donald Ross, respectively) on Golfweek’s list of best public-access courses in Indiana, is no stranger to tournament play. The resort has a long list of championships hosted, from the Senior PGA Championship to the Korn Ferry Tour Championship. In 2014 alone, French Lick hosted the LPGA Legends Tour championship, the Indiana PGA Southern Open, the (now-retired) U.S. Men’s State Team Championship and the men’s and women’s Big 10 Championships.

When a tournament comes to the property, it’s business as usual, according to Harner. Which is to say, French Lick conditions always provide a challenge.

"That’s the thing about our courses – our superintendents strive to have tournament conditions every day,” Harner said.

Harner noted that the course has been a draw for some notable names in the past.

"Fuzzy Zoeller used to come up here and practice before the Masters because he said these greens were as close to Augusta’s contours as any he played,” he said.

For the U.S. Senior Challenge, French Lick provides a central location for four-man teams coming from all over the country – half of the states are represented in this year’s 54-hole event. Last year at Hobe Sound (Florida) Golf Club, a team made up of players from Alabama and Georgia won the team title. The tournament, which dates to the 1980s, marks the rare chance for senior amateurs – many of whom played college golf earlier in life – to compete in a team format.

While one team champion is crowned, individual champions will be named in each of four age divisions: senior, super senior, legends and super legends. World Amateur Golf Ranking points are also awarded.

"We’re just really happy to host,” Harner said of the U.S. Senior Challenge. “The Donald Ross course kind of gets overshadowed sometimes by the Dye but I think the players will find that the Donald Ross has its own set of challenges different from that of Dye.

“It’s more of a traditional course, it goes back to the day when they did it with horse and buggy and shovels. Pete Dye on the other hand, moved 3 million cubic yards of dirt – quite a difference.”

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Tournament-tested French Lick to host 2026 U.S. Senior Challenge