Ackerman Hills

Ackerman Hills Renovation - Q&A

By Brian Weis

Ackerman Hills announced their renovation plans scheduled for 2014 under the direction of renowned golf course architect Pete Dye.

Why is the course being renovated?
The upgrades will modify the course to make it more appealing to a wider range of players while maintaining its current parkland style and addressing several agronomic issues and a deteriorating irrigation system. Furthermore, the upgraded course will be a practice and competition resource for Purdues nationally ranked golf programs, with the entire Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex ranking second to none among collegiate facilities.

What is the timetable for the project?
The project will begin on the western-most nine holes during the late summer or early fall of 2014, allowing the nine eastern holes to remain playable through the end of the 2014 football season. The entire course will be closed in 2015 and reopen during the late spring of 2016.

Will football game-day parking be affected?
Football game-day parking will not be affected and will, in fact, be enhanced by the upgrades to the course drainage.

Who is designing the upgrades?
Pete Dye, regarded as the father of modern golf course architecture, has agreed to donate his design services. He previously designed the Kampen Course at Purdue, which is widely regarded as one of the top collegiate courses in the nation, having hosted the 2003 NCAA Womens Championships and the 2008 NCAA Mens Championships.

What is the Pete Dye Trail?
The Pete Dye Trail presently consists of seven golf courses throughout Indiana, including Purdues Kampen Course, and combines challenging courses and unique destinations.

Revised: 06/11/2014 - Article Viewed 32,029 Times - View Course Profile

About: Brian Weis

Brian Weis is the mastermind behind GolfTrips.com, a vast network of golf travel and directory sites covering everything from the rolling fairways of Wisconsin to the sunbaked desert layouts of Arizona. If there’s a golf destination worth visiting, chances are, Brian has written about it, played it, or at the very least, found a way to justify a "business trip" there.

As a card-carrying member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA), International Network of Golf (ING), Golf Travel Writers of America (GTWA), International Golf Travel Writers Association (IGTWA), and The Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG), Brian has the credentials to prove that talking about golf is his full-time job. In 2016, his peers even handed him The Shaheen Cup, a prestigious award in golf travel writing—essentially the Masters green jacket for guys who don’t hit the range but still know where the best 19th holes are.

Brian’s love for golf goes way back. As a kid, he competed in junior and high school golf, only to realize that his dreams of a college golf scholarship had about the same odds as a 30-handicap making a hole-in-one. Instead, he took the more practical route—working on the West Bend Country Club grounds crew to fund his University of Wisconsin education. Little did he know that mowing greens and fixing divots would one day lead to a career writing about the best courses on the planet.

In 2004, Brian turned his golf passion into a business, launching GolfWisconsin.com. Three years later, he expanded his vision, and GolfTrips.com was born—a one-stop shop for golf travel junkies looking for their next tee time. Today, his empire spans all 50 states, and 20+ international destinations.

On the course, Brian is a weekend warrior who oscillates between a 5 and 9 handicap, depending on how much he's been traveling (or how generous he’s feeling with his scorecard). His signature move" A high, soft fade that his playing partners affectionately (or not-so-affectionately) call "The Weis Slice." But when he catches one clean, his 300+ yard drives remind everyone that while he may write about golf for a living, he can still send a ball into the next zip code with the best of them.

Whether he’s hunting down the best public courses, digging up hidden gems, or simply outdriving his buddies, Brian Weis is living proof that golf is more than a game—it’s a way of life.