Southern Indiana Golf Courses & Tee Times

Who runs public golf in Southern Indiana

The cities run the everyday golf. Evansville has three city courses: Helfrich Hills, a 1923 Tom Bendelow design that hosts the Tri-State Amateur and USGA Public Links qualifying; Fendrich, open since 1950; and the nine-hole McDonald on the east side. Winter rates there run from November through March 31. Terre Haute Parks runs Rea Park, open since 1920, and Hulman Links, which opened in 1978 on land and money from Tony Hulman and was named the 2009 Indiana Municipal Golf Course of the Year. A Terre Haute season pass covers both courses, March 1 to November 30 in 2026.

Public courses worth knowing in Southern Indiana

• French Lick Resort - The Pete Dye Course: Par 72 at 8,102 yards, and Dye called it his favorite inland design. Golfweek's No. 1 course you can play in Indiana every year from 2010 to 2026, and No. 18 on Golf Digest's 2025 list of America's 100 Greatest Public Courses.
• French Lick Resort - The Donald Ross Course: Par-70 Ross course from the late 1910s, restored in 2006. Walter Hagen won the 1924 PGA Championship here. Golfweek's No. 2 course you can play in Indiana from 2011 to 2026.
• The Pfau Course at Indiana University: Steve Smyers and Fuzzy Zoeller rebuilt IU's 1957 course for $12 million; it opened May 1, 2020. Par 71, 4,586 to 7,908 yards, with 147 bunkers.
• Helfrich Golf Course: Tom Bendelow's 1923 hill-and-valley course for the City of Evansville. Par 71 at 6,324 yards; hosts the Tri-State Amateur.
• Hulman Links: Terre Haute city course, opened 1978, 7,225 yards with a 144 slope. Named the 2009 Indiana Municipal Golf Course of the Year.
• Sultans Run Golf Club: Tim Liddy parkland design in Jasper, about 30 minutes from French Lick, with a waterfall behind the 18th green.

Booking tee times in Southern Indiana: the local rules

French Lick gives overnight guests first access to the Dye, Ross and Valley Links courses; everyone else calls (844) 489-0529. The Pfau Course books online only, up to 90 days out, and takes phone bookings for the same day; members get their tee times a week before the public. At Evansville's city courses, Helfrich lists tee times as available; the city pages give no booking window.

Why tee times in Southern Indiana are hard to get

The season in Southern Indiana runs roughly from spring to late fall. The first warm weekends in spring and the cool, dry weekends of fall are the hardest to book.

Most public courses open their tee sheet a set number of days ahead, often 7 to 14, and many municipal courses give residents or card holders an earlier window. The best weekend-morning times usually go the day they're released. Leagues and outings take blocks of the sheet before the public ever sees them.

When tee time cancellations happen

Booked-up doesn't mean gone. Plans change: groups cancel ahead of the course's cancellation deadline (often 24 to 48 hours out), players drop when the forecast turns, and a group that shrinks leaves an open spot. Those times quietly come back on the booking page, usually for minutes, not hours.

How to get a tee time in Southern Indiana

Doing it by hand? Here's what works.

1. Know the booking window. Find out how many days ahead each course releases times, and whether residents get an earlier window. Be ready the morning it opens.
2. Look again 24 to 48 hours out. That's when most cancellation deadlines pass and spots come back.
3. Be flexible on group size. Singles and twosomes fit into gaps a foursome can't.
4. Try twilight and weekday afternoons. They're the last to fill and often cheaper.
5. Keep a quicker course in your back pocket. Nine-hole and executive courses are easier to get on and play faster. Around here that includes Hickory Hills Golf Course.

Read the full guide to getting a tee time when everything's booked