Tour Guide 2025: LIV Golf Indianapolis
Tournament golf has been baked into the soul of The Club at Chatham Hills in Westfield, Ind., since its Pete Dye-designed championship course opened for play eight years ago.
“Our owner, Steve Henke, loves tournament golf,” says Chad Allen, Chatham Hills’ superintendent. “I live for tournament golf, too. I love the high expectations and the pressure that come with it. We’re cut from the same cloth.”
Until now, though, the club hasn’t had as many opportunities to host big-time tournament golf as it would have liked. It’s been the site of an NCAA women’s regional tournament, a few Mid-American Conference championships and a handful of state and regional amateur events. But past that, Chatham Hills’ competitive scene has been reserved for club members.
That changes this month, however, when Chatham Hills welcomes LIV Golf to Indianapolis for its season-ending individual championships, Aug. 15-17.
“A lot of my guys have been there since the beginning, grew the course in,” Allen says. “So, they’re unbelievably proud that their work is going to be on display for this event. The day after it was announced, I asked them how they felt about being the talk of the town, and they all just smiled ear to ear.”
A full to-do list
Allen and his team have plenty of work on their agenda before the LIV event this summer. Even before the deal with LIV was final, Chatham Hills had a significant renovation project on the books that involved a full slate of bunker work — including the installation of CapillaryFlow liners to all 180 bunkers on the property — the narrowing of some fairways and the addition of new tees that will allow the course to stretch to nearly 7,700 yards from the tips.
The club is also giving its practice facility a facelift, which will be especially important when some of the world’s best golfers come to town in August.
“Because they all tee off at the same time with the shotgun start, we needed something that would accommodate 54 golfers all practicing at the same time,” Allen says. “We’re expanding the practice area from 22,000 square feet to just under a full acre. Heading into spring, we still need to put in drainage, add irrigation and then go in and seed everything. But we have a great partner in Total Golf Construction out of Florida.”
He feels the same about his working relationship with LIV Golf officials, and he says they’ve been nothing but professional when working out the last few remaining details.
So far, the show of support for the LIV event has been overwhelming, Allen says, and not just from his golf colleagues.
“Indianapolis has been starved for professional golf, so the outpouring of support the club has received has been impressive,” he says. “There are guys like Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau coming out, and people are excited. We want to put on a show for these professionals and show them what makes the Club at Chatham Hills so special.”
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