While the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is well over 100 years old, the golf course located on its fabled grounds is approaching its 100th birthday.
It was in 1929 that new owner Captain Eddie Rickenbacker took the suggestion of track founders Carl Fisher and Jim Allison and installed a golf course as a year-round source of income. In those days there was no museum, no hotel and no bus ride around the track. In fact, even the Speedway's offices were downtown so that, other than for the "500" activities each month of May, and the occasional private testing by an automobile company, the facility would lay idle.
The course opened with nine holes on the infield and nine outside of the backstretch, accessible by a footbridge which spanned the backstretch approximately where the tunnel is now located, just north of the turn-two VIP suites. The course was laid out by Bill Diddle, a well-known local player and basketball star who designed several other courses around the state. The 18 holes were named for prominent "500" winners and other key figures.
The greens fees for the first few years ran $1 during the week and $1.50 for weekends and holidays.
While the track was shut down for the duration of WWII, the golf course remained open, run under the direction of Al Rickenbacker, one of Eddie's brothers. Near the end of the war, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby played an exhibition game at the Speedway's course.
In 1960, the PGA came in full force to contest the "500" Open, which for the next several years drew many of the sport's greatest names, including Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, with winner's trophies being claimed by Gary Player, Doug Ford, Billy Casper, Bruce Crampton and Frank Beard. In 1965, the course was expanded to 27 holes with the addition of another nine outside the backstretch.
In 1992, the legendary Pete Dye, a longtime Indianapolis resident, completely redesigned the course to bring it up to championship standards, at which time it was renamed Brickyard Crossing. Virtually flat up to that point, the revised course now featured several hills and even a lake which had not previously been there.
The hole-count returned to 18, with only four now being located on the track's infield. Between 1994 and 2000, the PGA Seniors played at Brickyard Crossing, drawing such names as Lee Trevino, Chi Chi Rodriguez and Tom Watson.
In 2008, the magazine World Traveler declared Brickyard Crossing to be one of the 10 most unique courses in the country.
The LPGA took its turn at Brickyard Crossing from 2017 through 2019 with the Indy Women in Tech Championship. American Lexi Thompson won the first event in 2017, while South Korea’s Sung Hyun Park won in 2018 and Mi Jung Hur, also from South Korea, won in 2019.
