The Bridgewater Golf Club in Carmel, Indiana – A Pete Dye Luxury Golf Experience

September 27, 2011

The Bridgewater Golf Club (course designed by Pete Dye) is located in the Carmel/Westfield area in Indiana.  Having spent quite a bit of time in Carmel (recently moved to nearby Fishers, IN), this is a course that I’ve driven by many times and had been dying to play.

The Bridgewater Clubhouse

The Bridgewater Clubhouse view from driving range

You see, the first thing you notice about this extraordinary country club is the clubhouse…because it’s HUGE.  In fact, the clubhouse is over 70,000 square feet and the construction was supervised by S. Vic Jones and Associates out of Dallas, Texas.  He’s won several awards for his work and has designed over 200 clubhouses throughout the United States.  If a course around here is willing to put that type of effort into the clubhouse – you know it’s going to be among the best golf courses in Indiana.  Needless to say, I’ve been staring at this course and clubhouse (all while still keeping my eyes on the road of course) while driving through Carmel for over a year now.

Since The Bridgewater Golf Club is a private golf course,  I wasn’t exactly sure how or if I’d ever get the chance to play.  Luckily, I have a good friend named Chris Theisen who happens to be, well, pretty damn good at golf.  Long story short, his team won the Westfield Chamber Golf Outing at The Bridgewater so he received a certificate for four to play golf…and he was nice enough (especially since I’m a bogey golfer) to take me along.

In addition to the clubhouse, the first thing you notice is the top-notch practice facility at The Bridgewater Club.  A very nice 23 acre driving range and 6 acre short game practice area greet you on the other side of the clubhouse.  Talk about a place where you could spend hours practicing and never get tired!  If you are planning to play, you’ll definitely want to get there early to check out this practice area.

The Bridgewater TV Urinal

Flatscreen TV above urinal in clubhouse bathroom!

Once you hit the course, you get just what you’d expect from an upscale country club golf course in Carmel, Indiana – nice fairways,  well maintained greens, plenty of mature trees, lakes and ponds.  There are several beautiful holes that are sure to tempt you to pull out your cell phone camera to take a picture.  And how could I forget the houses?!  Some of the finest homes you’ll see in Carmel are situated on The Bridgewater golf course.  It definitely adds to the country club style scenery.

The course itself is very challenging – especially for the “everyday” golfer like myself.  Several tight holes and plenty of hazards come into play when you’re playing from 1 of the 2 sets of back tees.  The greens also really stood out to me. Not because they were fast or slow, but because they are very large.   Not only are they large greens, but they were difficult to read that day.  I think we only had 1-2 birdies all day in our group of 4.  While I may struggle off the tee, I consider myself a good putter and I just couldn’t figure these greens out.  It could have had something to do with the rain too, but I am not one to make excuses…LOL

While the private country club style experience is not for everyone, if you do get the opportunity to play The Bridgewater Golf Club in Carmel, Indiana – definitely go!  Even though you’re there to play golf, it’s always nice to know you’re going to play a course that’s in great condition and receive first class treatment from employees.  There are so many courses out there that compete on price alone (just ask Chris about this) that the customer friendly, relaxing atmosphere you’d expect at a golf course gets lost.  So, if you want to play an outstanding course and get treated like a VIP – look no further than The Bridgewater.

P.S. – Did I mention they have flat screen TVs above the urinals in the bathroom (see pic)?  I mean how much more VIP can you get?

Additional Golf Resources

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Posted by derekmcclain

Smaller Indiana 4,000 Member Party A Success

January 22, 2009

SmallerIndiana.com is increasing Indiana’s visibility on the map.  On the Social Media map that is.  Indiana may be a “smaller” state comparatively speaking, but our ideas are certainly big.  SmallerIndiana.com is proof of this. With a membership base of now more than 4,400 people this social networking site is really living up to it’s mission of “making creative people and innovative ideas easier to find.”  Smaller Indiana put together a member party at the Rathskeller in order to celebrate the important milestone of reaching over 4,000 members.smallerindiana4000memberparty

The 4,000 member party was my first Smaller Indiana event so I entered without a true sense of what to expect.  I was very impressed with the turnout.  There appeared to be around 150-200 people presemt which I felt was a good number for a weeknight event.  As always when walking into a fresh networking scene, I was a bit tense at first and it took me some time to determine the best way of meeting other people in the room.  I had the opportunity to go with 2 of my co-workers who are very accustom to the Indy networking scene so they were able to provide guidance.  Once I got going I really enjoyed myself and the level of interaction in the room.

Here are just a few of the key ingredients that I believe made the Smaller indiana 4,000 party a success:

Many People Felt Like They Already Knew a Few Things About Each Other Because of SmallerIndiana.com
Regardless of if it was your first time meeting a particular member face to face or if you were long time friends, it felt like many people in the room already knew something about the other person.  Reading blogs, watching videos, participating in discussions…all of these things are ways that people get to learn more about you as a person and it makes taking that online relationship offline a smooth, natural process.  The end result was a remarkably high level of interaction compared to your average networking event. 

Everyone Had at Least ONE Thing in Common
Even if you didn’t know a single thing about the person your were talking with, you at least knew they were a member of Smaller Indiana.  This provided at least one topic to discuss which often led into other very interesting conversation.  Several times I heard the question, “So how long have you been a part of Smaller Indiana?”  or “So how do you use Smaller Indiana?”  Both of these are examples of great conversation starters. 

Staying in Touch Will Be Much Easier
The night of the event I felt compelled to go onto Smaller Indiana and add a few new friends, check out their videos and read their blogs.  Several of my new contacts from the event did the same.  I can now stay up-to-date with these people easily and effectively because I know they are all in one place.  This is the thing I love most about SI…while it is over 4,400 members now it still feels like a very tightly knit community.  For this reason, I know it will continue to be an effective online tool.

If you attended the event or are thinking about attending the next event , check out Kyle Lacy’s post about what to do at the Smaller Indiana 4,000 AFTER Party.

I also encourage you to sign up for the group that my co-worker Justin Bryant created on Smaller Indiana called the the Social Media Lunch Club.

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Posted by derekmcclain

Let’s Give This Ghost Hunting Thing A Try

November 11, 2008

Okay, so this particular blog entry does not have a whole lot to do with most of my others- but hey, that is what a blog is all about!

Over the weekend we had the opportunity to go on a real ghost hunt.  I have been a fan of the TV show Ghost Hunters on SciFi for awhile now and this was a chance to put our skills to the test.

The location we checked out was the Kaske Home located in Munster, Indiana.  This historic home is said to be haunted by Wilhelmina Kaske who passed away in the front upstairs bedroom in 1949.  Her shadow is often seen in the window and her whispers are sometimes heard in the bedroom.  As always, there are some videos with my post- but this time you have to do a little bit of work for them.  Trust me, it’s worth checking out!

Turn up your speaker volume, pay close attention and click on each link to view the YouTube Video:

Using a Frank’s Box we setup an EVP session in Wilhelmina’s bedroom-
Watch and listen to her whisper “Take My Picture”

We also made our way to the gazebo outside in the back yard-
Watch and listen as we get an answer of “Yes” to our question

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Posted by derekmcclain

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