Douglass Golf Course

Located in the heart of Indianapolis’s Northeast side on Andrew J Brown Blvd. formerly Martindale is a slice of American Golf History and certainly black golf history.
Nestled neatly in an urban area surrounded by modest homes sits Douglass Park Golf Course (with two S’s) aka «Doug». It’s a 39.9 rating 102 slope 9 hole par 34 2613 yard course.

On the July day I played I found the fairways and greens to be in spectacular shape. Slightly confusing for a first time player the history more than made up for it as I played with a friend who knows his way around very well. The non paying gallery seated on their front porches and informative signs particularly the shrine on #2 was such a treat. You really get the feeling you are someplace special. I imagine that many friendships were born and strengthened here.
Opened in 1928 Douglass was the only Municipal owned golf course in the country named after an African American and catered to the black golf community. Douglass has held many championships and entertained many personalities such as Joe Louis, Charlie Sifford and «Tiger» Woods. Douglass opened with six holes and tomatoe cans for cups and later it grew into the nine holes it is today.
People travel throughout the mid-​west to play golf and enjoy this American icon.

This course is short — it runs from 27^th to 30^th streets — and the hole placement can be confusing, but it’s a pretty fun course to play. Very pretty too — lots of trees. I’m a terrible golfer, so I spend most of my time walking after my ball, but I enjoy being outdoors.
The course is surrounded by houses on three sides and my fiancé was once heckled by a guy sitting on his porch after missing a hole. It adds to the flavor of the area, I guess!
A round of 9 with a cart is $ 15. It can get busy on the weekends but we generally let the faster players play through, as we’re in no hurry. There are a fair number of players who walk the course — it would be very manageable due to the size of the course.