SYNLawn brings love of Golf to Indy Children’s Museum

Famed Golf Course designers Pete and Alice Dye share their love for the sport of golf with families at The Children’s Museum in Indianapolis

Indianapolis, IN — Pete and Alice Dye were highly skilled amateur golfers who taught the game to their own children. Now, the famed golf course designers from Indiana will be able to share their love of the sport with other families in the Pete and Alice Dye Golf Experience being built at The Children’s Museum in Indianapolis.

The Dye Golf Experience “is something I think all of us are promoting — family togetherness in a sport in which families can grow together,” Alice Dye said.

This isn’t your typical Putt-Putt. It’s like no other miniature golf course you’ve ever seen. There will be two nine-hole courses at the Pete and Alice Dye Golf Experience, each designed as a replica of a full-size hole from a golf course they have designed. For instance:

• There will be two nine-hole courses as well as a toddler course and putting practice area (as if they needed that!), when the Golf Experience opens in March 2018, as part of the Riley Children’s Health Sports Legends Experience.
• The courses will be accessible to all ages and abilities.
• Each hole is an exact replica of famous holes from some of the 150 or so golf courses the Dyes have built around the world, including the U.S., China and the Dominican Republic.

These miniature golf holes will be challenging, just like the real thing.

Course A includes a Par 4, 110-foot, dogleg-right second hole that mimics Hole 6 at the Honors Course at Ooltewah, Tenn. The second hole on Course B is a Par 2, 20-foot version of Hole 17 at the TPC Sawgrass course in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

And a number of holes at Dye-designed courses in Indiana will be represented in miniature, including Hole 10 at the Brickyard Crossing in Indianapolis, Hole 11 at the Pete Dye Course in French Lick, and Hole 16 at Crooked Stick in Carmel.

The holes will include fairways, greens, and a host of hazards, including bunkers and water. First, the ground had to be leveled off, then concrete forms were used to create undulations like contours in full-size golf courses and, finally, the SYNlawn artificial turf — made from recycled materials — was installed.

“From the very beginning, they wanted to be a part of this,” Kimberly Harms, a spokeswoman for The Children’s Museum, said of the Dyes, who have inspected and played some of the holes at the exhibit. “They’ve been here several times,” she said. “They’re very excited. They wanted this to continue their legacy and to have families enjoying golf the way they did.”

The Dye Golf Experience is part of the $38 million, 7½-acre Riley Children’s Health Sports Legends Experience, an outdoor exhibit that focuses on a number of sports to encourage children to lead healthier lives. The Dyes also will be among other Hoosier sports heroes to be honored with life-size bronze sculptures along the Old National Bank Sports Legends Avenue of Champions at the exhibit.

Harms said finding an affordable way to introduce golf to families was a key reason for building the Dye Golf Experience.

It complements other family-friendly programs offered by the museum. Those include the Foster Family Program, which provides free one-year membership to licensed Indiana foster parents and their families; the Neighborhood Club program, which gives free one-year memberships to families living within six neighborhoods in the Midtown Area surrounding the museum; and Access Pass, which gives families receiving state assistance a reduced $2 admission per person per visit.

Here is some drone footage showing the Pete and Alice Dye Golf Experience as it is under construction.