Ackerman Hills blends the design of two golf visionaries
Formerly known as the Purdue South Course, Ackerman Hills was originally designed by William 'Bill' Diddel and built in 1934. The course was host to the NCAA Men's Golf Championships in 1961 when Purdue won the team championship and Jack Nickalus won the individual medal.
The course was then redesigned by Larry Packard in 1968 and further improved in 1998 with the opening of the Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex.
The course is named in recognition of Jim and Lois Ackerman's support of Purdue Athletics.
Bill Diddel
William 'Bill' Diddel, born a native Hoosier in 1884, is one of America's great golf architects, yet much of his work is relatively unknown. The first time he watched people playing golf was sometime before 1900 while standing on the hill in Crown Hill Cemetery where James Whitcomb Riley is buried that overlooks what was then Indianapolis Country Club (now the Woodstock Club). Bill was an all-around athlete, and participated in sports at Manual High School and as a senior won his first golf championship - the Indianapolis City Amateur. He went on to Wabash college to become a four-sport letter man - basketball, baseball, track and football (no collegiate golf competiton at that time). In his senior year at Wabash, he was selected as the best basketball player in the USA. But Bill's chief legacy to golf has been a series of strong if under-appreciated courses, most of therm in the Midwest.
Bill got his start designing golf courses in 1921 by finishing a new course for Highland Country Club, of which he was a member, that was routed by Willie Park Jr. He then began full-time practice as a Golf Course Architect, and any assignments followed. It is believed the first course he designed was Ulen Country Club in Lebanon, Indiana. Bill worked on over 250 courses, mostly in the Midwest. Many of his courses are in small towns but he always felt an obligation to promote the game to all walks of life, especially in his home state of Indiana.
Bill was a master at routing a golf course, using the natural terrain to provide definition and strategy. His green designs were creative, difficult yet fair; they were integral in the strategy of each hole as well as the entire sequence of holes. Recognized as an outstanding golf course architect, Bill was one of the founders
and a Charter Member of the American Society Of Golf Course Architects.
Other Charter Members shown (l-r): William P. Bell, Robert White, William Langford, Honorary President Donald Ross, President Robert Bruce Harris, Vice-President Stanley Thompson, Gordon, Secretary-Treasurer Robert Trent Jones, William Diddel, and James B. McGovern. Founding members not shown: Jack Daray, Sr., Robert "Red" Lawrence, and Perry Maxwell.
Bill Diddel has also been the recipient of many awards and recognitions:
The Fred Waring Sportsmanship Award
The American Seniors Golf Association Hall Of Honor
Indiana Golf Hall Of Fame
Sagamore Of The Wabash
Honorary Sergeant Of Arms Of the Tennessee State Senate
Bill still enjoyed golf in his later years; even when in his middle eighties he occasionally scored in the seventies. If a golfer shot his age or better more times than Bill Diddel, there's no record of the achievement. He is said to have recorded that feat over 1,200 times in his life, as well as having won the Indiana Amateur title five times. Bill also holds the record of 12 strokes under his age, when in 1970, he shot 74 at the age of 86 on the tough Country Club of Naples course in Naples, Florida. He always savored competition; a favorite wager was to play 18 holes for a cigar. William Diddel passed away in 1985 just a few months short of his 101st birthday.
