Crooked Stick Golf Club
Private 18-hole course opened in 1964, Pete Dye's first solo design.
Crooked Stick · Carmel, IN
Estate lots around Pete Dye's first solo course
Crooked Stick Estates wraps the golf club Pete Dye designed in 1964 — his first solo course, and the site of a PGA Championship, a U.S. Women's Open, a Solheim Cup, and two BMW Championships. The houses are large, the lots are wooded, and fairway frontage adds a layer of review that zoning does not.
History & architecture
How Crooked Stick was built
Crooked Stick Golf Club opened in 1964 on Burning Tree Lane, designed by Pete Dye with Alice Dye — his first solo design and the course that made his reputation.
The estate neighborhood grew around the club from the late 1960s through the 1990s as one of Carmel's premier golf addresses.
The club hosted the 1991 PGA Championship — John Daly's win as the ninth alternate — followed by the 1993 U.S. Women's Open, the 2005 Solheim Cup, the 2009 U.S. Senior Open, and the BMW Championship in 2012 and 2016.
The neighborhood's covenants have been amended over the decades, with a recorded restatement in 2003 that still governs architectural review.
- Typical era
- Mid-1960s through the 1990s, with later rebuilds
- Lot sizes
- Commonly an acre or more, largest on the fairway frontage
- Common types
- Custom traditional and transitional estate homes
- Design review
- HOA architectural review under the recorded covenants
Landmarks & shared spaces
Places that anchor Crooked Stick
1991 PGA Championship site
John Daly's win here is one of the best-known moments in modern golf.
BMW Championship venue
FedEx Cup playoff event hosted in 2012 and 2016.
2005 Solheim Cup grounds
The club also hosted the 1993 U.S. Women's Open and the 2009 U.S. Senior Open.
Mature estate streetscape
Sixty years of tree growth along Burning Tree Lane and the surrounding drives.
Businesses & districts
Where Crooked Stick gathers
US 31 / Meridian Street
The office and retail spine east of the neighborhood.
116th Street
The nearest everyday retail and restaurant corridor.
Clay Terrace and West Carmel Marketplace
Regional shopping centers a short drive north and west.
Zoning & overlays
Common zoning codes in Crooked Stick
These are the base districts and overlays we see most often on Crooked Stick lots. Always confirm your parcel's district and overlays on the Metro zoning map before design decisions get expensive.
S-1Residence — Estate District
Very low density estate lots: 1 acre minimum, 150 ft width, 50 ft front, 15 ft sides, 40 ft rear, 35 ft height, 20% coverage.
S-2Residence — Low Density District
Large-lot subdivisions: 20,000 sq ft minimum, 100 ft width, 40 ft front, 12 ft sides, 30 ft rear, 35 ft height, 25% coverage.
Overlays that apply here
P-1
Park and Recreation District (course)
The golf course itself sits in the district that permits country club and golf course uses; the surrounding lots are residential.
HOA
Crooked Stick Estates covenants
Recorded covenants and restrictions, restated in 2003, require architectural review by the association before exterior changes.
GF
Golf frontage conditions
Fairway-facing lots carry club easements, maintenance access, and sightline expectations on top of the zoning setbacks.
Permitting path
- 1Confirm the parcel's base district and any overlay on the Carmel GIS zoning map before design starts. The Unified Development Ordinance replaced the old Carmel/Clay Zoning Ordinance numbering, so older paperwork often cites chapters that no longer exist.
- 2The Department of Community Services (DOCS), Planning & Zoning Division runs the zoning clearance — setbacks, height, and lot coverage under UDO Article 5 — before a permit can be issued. This is a staff-level review, usually a few days to about two weeks.
- 3Building & Code Services then handles the residential building permit, plan review, and inspections. Plan review on a typical addition runs about one to three weeks.
- 4Anything that misses a numeric standard — a setback, a height, an accessory-structure size, the coverage cap — needs a Development Standards Variance from the Board of Zoning Appeals. A DOCS pre-submittal meeting is mandatory; the hearing officer track runs about 30 days and the full board about 45 to 60 days.
- 5If a Hamilton County regulated drain crosses or abuts the lot, the County Surveyor's office issues a separate drainage permit on top of the city approvals.
Why it matters
Crooked Stick's place in Carmel
Crooked Stick is Carmel's most nationally recognized landmark of any kind, and the estates around it are one of the city's established prestige addresses.
Sixty years of championship golf have kept demand — and renovation investment — steady in a neighborhood whose original houses are now well past their first remodel.
It set the template that later Carmel golf communities such as Bridgewater followed.
Events & festivals
What happens in Crooked Stick
Club championships and member events
Spring–fall
Private tournaments and member-guest events on the Dye course.
Professional tournament weeks
Occasional
The club has hosted major and PGA Tour playoff events repeatedly since 1991.
Association social events
Year-round
Neighborhood gatherings organized by the Crooked Stick Estates homeowners association.
Designing here
What this means for your Crooked Stick project
- Fairway frontage is the governing constraint. Club easements, maintenance access, and sightlines shape where a pool, screened porch, or rear addition can go, and the association reviews it before the city does.
- S-1 lots give a wide building envelope, so the design question is usually proportion rather than fit — a large addition on a 1970s estate house has to be composed, not appended.
- Sixty-year-old canopy is the neighborhood's real asset. Tree protection and construction access should be drawn, not improvised.
- New impervious area from a pool deck or a wide addition can trigger stormwater review, and a regulated drain easement may cross the rear yard. Confirm both with the county before finalizing site plans.
- Original houses here often predate current energy code by decades. When the envelope is already open for an addition, upgrading it is far cheaper than doing it later.
- At an acre or more, a detached guest house is permitted under the city's accessory standards — the covenants and any club easement decide whether it is actually buildable on a given lot.
FAQ
Questions about Crooked Stick
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