Salt Creek Golf Retreat
~ by Ryan Stacy
For a number of reasons, Salt Creek Golf Retreat stands out in our community. It’ s the only golf course in Brown County, for instance. It’ s also one of Indiana’ s few stay-and-play courses, thanks to the 36- unit condo lodge right on site, featuring an outdoor swimming pool.
In other ways, though, what you find at Salt Creek isn’ t at all unusual around here: breathtaking natural beauty and local people who, through integrity, hard work, and dedication, make Brown County an unforgettable experience for all who visit.
For Jennifer VanNess, who manages sales and events at Salt Creek, this combination of uniqueness and shared values has been a winner ever since her in-laws bought the retreat just over twenty years ago. Along with her husband Ben( who’ s also the in-house golf pro), Jennifer’ s now one of Salt Creek’ s co-owners, and she can’ t picture being anywhere else.“ Every day I walk in to work, I love what I do here,” she says.
Just east of Nashville off of State Road 46, Salt Creek offers golfing, of course— and more.“ When we got here, we wanted to have something for everybody,” Jennifer says. So the retreat dropped its members-only policy and opened to the public, the lodge was built to overlook the course, and the club’ s restaurant and bar were combined to free up room for an event and meeting space. Soon, weddings, corporate meetings, and family reunions were as common as tee times, and car enthusiasts and bikers joined golfers at the clubhouse bar. These days, Salt Creek also sponsors a golf team made up of high schoolers, and twice a year hosts“ Liquid Opens,” golf outings that benefit area charities.
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“ We follow all the safety guidelines, and we’ ve had to make adjustments …. But because so much of our activity is outdoors, and the units in the lodge don’ t share hallways or elevators, people feel safe coming here.”
— Jennifer VanNess
photo by Ryan Stacy
Sept./ Oct. 2020 • Our Brown County 27