Juday Creek Golf Course: the Rogers family's public course, the 2024 fire, and the rebuild

1988–2026 · 14770 Lindy Drive

Granger's public golf ground was built by a family that still runs it: Juday Creek Golf Course, 14770 Lindy Drive, is an eighteen-hole public championship course laid along the creek whose name it takes — the creek itself is the Land leg's, and this article owns the course. "Juday Creek opened for its first full season in 1989. Built by Linda and Mike Rogers, the course is still owned and operated by the Rogers and their daughter Michelle Wittig," the club's own account reads; Linda Rogers, by then a state senator, fixed the building year in the fire coverage of 2024: "they built it from the ground up in 1988." The course the directories record is a serious public test: par 72, 6,940 yards from the back tees (rating 73.7, slope 134), bent-grass tees, fairways, and greens, 56 bunkers, water in play on thirteen holes, five sets of tees, a twenty-tee driving range, and a short "Little Creek" layout for family golf and short-game work. GolfLink's course record credits the design to Ken Killian, ASGCA; the club's own account names the Rogers as its builders and prints no architect, and the design rests at that directory strength (see the named gap). The course's program record carries one national honor at directory strength — the 2010 National Player Development Award of the National Golf Course Owners Association — and the club's own claims of nationally recognized junior golf and ladies' learn-to-play programs; in the fall of 2014 it added a FootGolf course on the front nine, the soccer-golf hybrid then spreading through American public golf, which makes Juday Creek the one ground in this section where two of the world's games share the same grass.

On the morning of August 26, 2024, the clubhouse burned to the ground: WNDU reported that a passerby saw flames before 6 a.m.; Clay Fire Territory crews, under Chief Jaren Kilian, found the fire already through the floor and into the attic, fought it defensively, and shuttled water to a site with no municipal hydrant supply — the unincorporated place's infrastructure gap arriving, for once, in a sports story. No one was inside; one firefighter was treated for minor injuries; the building was a total loss. "We've seen a lot of kids grow up here," Rogers told the station. Golf itself never stopped: play continued from temporary headquarters on the Rogers' stated plan to rebuild, and the trade press's March 2025 account priced the new clubhouse at several million dollars, fully sprinklered, with golf simulators and a reimagined banquet room under consideration and construction then expected to begin that spring. The expectation slipped, and the slip is printed whole: the club's own postings record two years of "plans, permits, engineering and approvals" behind the scenes before the official groundbreaking was celebrated on September 22, 2026, with wall forms going in by late October 2026 and no completion date announced. As the course stands in November 2026: thirty-seven seasons played, the golf whole, the clubhouse rising from its footings — the rebuild is this section's clearest current-state fact, dated to the club's own October 2026 progress reports.

Named gap — the architect at primary strength: Ken Killian's design credit rests on the course-directory record (GolfLink); no primary source reached — the club's own history, the ASGCA's project files as published, or the trade press — confirms it, and the family's own account credits the building, not a designer. Joseph County building permits for 1988.

Sources:

1. Juday Creek Golf Course (judaycreek.com), the club's own site, read November 2026 (the About account: first full season 1989, built by Linda and Mike Rogers, still owned and operated by the Rogers and Michelle Wittig; 56 bunkers, water on 13 holes, five tee sets, the Little Creek layout; FootGolf added fall 2014; the clubhouse groundbreaking post of September 23, 2026 — "yesterday" — and the progress post of October 27, 2026).
2. WNDU, "Clubhouse destroyed in massive fire at Juday Creek Golf Course," August 26, 2024 (the fire's course and the defensive fight; Clay Fire Chief Jaren Kilian; Linda Rogers — "built it from the ground up in 1988"; play to continue from temporary headquarters).
3. Club + Resort Business, "Indiana Club Looks to the Future After Devastating Fire," March 18, 2025 (the replacement clubhouse at several million dollars, sprinklers, possible simulators; construction then expected to begin in the spring of 2025).
4. GolfLink and GolfPass course directories, read November 2026 (6,940 yards, par 72, rating 73.7, slope 134; Ken Killian, ASGCA, as designer; the twenty-tee driving range; year built 1989) and Hole19's course record (the 2010 NGCOA National Player Development Award; Beginner Friendly certification) — directory strength.