The Golf Parks: Studebaker, Erskine and Elbel

1920–1994

Lead: Municipal golf came to South Bend as a park function, and the department's chronology opens the account: "1920 — Studebaker golf course opens as South Bend's first municipal golf course," a nine-hole course on the southeast side that the 2014 master plan still counted among the system's three. The second course is a gift with a condition. Albert R. Erskine, Studebaker's president, owned a large amount of land on the south side; as the city's tourism authority tells it in its centennial account of the course, "he and his family wanted to donate this land as a golf course, with the intention that it stay a golf course forever. They donated the land, converted their horse barn into a clubhouse and created the golf park which opened June 27, 1925" — South Bend's first eighteen-hole public course.

The chronology enters it the same year: "1925 — Albert Erskine golf course opens." The golf directories credit the layout to Richard Elbel and Charles Elbel — Richard Elbel being the park board's own long-serving member, retired from the board in 1937 — and the attribution is printed at directory strength. The gift's condition was tested once: in the early 2000s the city's Department of Community & Economic Development spent four years on an Erskine Hills Development Plan that contemplated redeveloping the course site, and on 9 March 2005 Mayor Stephen J. Luecke closed the question in a public release — "Erskine Golf Course is Not For Sale" — recording that the city had contacted the Erskine heirs, that the course would continue "to also provide important green space," and that the review of concepts honoring "the original intentions of the Erskine gift" was at an end. The park celebrated its centennial in 2025 with members of the Erskine family returned for the commemoration and a plaque at the entrance. The accounts of its size differ by era: the centennial account puts the golf park at around 100 acres; the department's 2021 inventory lists Erskine Golf Course at 120 acres on Miami Street.

The third course was bought with the postwar system's spare ground: the chronology records Elbel Park purchased in 1961 for $35,000, developed under the 1963 bonds, and the Elbel Golf Course opened in 1965 at a cost of $550,000. At 313.25 acres in the 2021 inventory — "Elbel Golf Course and Nature Park," on Auten Road at the city's northwest edge — it is the largest single property the department holds, more than twice any other. A fourth municipal course, Blackthorn, opened in 1994 by the chronology, completing the set the 2014 plan described.

Sources:

1. Visit South Bend Mishawaka, "Around the Bend: Erskine Park Golf Course" (30 June 2026): the Erskine family gift and its condition, the horse-barn clubhouse, the opening of 27 June 1925, the centennial of 2025, the course at around 100 acres.
2. City of South Bend, mayoral release, 9 March 2005, "Erskine Golf Course is Not For Sale" (the Erskine Hills Development Plan review; the contact with the heirs; the course kept).
3. City of South Bend Venues Parks & Arts, Master Plan Update 2021–2025 (chronology: Studebaker course 1920; Erskine 1925; Elbel purchased 1961, $35,000; course opened 1965, $550,000; Blackthorn 1994; inventory: Elbel 313.25 acres; Erskine 120 acres).
4. Golf course directories (GolfLink/GolfPass listings for Erskine Park Golf Club: designed by Richard Elbel/Charles Elbel, opened 1925) — printed at directory strength.