Where are you playing tomorrow - Chicago (Round 3)

[DavePelz4]

20 hours ago, Holy Moses said:

Gotta represent

 

That's the combined distance of my small bucket of drivers.

[TheBear95]

2 hours ago, MountainKing said:

 

Play Dubs - yeah there might be better, but it's the only course in the area you can play that's public and has any type of PGA recognition.  Coming to Chicago for golf and not playing Dubs would be like going to Motnerey and not playing Pebble.....  okay maybe not that extreme but hopefully you get what I'm saying.

 

I agree. If you can only play one round and cost/value isn't a consideration, Dubs would be my choice.

 

And, I assume the guy is staying downtown too. Cog isn't that terrible a drive (by Chicago standards) from the Loop. It ain't a trip out to Marengo, that's fore sure. 

[2Tall4Golf]

Delete. Disregard.

Edited May 4, 2022 by 2Tall4Golf

[Argonne69]

4 hours ago, MountainKing said:

 

Play Dubs - yeah there might be better, but it's the only course in the area you can play that's public and has any type of PGA recognition.  Coming to Chicago for golf and not playing Dubs would be like going to Motnerey and not playing Pebble.....  okay maybe not that extreme but hopefully you get what I'm saying.

 

No kidding. I've paid north of $150 on numerous rounds on my trip, and the vast majority don't come close to Dubs. Perfect? No, but it's a solid PGA caliber layout. The Glen Club is close, but during peak season it's ridiculously expensive. Shoulder season is more reasonable. 

 

[mci711]

[ldchristopher]

If I never see a high school golfer on a course I’ll die a happy man. I know, I know. “Grow the game. Blah, blah, blah.” No. Just no. This is hurting my soul. 

[ldchristopher]

Okay, finished at Palmira. Not my first choice today but I vetoed Lost Marsh (possible mistake in hindsight) and didn’t want to drop $65 on a very wet Harborside (glaring mistake). It’s not a difficult drive to Crown Point so I figured White Hawk would be in good shape. However, a high school team “showed up” there after I had called to see about openings and been told Grey to Silver was wide open. Palmira told me if I got there by 3:30 I could get out ahead of a high school competition so I teed off right at 3:30. Played the front in 70 minutes and figured I’d be home free. WRONG. They sent the high school kids off the back too. GRRR. 
I finally had enough and just kind of announced I’d be playing through on 17. I can only look at so many ground balls and duffed fairway woods. I actually played very well despite the inconsistent pace. A season high 14 greens and two birdies (6 and 12) for a 73. 

[Shriner]

Heading to Balmoral Woods for the first time tomorrow.  I have never seen this before...we are booked early a.m. and there is not ONE other tee time booked until two hours later.  Weather looks gorgeous, sunny and low 50's.  We could have the entire course to ourselves, which is always an amazing time.

[ldchristopher]

2 hours ago, Shriner said:

Heading to Balmoral Woods for the first time tomorrow.  I have never seen this before...we are booked early a.m. and there is not ONE other tee time booked until two hours later.  Weather looks gorgeous, sunny and low 50's.  We could have the entire course to ourselves, which is always an amazing time.

I like Balmoral Woods but a Par 38/34 front/back is a weird way to get to a par 72. The green complexes are pretty straightforward. No cartoonishly sloping greens or anything. However, it's gonna be very wet. There are quite a few holes that don't drain all that well. 

[stasek]

Our annual Spring Classic tournament at Ruffled Feathers got rained out today, but not all is lost - our biweekly league heads to Seven Bridges tomorrow early afternoon.    For the life of me, I CAN NOT remember if the course is walk friendly.  Unfortunately our group (~32 guys playing tomorrow) is "famous" for taking their sweet time around the course, and I'd probably be better off walking, considering the fact 2 of the guys I'm paired up with just started playing, AND it's most likely going to be CPO.

[@_the_crook]

SV emailed about Saturday CPO  restrictions.

tee time temp will be 42 and hopefully just a slight wind.

bet there will be fast greens.  slug as hard as you can to get to the pin and then change to a feather touch. diabolical. 

 

Sportsman's website now shows walking only. that place must be almost underwater.

12 million dollar clubhouse though. so they got that going tor them.

 

hope everyone gets out and has a bunch of fun.

 

 

[cpeck12]

1 hour ago, stasek said:

Our annual Spring Classic tournament at Ruffled Feathers got rained out today, but not all is lost - our biweekly league heads to Seven Bridges tomorrow early afternoon.    For the life of me, I CAN NOT remember if the course is walk friendly.  Unfortunately our group (~32 guys playing tomorrow) is "famous" for taking their sweet time around the course, and I'd probably be better off walking, considering the fact 2 of the guys I'm paired up with just started playing, AND it's most likely going to be CPO.

 

Seven Bridges is definitely walk friendly (I've done it many times). However, they do typically require you to take a cart since there are paths for the entire course... if your group takes carts just grab your bag on #2 and walk, hop on the cart as needed.

[ldchristopher]

Bear and I played a round at Pine Meadows this afternoon. It was sopping wet but we didn’t tee off until 3:30 and it didn’t rain a drop on us for the entire round. There was standing water all over the place and the greens had been punched pretty recently so it wasn’t exactly scoring conditions but that’s such a good layout for $40. A bunch of people are gonna cough up $89 to play there tomorrow and I can’t see dropping that much for basically identical conditions but, hey, people can spend their money however they want. Ball striking was pretty solid with 9 fairways, 11 greens, and, even when I wasn’t on the green, I had easy chips just off the green on 5, 7, 8, 11 and 17. One birdie on 2 and bogies on 3 and 16. 73. 

[ldchristopher]

Yesterday Bear brought up a very valid concern. I know everyone is begging for consistently warmer weather but with all the rain there’s standing water on every course. With 80° temps next week several days in a row and saturated turf, the mosquitoes are going to be brutal. 

[TheBear95]

1 hour ago, ldchristopher said:

Yesterday Bear brought up a very valid concern. I know everyone is begging for consistently warmer weather but with all the rain there’s standing water on every course. With 80° temps next week several days in a row and saturated turf, the mosquitoes are going to be brutal. 

[Holy Moses]

Any ranges in the NW burbs have grass practice tees open? 

Edited May 7, 2022 by Holy Moses

[MountainKing]

Played out at Seven Bridges today, finally a day where it wasn't cold, rainy or both.  Just some wind to deal with, two clubs at certain points but I'll take today over what we've been getting.  Course was in pretty good shape all things considered.  It was wet, but where isn't it right now?  Greens were rolling pretty good with some real brutal hole placements.  Pace was brutal, round was right at 5 hours.  The real let down however, they had a wedding going on so the entire facility was shut down.  Considereding we had 5 total foursomes, it would have been nice to have a heads up since it killed any after round hangs.  I know weddings are huge money, but not sure why you would all of a sudden cast your golfers to the wayside.

 

Game was okay, had a great front with 1 birdie, 3 bogies for a nice 38.  I went on a bit of a bogey train on the back 9, kept the ball in play just had some struggles locating shots.  Ended up with a 41 on the back.  Hard to complain about a 79 there.

[chisag]

1 minute ago, MountainKing said:

  I know weddings are huge money, but not sure why you would all of a sudden cast your golfers to the wayside.

 

 

... There is a course here in Phoenix that had a really nice island finishing hole and a great way to end 18. But it was right next to the club house and drunk players or just those "excessively" swearing/cheering was evidently too much for the complaining wedding attendees so they swapped holes and you start from the island as it is now the #1 tee and it just sucks. Talk about casting your golfers to the wayside. 

[MountainKing]

44 minutes ago, chisag said:

 

 

... There is a course here in Phoenix that had a really nice island finishing hole and a great way to end 18. But it was right next to the club house and drunk players or just those "excessively" swearing/cheering was evidently too much for the complaining wedding attendees so they swapped holes and you start from the island as it is now the #1 tee and it just sucks. Talk about casting your golfers to the wayside. 

Hole 10 was also closed for this,  luckily it didn't impact us, but groups after us were forced from 9 to 11.  Just seems weird to have weddings but not have the infrastructure to really host them without impact the golf portion of golf course. 

[stasek]

11 hours ago, MountainKing said:

Played out at Seven Bridges today, finally a day where it wasn't cold, rainy or both.  Just some wind to deal with, two clubs at certain points but I'll take today over what we've been getting.  Course was in pretty good shape all things considered.  It was wet, but where isn't it right now?  Greens were rolling pretty good with some real brutal hole placements.  Pace was brutal, round was right at 5 hours.  The real let down however, they had a wedding going on so the entire facility was shut down.  Considereding we had 5 total foursomes, it would have been nice to have a heads up since it killed any after round hangs.  I know weddings are huge money, but not sure why you would all of a sudden cast your golfers to the wayside.

 

Game was okay, had a great front with 1 birdie, 3 bogies for a nice 38.  I went on a bit of a bogey train on the back 9, kept the ball in play just had some struggles locating shots.  Ended up with a 41 on the back.  Hard to complain about a 79 there.

What time did you tee off?  Hopefully before our group🤬. We did finish in a little over 5 hours, which wasn’t too unexpected considering CPO and the overall conditions.  Did I mention I was paired with couple new golfers who shot combined 273?  Yeah, it was fun….  Pretty fair assessment of the course.  I was pleasantly surprised at the pace of greens.  
Had probably the best ballstriking day of the season, which didn’t translate to the final score. Couple idiotic doubles (1 and 17) and couple birdies (2 and 18) for a ho hum 79.  

[Shriner]

I think I got you both beat, we played as a twosome with no one else in sight at Balmoral Woods and it took 5:10 minutes.  We had the course to ourselves but every tee shot took 5-10 minutes to find.  US Open rough and everything plugged to the point the balls were at times completely underground.  We woud walk right past the ball, it was tough.  I fired an 84 and my buddy a 144, which probably didn't help the pace.

 

Cool feeling on the back nine with nature but that is a strange layout at times and the weeds, course conditions, greens were fairly poor.  Not sure I'll feel a need to go back with a 55 minute drive.

[MountainKing]

3 hours ago, stasek said:

What time did you tee off?  Hopefully before our group🤬. We did finish in a little over 5 hours, which wasn’t too unexpected considering CPO and the overall conditions.  Did I mention I was paired with couple new golfers who shot combined 273?  Yeah, it was fun….  Pretty fair assessment of the course.  I was pleasantly surprised at the pace of greens.  
Had probably the best ballstriking day of the season, which didn’t translate to the final score. Couple idiotic doubles (1 and 17) and couple birdies (2 and 18) for a ho hum 79.  

 

My group had the 11:30 through 12:10 block I think. The weird part about the 5 hours was there was really no waiting anywhere for us.  It was just slow because of CPO and the rough that was US Open thick in some places.  Matching 79's, nice.  I should mention that all 4 guys in our group birdied 3 with more or less tap in birdies.  It was pretty unreal seeing 4 shots within a foot of the cup surrounding it.  30+ years of playing that was a first.

[stasek]

56 minutes ago, MountainKing said:

 

My group had the 11:30 through 12:10 block I think. The weird part about the 5 hours was there was really no waiting anywhere for us.  It was just slow because of CPO and the rough that was US Open thick in some places.  Matching 79's, nice.  I should mention that all 4 guys in our group birdied 3 with more or less tap in birdies.  It was pretty unreal seeing 4 shots within a foot of the cup surrounding it.  30+ years of playing that was a first.

Looks like you went out just before us - our group started at 12:30.  It was a weird 5 hour round - despite my playing partners losing at least couple dozen balls, the waiting between shots wasn’t too bad.  That was quite a feat on 3 - I flared my tee shot right, leaving impossible second over the hump - I was lucky to keep it on the green.  

[DavePelz4]

Played Fox Bend yesterday. Beautiful day for a walk.  Like everywhere, the course was wet and the rough in particular yielded mud balls galore. For whatever reason, they had some pins in extreme places like on 12.  I had a first putt stop about a foot above the hole, it caught a gust of wind and my par putt was 37 freaking feet.  I think that might be the worst green in all of Chicago,  

 

For the first time in at least a month, there was a full tee sheet. In front of us was 2 groups of COVID golfers who clearly had no regard for others. On the 3rd hole, they decided to play as a 6some and play slogged down.  Had enough of their crap and after they finished 5 and were kibittzing on the 6th tee, i went up to them and said they needed to split up or I'd call the pro shop. The one smart arse literally said, "no one told us we couldn't do that." When I asked him if they booked as a 6some he said they couldn't do that so I asked him if that meant anything or why the starter didn't pair them all up on the first hole. He of course swore at me but at least they picked up the pace and we were able to finish in just over 4 hours.

[ldchristopher]

25 minutes ago, DavePelz4 said:

Played Fox Bend yesterday. Beautiful day for a walk.  Like everywhere, the course was wet and the rough in particular yielded mud balls galore. For whatever reason, they had some pins in extreme places like on 12.  I had a first putt stop about a foot above the hole, it caught a gust of wind and my par putt was 37 freaking feet.  I think that might be the worst green in all of Chicago,  

 

For the first time in at least a month, there was a full tee sheet. In front of us was 2 groups of COVID golfers who clearly had no regard for others. On the 3rd hole, they decided to play as a 6some and play slogged down.  Had enough of their crap and after they finished 5 and were kibittzing on the 6th tee, i went up to them and said they needed to split up or I'd call the pro shop. The one smart arse literally said, "no one told us we couldn't do that." When I asked him if they booked as a 6some he said they couldn't do that so I asked him if that meant anything or why the starter didn't pair them all up on the first hole. He of course swore at me but at least they picked up the pace and we were able to finish in just over 4 hours.

The only way to avoid the Covid golfers is to tee off early. Those types don’t wake up early enough to factor into my rounds. I usually only hear their stupid cart speakers and see their bro-tastic tendencies as I’m making the turn and finishing up. 

[@_the_crook]

14 minutes ago, ldchristopher said:

The only way to avoid the Covid  folks you would rather not be with golfers is to tee off early. Those types don’t wake up early enough to factor into my rounds. I usually only hear their stupid cart speakers and see their bro-tastic tendencies as I’m making the turn and finishing up. 

 

there was this one fellow from work, could turn any round into a marathon.

how many times does one need to pull a rangefinder, unzip the cover , point-shoot-replace-rezip during a round... turns out - everytime.

he likes to play Sundays at 1 to 1:30. with liquor and cigars.

nope, just nope.

I've invited him to our sunrise games but he just doesn't have the motivation to play early or on pace.

 

 

[TheBear95]

30 minutes ago, @_the_crook said:

 

there was this one fellow from work, could turn any round into a marathon.

how many times does one need to pull a rangefinder, unzip the cover , point-shoot-replace-rezip during a round... turns out - everytime.

he likes to play Sundays at 1 to 1:30. with liquor and cigars.

nope, just nope.

I've invited him to our sunrise games but he just doesn't have the motivation to play early or on pace.

 

 

 

My weekend golf philosophy is either go early or go late. Otherwise, don't go. It eliminates most of the silliness. 

Edited May 8, 2022 by TheBear95

[B-Man]

Rough day at Village Links yesterday. Very heavy underfoot. One long slog. Greens were good though.

[cpeck12]

15 hours ago, B-Man said:

Rough day at Village Links yesterday. Very heavy underfoot. One long slog. Greens were good though.

 

Yeah it was pretty wet when I played last Wednesday for the league. Hopefully these temps the next few days dry it out. It also seemed like they hadn't cut the rough in forever.

[TBone0576]

23 hours ago, ldchristopher said:

The only way to avoid the Covid golfers is to tee off early. Those types don’t wake up early enough to factor into my rounds. I usually only hear their stupid cart speakers and see their bro-tastic tendencies as I’m making the turn and finishing up. 

A man after my own heart.  Got out first both days this weekend at Brighton Dale and our foursome finished well before 9am each day.  They have not been able to keep up with the mowing apparently and despite getting cut a little bit earlier in the week it was essentially US Open-esque.  Lost balls in what is usually really light rough.  With any luck they will get out there and get it a bit more manageable this week.   Hopefully it will dry out quite a bit the next 4 days but as you mentioned earlier, the bugs may get their shot at us this year after a really tame couple of seasons in my opinion.