Where are you playing tomorrow - Chicago (Round 3)

[MountainKing]

12 hours ago, zer0 said:

 

the initiation fee is only $325.00?      That's even lower than what it cost me to join Lawsonia which is public.

 

How much are the greens fees and cart fees?

 

I don't remember all of them but prime time weekend with a cart is $50, that's the max.  Since it's a daily fee you get to go around again if you want.   The weekday rates are really reasonable, but being 45 minutes away I never play there weekdays.

[zer0]

11 hours ago, MountainKing said:

 

I don't remember all of them but prime time weekend with a cart is $50, that's the max.  Since it's a daily fee you get to go around again if you want.   The weekday rates are really reasonable, but being 45 minutes away I never play there weekdays.

I don't understand how it's so cheap.   $325 to join and then just $50 to play the course with a cart?      Why wouldn't everyone within an hour join?     Even if you only make it out there 1-2x per month it's still a bargain.

 

I live in Deerfield and might join.

 

Is it packed?  Can you get on the course?  With those fees I would imagine there must be people lined up to belong to the course.

[MountainKing]

4 hours ago, zer0 said:

I don't understand how it's so cheap.   $325 to join and then just $50 to play the course with a cart?      Why wouldn't everyone within an hour join?     Even if you only make it out there 1-2x per month it's still a bargain.

 

I live in Deerfield and might join.

 

Is it packed?  Can you get on the course?  With those fees I would imagine there must be people lined up to belong to the course.

 

It's very minimal experience.  They have permanent times Sat/Sun morning until about 10am, but you can often find times before then since there's generally cancellations.  Twilight hours the course is dead.  They also have a cap on membership so the course is rarely overloaded.  It's generally a two year wait once you sign up.  You can also play Old Wayne with the membership, but that's not really a selling point.  

[Symphonize]

On 9/15/2022 at 11:02 AM, Phreddy said:

An Arizona friend and his wife will be in Chicago a couple weeks from now.  My wife and I are meeting them "half way" for dinner one night.  Some where north in that Northbook/Deerfield/Lake Forest corridor.  I'm in need of upscale restaurant suggestions.  Italian being my favorite.  Since he and I will talk golf while our wives talk pickle ball I thought this was a legit place to ask😇.

Not sure if Long Grove is too far, but we just had a really nice meal at Enzo and Lucia a few weeks ago. They had a scallop risotto which was amazing. 

[Symphonize]

On 9/22/2022 at 3:39 PM, MountainKing said:

 

It's very minimal experience.  They have permanent times Sat/Sun morning until about 10am, but you can often find times before then since there's generally cancellations.  Twilight hours the course is dead.  They also have a cap on membership so the course is rarely overloaded.  It's generally a two year wait once you sign up.  You can also play Old Wayne with the membership, but that's not really a selling point.  

Wish I would have known about that when I was living in Wauconda a few years back. Sounds like a great place. 

[ldchristopher]

Getting an early morning tee time in September is getting almost impossible. Bear and I ended up slumming it at Scherwood today. Speaking of minimal experiences. Scherwood is pretty much always a pit so the fact that it was playing firm and fast and the greens weren’t holding anything was a huge shock. I’ve only played that course maybe 7 or 8 times but never as bone dry and challenging as today. Iffy ball striking didn’t make things easier. Lots of bogies and no birds for a 78. 

[m052310]

I played Randall Oaks with a veteran's group today. Nice course - pretty wide open, which was good for me. Greens were real fast. A few of the pin placements left me wondering if we did something to offend the greenskeeper, but it was fun.  

[MountainKing]

Played in a scramble today at Prairie Landing.   Normally not a fan,  especially one where it's on the honor system.   Always seems like a group of bogey golfers come in with a score of 20 under.  Anyway,  I went cause we had a solid group with a +2, a 2, a 3 and a 5.  We figure we had it in the bag.  Turns out it doesn't matter how many great shots are hit if nobody can putt.  We had 16 birdie looks inside of 15 feet,  one eagle look of 10 ft and second eagle look of 20 ft. Not sure who won,  but our 7 under surely had no chance.   What a let down. 

 

Course itself was fine, but the real winner was 24 groups going out in a shotgun and the round taking 4:15.  With the weather turning,  I'm probably down to my final couple rounds. We'll see. 

[Shriner]

First ever round at Willow Crest in OakBrook.  I totally understand why this is the only course with open tee times on the weekend.  Conditions were fine in fairways.  Bunkers were unplayable and massive risk of bodily harm or club wreckage...never seen rocks that large in bunkers.  Greens were pretty good, no complaints.   The real winner was the layout, that is just silly target golf.  No desire to go back...lol.  That said, my son and I passed two groups and finished in 2:45 so we had a great time.

[MountainKing]

5 hours ago, Shriner said:

First ever round at Willow Crest in OakBrook.  I totally understand why this is the only course with open tee times on the weekend.  Conditions were fine in fairways.  Bunkers were unplayable and massive risk of bodily harm or club wreckage...never seen rocks that large in bunkers.  Greens were pretty good, no complaints.   The real winner was the layout, that is just silly target golf.  No desire to go back...lol.  That said, my son and I passed two groups and finished in 2:45 so we had a great time.

 

I've played WC 100+ rounds due to where I live (and my dislike for oak brook),  never got the feeling of it being target golf,  let alone silly.   I will agree that conditions have gotten bad,  especially with the pending sale, but it's always been a fairly fun layout with plenty of risk/reward and numerous ways to play the course. 

Edited September 26, 2022 by MountainKing

[RGlaze978]

+1 on WC not being target golf. More than enough room out there. 

[Shriner]

8 hours ago, MountainKing said:

 

I've played WC 100+ rounds due to where I live (and my dislike for oak brook),  never got the feeling of it being target golf,  let alone silly.   I will agree that conditions have gotten bad,  especially with the pending sale, but it's always been a fairly fun layout with plenty of risk/reward and numerous ways to play the course. 

 

Selling just the course or the entire property?

[MountainKing]

1 hour ago, Shriner said:

 

Selling just the course or the entire property?

 

Basically the back 9.  I guess it hasn't gone through yet or hit some potential road blocks with the village.  I can't remember what I was last told and I feel like I'm mixing up things between WC, Calumet and Gleneagles.  From what I do remember, if it goes through they need to redesign/route a bit of the front and will be adding a nice driving range.  If it doesn't go, through they'll fix the course up.   I'm kind of hoping for the second option, my options for places under 10 minutes to me are Oak Brook, Fresh Meadows and this.  With my office in Downers and WC being on the way home, I can generally be on the first tee by 3pm during the summer, so it's got a nice convenience factor for me.  Oak Brook I can't stand and you're fighting a lot of leagues and other things out there on weekdays. 

[Shriner]

Yep, we always call that area the dead zone for golf.  One of my best friends finally moved from the Westchester area.

[MountainKing]

6 minutes ago, Shriner said:

Yep, we always call that area the dead zone for golf.  One of my best friends finally moved from the Westchester area.

 

It really is, if you expand things to 15-20 minutes you start opening up a lot more, but it also turns into a not totally ideal since I generally am trying to beat the 3:30-4pm after work rush it seems like you get around here.   I do end up hitting up the Preserve a lot as well, and joined the Dupage membership so I can get on for $60 instead of the usually 10 million they charge.  

[VNutz]

1 hour ago, Shriner said:

Yep, we always call that area the dead zone for golf.  One of my best friends finally moved from the Westchester area.

I believe you're overlooking the gem of Fresh Meadows...

[VNutz]

Out to Blackstone for our year end event. Course was in fine shape with the exception of the bunkers being very thin on sand in spots. I'm fine with firm bunkers but a few were little more than dusting on hardpan. Biggest bummer was the group in front of us that had a foot dragger and tip toe walker that was way too excited about the bets they had going and was jumping around the greens. Had some sort of triangle shaped soft spike pattern on the front of the shoe that just wrecked the greens all around the hole. We spend a few minutes each green tapping down. Slow going at 4:45 and we waited literally on every shot as these guys had no idea how to keep pace or where to park their carts. Putting was strong as I made 2 20+ footers and lipped out 2 more, 5 total lipouts on the day. And of course I countered that by whiffing two 2 footers towards the end, nothing better than having a 7 footer to win a solid prize and coming out with bogey. But I'll take a 78 on a shaky day.

 

Great bonfire and cookout after, great end to the season. With baseball still going strong through mid-October this might have been one of the last rounds of the year.

[DavePelz4]

As VNutz just posted, we closed out our comp season at Blackstone and I'll say he's spot on with his comments on the greens.  Not sure if it's the amount of play or the idiots V described, or both but these were substandard conditions for Blackstone.  In addition to my own, I easily fixed 50 ball marks as there was ample time to do that. While putting the ball below the hole 90% of the time, I rarely got a putt to the hole which was my downfall.  After a solid putting season, this was far and away the worst putting effort. I should have just been happy to be playing, as a week ago, a wacky injury had me prone for 4 straight days.  

 

This is the first year in the last 7 where the final hole didn't determine the outcome.  The person in first place going into our finals posted the most points on the round (Stableford competition), and set a record for the largest margin of victory.  V didn't mention that he had 4 birdies and other than what appears to be a shaky couple of doubles, played a great round. We played for a record (for us) with nearly $4,000 in prize money so that added to the fun of the year.

 

After officially qualifying for Medicare this week and having lost an easy 25 yards off the tee is it time to consider moving up a box or a new driver?  Yeah, new driver. F old age.

Edited September 26, 2022 by DavePelz4

[jimwgt26]

Anyone play at Cog Yesterday?  I played Dubs at 10:50 and enjoyed a Polka band playing a local party. It was actually kind of fun. 

[RGlaze978]

Made the trek out to Prairie Landing today... wish I hadn't. 

 

Tee time was 1:20. For some reason, the first tee was backed up and there were not one but two foursomes in front of me (a single) waiting to tee off. Finally got on the box around 1:40. Finished 9 at 4:30. Three hours and 10 minutes after when I was supposed to tee off. I went home at the turn - wasn't worth the frustration plus it was cold as f*** and the wind was whipping pretty good out there. I hope the foursomes in front of me were playing for some big cash because it took alot of restraint not to intentionally start hitting into them. 

 

Despite the frustration above - I did enjoy the layout. Found the bunkering to be mostly irrelevant - anything in the fairway is flyable easily from the gold tees. Greens are not heavily bunkered IMO. The pin placements today were tough - the pin on #1 I would almost call diabolical. I couldn't believe my second shot literally spun almost off the green from landing about pin high and within 5 feet. For some reason, I particularly enjoyed #9 - the high risk / reward tee shot straight over the tree on the left was super fun, left me about 100 yards in. 

[MountainKing]

18 hours ago, RGlaze978 said:

Made the trek out to Prairie Landing today... wish I hadn't. 

 

Tee time was 1:20. For some reason, the first tee was backed up and there were not one but two foursomes in front of me (a single) waiting to tee off. Finally got on the box around 1:40. Finished 9 at 4:30. Three hours and 10 minutes after when I was supposed to tee off. I went home at the turn - wasn't worth the frustration plus it was cold as f*** and the wind was whipping pretty good out there. I hope the foursomes in front of me were playing for some big cash because it took alot of restraint not to intentionally start hitting into them. 

 

Despite the frustration above - I did enjoy the layout. Found the bunkering to be mostly irrelevant - anything in the fairway is flyable easily from the gold tees. Greens are not heavily bunkered IMO. The pin placements today were tough - the pin on #1 I would almost call diabolical. I couldn't believe my second shot literally spun almost off the green from landing about pin high and within 5 feet. For some reason, I particularly enjoyed #9 - the high risk / reward tee shot straight over the tree on the left was super fun, left me about 100 yards in. 

 

PL used to be infested with bunkers everywhere.  They got smart, and took a lot of them out, something I wish more courses would do if they're going to elect to not maintain them.  The course itself for sure plays shorter than the stated yardage due to being able to take some more agressive lines and some of those downhill kicks you get in the fairway.  If you can fly it 260, it's a good course to play from the back/7000, it opens up a new challange of having to nagivate those fairway bunkers, while still being extremely playable.  I generally like to play places at abou 6600 thees days, but that's one where I'll move back.  

 

Bummer about your pace, it sounds like you got that 6 hour round I was expecting from our Sunday scramble.  The one downside to that place, the staff there is one of the worst in the area's and probably aren't willing to do much when things go south, they sure don't do much to try to retain business yet I keep going back. 

[m052310]

Any suggestions for lessons in or near Buffalo Grove? My driver issues persist, and I'm hoping a set of trained eyes can help me build some (good) consistency. 

[FuzzyKnuckles]

Grass driving range recommendations between O’Hare and Wrigley?

[psygolf]

32 minutes ago, FuzzyKnuckles said:

Grass driving range recommendations between O’Hare and Wrigley?

If you are willing to drive out to ohare, you might as well drive the other direction to practice at Harborside

[VNutz]

53 minutes ago, FuzzyKnuckles said:

Grass driving range recommendations between O’Hare and Wrigley?

To be honest I'm not sure one exists. That area is kind of a golf desert, and the few courses that do exist are primarily run by the Forest Preserve, which will be all mats. White Pines is just south of O'Hare, but I'm pretty sure they're mats as well, as is The Preserve. The only 2 places I know for sure you can hit on are Fresh Meadows range and Oak Brook's range, but both are probably a 20 minute drive from the airport and not between it and Wrigley. There are some private courses as well, but that's a different story.

[TheBear95]

1 hour ago, FuzzyKnuckles said:

Grass driving range recommendations between O’Hare and Wrigley?

 

Your best bet is to go to Golf Center Des Plaines. It is just north of O'Hare. Less than 15 mins away.

 

They have grass tees. 

 

[TheBear95]

31 minutes ago, psygolf said:

If you are willing to drive out to ohare, you might as well drive the other direction to practice at Harborside

 

I'm guessing he might be an out-of-towner, flying into O'Hare.

[zer0]

9 hours ago, m052310 said:

Any suggestions for lessons in or near Buffalo Grove? My driver issues persist, and I'm hoping a set of trained eyes can help me build some (good) consistency. 

 

Todd Sones at White Deer Run is really good.

[FuzzyKnuckles]

Thanks guys! Yea we fly into O’Hare and then are hitting the range somewhere and then hitting Lou Malnatis before catching some action at Wrigley 

[Jc0]

Any recommendations on the way to Michigan city from Chicago. I see lost marsh but wasn't sure if there was anything else that wouldn't take me to far out of the way. Drive starts a little north of ohare.