Where are you playing tomorrow - Chicago (Round 3)

[DavePelz4]

Our comp group played Elgin CC on Saturday.  I would put that round in the bottom 3 of worst weather conditions ever encountered, and I've played in a hurricane, a round at the K Club in Dublin with 34 degree temps and a driving rainstorm, (without rain gear) and a round at Foxford where we were flooded off the course and lightening hit a tree as I was walking up the 18th hole. From sunshine to rain, to sleet, to hail, to a freaking driving snow storm we pretty much encountered it all, and our scores showed it. Looked at our historical records and for each person, it was the worst comp round they've ever posted.  To add to everything, we had zero range time and went off the first tee cold.  

 

Elgin is doing a major refreshing of the course.  Lots of trees taken out, new bunkers added, some changed into grass bunkers, some bunkers removed and all with new liners and sand. 

 

Next comp round is Saturday at Dubs...no show in the forecast, whew.

 

Edit - Dubs is only $112.00 on a Saturday.

Edited April 24, 2023 by DavePelz4

[MountainKing]

On 4/24/2023 at 3:32 PM, DavePelz4 said:

Our comp group played Elgin CC on Saturday.  I would put that round in the bottom 3 of worst weather conditions ever encountered, and I've played in a hurricane, a round at the K Club in Dublin with 34 degree temps and a driving rainstorm, (without rain gear) and a round at Foxford where we were flooded off the course and lightening hit a tree as I was walking up the 18th hole. From sunshine to rain, to sleet, to hail, to a freaking driving snow storm we pretty much encountered it all, and our scores showed it. Looked at our historical records and for each person, it was the worst comp round they've ever posted.  To add to everything, we had zero range time and went off the first tee cold.  

 

Elgin is doing a major refreshing of the course.  Lots of trees taken out, new bunkers added, some changed into grass bunkers, some bunkers removed and all with new liners and sand. 

 

Next comp round is Saturday at Dubs...no show in the forecast, whew.

 

Edit - Dubs is only $112.00 on a Saturday.

 

They just punched last week- we were looking to play there last week (obviously the weather spoke up on that) but the proshop were pretty straight up with us saying the greens were not healing well cause of the weather.  I know it's already mid week but might be worth checking to see if things have progressed ab it.  

[MountainKing]

Hit up Arrowhead for a little South/East 18.   Weather was outstanding, course was basically in country club shape and for some odd reason the place was dead so my group flew around in 2 hours and 50 minutes.  If I were to find a bit of a complaint I would say the greens might need to be slowed up just a bit, some of those pins were brutal with how fast they were running.  That's a tough nit pick tho given the  slow greens most places have these days.

 

Game was a little sloppy today but I still kept it in the 70's by 1 stroke with a 79.  I didn't hit many fairways, but most of the misses were only off the fairway just slightly.  I only hit one drive that was off by a lot.  My iron game was far from sharp, missed too many greens.  Missed greens were tough, even the spin and check chip shot I like to hit wouldn't stop on these greens.  Pretty much once the ball was on the green it was gone so up and downs were hard to come by.  All in all tho, I'll take it.  Supposed to play Prairie Landing on Saturday but it looks like it's going to be trash out again.

[B-Man]

Ha! Arrowhead South-East this morning. Greens super fast with fairways almost the same speed. Heard a Mountain King was sighted in the area.

[@_the_crook]

wanted to mention the condition at Sportsman's , or the HO club last weekend.

we had played SV in the a.m., this was a bonus round - getting ready for the PTT season to start this coming weekend.

thought we would shoot a quick nine before dinner - walked up at 2:45 and saw about nine maybe ten guys all in or around the practice area.

I'm thinking they're all waiting for twilight pricing.

proshop confirms they all start at 3 o'clock or after but happily - we can hit the Classic 18 course right now.....so it's "please Sir,  take this money" and as we tee up - I'm texting dinner gonna be about 6:30.

 

fairways cut nicely, greens were pretty darn fast. definitely quicker than the previous round at the Valley.

they had dressed them pretty heavily, and the grounds crew worked them so well, barely a grain of sand was left on any ball putted.

dark and cloudy, if you like that sort of thing, though not a drop of rain fell.

we had our own game - walked it in 3:15.

 

nice to be at a familiar place,

the two dogs in the backyard between 14 & 15 are still there to greet players.

 

 

 

[TBone0576]

Saw on Facebook that Shepherds Crook broke ground for that new practice green area.  

[MountainKing]

13 hours ago, B-Man said:

Ha! Arrowhead South-East this morning. Greens super fast with fairways almost the same speed. Heard a Mountain King was sighted in the area.

 

I've played courses this year with greens slower than the fairways.   On hole 3 on the South one guy in our group was 40 yards short of the green and decided to just putt it, tapped the thing and it still cruised 10 feet by.

 

I played Flossmore last year when they the greens at 13 for an event the following day,  the greens yesterday were faster.

[@_the_crook]

3 hours ago, TBone0576 said:

Saw on Facebook that Shepherds Crook broke ground for that new practice green area.  

member posted a pic of the planned upgrade earlier in this thread

looks like a nice upgrade to that area between the parking lot and the first tee.

with that and the new patio - they've thought of some nice additions.

 

can we still pipe one practice drive from the first tee over GB road to warm up?

😆

 

[B-Man]

1 hour ago, MountainKing said:

 

I've played courses this year with greens slower than the fairways.   On hole 3 on the South one guy in our group was 40 yards short of the green and decided to just putt it, tapped the thing and it still cruised 10 feet by.

 

I played Flossmore last year when they the greens at 13 for an event the following day,  the greens yesterday were faster.

For another time more in depth but Flossmoor's greens are a joke. Constructed for the 1920s not the 2020s.

[MountainKing]

2 hours ago, B-Man said:

For another time more in depth but Flossmoor's greens are a joke. Constructed for the 1920s not the 2020s.

 

We played it last year the day before one of those CG Scrambles and the course was really doing everything it could to prevent super low scores for that event, they set it all up the day prior because of potential weather.  Greens were running 13 the day we played and they had pins put on severe slopes.  We're  all sub 5 handicaps, only one guy broke 90 and it wasn't by much.  3 putts were pretty much the norm, almost at least 1 4 putt on every hole, and multiple times you ended up putting off the green because anything going downhill just wouldn't stop.   I can't remember what hole it was but I had a 10 foot put lip out and roll 30 yards back into the fairway.  We knew what to expect going into it so we just had fun with it.   I'd like to go back and play it in more normal circumstances, but yeah a lot of those old school courses just aren't designed for modern green speeds.

[Quem24]

5 hours ago, B-Man said:

For another time more in depth but Flossmoor's greens are a joke. Constructed for the 1920s not the 2020s.

Forget if I posted this but there’s fun, fast, unique greens and then there’s what I dealt with last year. On hole 16 I believe (the one that’s very raised) the pin was on a slope and I was above it.
 

If I got on my stomach and blew the ball forwards right at the hole it would still have rolled off the green.

 

Same thing on the hole being renovated, 4, on the front. Ridiculous 

[Divot_Forensicist]

3 hours ago, MountainKing said:

 

We played it last year the day before one of those CG Scrambles and the course was really doing everything it could to prevent super low scores for that event, they set it all up the day prior because of potential weather.  Greens were running 13 the day we played and they had pins put on severe slopes.  We're  all sub 5 handicaps, only one guy broke 90 and it wasn't by much.  3 putts were pretty much the norm, almost at least 1 4 putt on every hole, and multiple times you ended up putting off the green because anything going downhill just wouldn't stop.   I can't remember what hole it was but I had a 10 foot put lip out and roll 30 yards back into the fairway.  We knew what to expect going into it so we just had fun with it.   I'd like to go back and play it in more normal circumstances, but yeah a lot of those old school courses just aren't designed for modern green speeds.

 

The old 13th hole, named “Easy,” was around 100 yards and down hill, but the green was an upside down saucer titled on a 20 degree angle right-to-left and front-to-back. Just getting a ball to land and stick on the green was a minor miracle. Even with slower green speeds back when I caddied there in the 80s and 90s, roughly 25% of the time players would pick up after their fourth putt barely missed and then rolled off the green. A lot of big money games blew up on that hole sent many members into tirades aimed at the superintendent and greens committee!

[geochitown]

8 hours ago, B-Man said:

For another time more in depth but Flossmoor's greens are a joke. Constructed for the 1920s not the 2020s.

they don’t always have the greens running that fast 

 

I hear you on green speeds tbough

 

got out to Beverly for the first time last summer and everything was amazing, but I felt the green were too fast for the contours (maybe like you at Flossmoor).

 

in the end, I guess it’s the private club’s prerogative to set their green speeds as set by superintendent 

 

 

Edited April 29, 2023 by geochitown

[ldchristopher]

All this talk about fast greens. Well, I had a half day today and played Palmira. Doesn’t matter what the weather is, those greens alway run at an 8. I flew through the first 14 holes but waited on the 15th tee for 30 minutes as two foursomes were backed up. It was a crawl to the end. After being on pace to play in 3 hours it ended up taking 4:10. Ball striking was excellent with 13 greens but I couldn’t buy a birdie putt until 16. 73. 

[ldchristopher]

We’re giving Tony Evers his 5.5% amusement tax tomorrow. How’s BDale looking this Spring? 

[m052310]

First time playing Cantigny today (Lakeside/Hillside). Really enjoyed it. Some tough, but fair, pin placements. Looking forward to going back. 

[ldchristopher]

Interesting weather today at Brighton Dale. A little bit of overcast skies. A little bit of sun. A hole or two of graupal. It’s April 30th but don’t tell Wisconsin that. The course is very lush but up in Dogman Country there still aren’t any leaves on trees. I don’t think it got above 40° the whole round but that just meant we had the course to ourselves. Walked it in 2:25. Ball striking was solid with 12 greens and driver was fairly locked in. But no birdies and my scrambling was off so I settled for a 76. 

[St Jimmy]

Fox Lake CC is in great shape.  Best conditions I've seen there since maybe the 90's.  I asked the cashier why they won't allow walkers and he turned to the woman standing behind him and referred to her as the boss.

Her response was, "It's always been that way and it's not changing!"

 

I'm on a personal record breaking pace of rounds this year. 

So far I've played:

 

Oak Grove (duh) 20+ times already

GCI (4 times)

Makray Memorial 

Fox Lake

Chapel Hill

Boone Creek

Prairie Isle (twice)

Spring Valley

Pistakee (yucky) 

Hawk's View

The Irish (Whisling Straits last Saturday) 

 

There might be more I'm forgetting. 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 30, 2023 by St Jimmy

[TheBear95]

1 hour ago, St Jimmy said:

Fox Lake CC is in great shape.  Best conditions I've seen there since maybe the 90's.  I asked the cashier why they won't allow walkers and he turned to the woman standing behind him and referred to her as the boss.

Her response was, "It's always been that way and it's not changing!"

 

I'm on a personal record breaking pace of rounds this year. 

So far I've played:

 

Oak Grove (duh) 20+ times already

GCI (4 times)

Makray Memorial 

Fox Lake

Chapel Hill

Boone Creek

Prairie Isle (twice)

Spring Valley

Pistakee (yucky) 

Hawk's View

The Irish (Whisling Straits last Saturday) 

 

There might be more I'm forgetting. 

 

 

 

 

 

Impressive. How's Oak Grove looking? 

[St Jimmy]

1 hour ago, TheBear95 said:

 

Impressive. How's Oak Grove looking? 

 

Like Oak Grove.

🙂

 

They did start putting sand in the front nine last week and finally moved the pins today (they were in the same place for two weeks)!  

I'd never recommend anyone going there if it's more than 30 minutes away, but I love the place.  It's 20 minutes from my office and the unlimited golf for a grand is worth it, imo.  

 

You aren't spending so much for the membership that it stops you from going to places like this:  

 

 

Edited May 1, 2023 by St Jimmy

[TBone0576]

17 hours ago, ldchristopher said:

Interesting weather today at Brighton Dale. A little bit of overcast skies. A little bit of sun. A hole or two of graupal. It’s April 30th but don’t tell Wisconsin that. The course is very lush but up in Dogman Country there still aren’t any leaves on trees. I don’t think it got above 40° the whole round but that just meant we had the course to ourselves. Walked it in 2:25. Ball striking was solid with 12 greens and driver was fairly locked in. But no birdies and my scrambling was off so I settled for a 76. 

Did you play white or blue?   My buddy and I got around white in under 2 hours with a cart but that cold rain and graupel got us on the last 3-4 holes.   We’ve only had one nice day out there on the weekend all year.  Spring has not sprung with the trees as you’d mentioned.   Course in better than average condition and it’s relatively dry.   Hardly anyone out there all weekend.  

[TheBear95]

12 hours ago, St Jimmy said:

 

Like Oak Grove.

🙂

 

They did start putting sand in the front nine last week and finally moved the pins today (they were in the same place for two weeks)!  

I'd never recommend anyone going there if it's more than 30 minutes away, but I love the place.  It's 20 minutes from my office and the unlimited golf for a grand is worth it, imo.  

 

You aren't spending so much for the membership that it stops you from going to places like this:  

 

 

 

Sounds about right on Oak Grove.

 

I was wondering because the day after the March 31 storm, I read reports of blowdowns and wind damage northeast of Harvard. Was curious if the course received damaged?

 

I told LD yesterday that I wasn't too interested in playing Oak Grove anytime soon and now here I am, asking questions about the conditioning. I'm sure I will be out there sometime in May as usual, lol.

 

 

[TheBear95]

4 hours ago, TBone0576 said:

Did you play white or blue?   My buddy and I got around white in under 2 hours with a cart but that cold rain and graupel got us on the last 3-4 holes.   We’ve only had one nice day out there on the weekend all year.  Spring has not sprung with the trees as you’d mentioned.   Course in better than average condition and it’s relatively dry.   Hardly anyone out there all weekend.  

 

We played blue. I played white the prior weekend. The greens on white were in nice shape.

 

The weather has been awful the past couple of weekends. Just dog s***.

[DavePelz4]

Our comp group played Dubs on Saturday and MountainKing called it perfectly.  The greens are rolling about a 4 thanks to layers of sand on slowly recovering greens.  I don't recall having to clean my ball and putter after a first putt like happened on Saturday, often. It was a day when you could be above the hole and not have to worry about the putt racing past.  Pretty sure I had 4 3-putts which is disappointing. 

 

That's sad because besides that, the course is in great condition for this time of year.  Will give Cog credit for making the greens fees reasonable at $112.  For a Saturday morning, the pace was amazing and we finished in about 3.5 hours.  The group behind us must have loved their round as they were at least 2-3 holes behind us. We finished the last 3 holes in the rain so we got a bit lucky with that.

 

Considering the conditions of the greens, our comp group generally played well with 75% finishing over the bar for Stableford points.  

 

Next round in 2 weeks at the Highlands. Hoping for an old man hooky round at Blackstone this week.

[MountainKing]

2 minutes ago, DavePelz4 said:

Our comp group played Dubs on Saturday and MountainKing called it perfectly.  The greens are rolling about a 4 thanks to layers of sand on slowly recovering greens.  I don't recall having to clean my ball and putter after a first putt like happened on Saturday, often. It was a day when you could be above the hole and not have to worry about the putt racing past.  Pretty sure I had 4 3-putts which is disappointing. 

 

That's sad because besides that, the course is in great condition for this time of year.  Will give Cog credit for making the greens fees reasonable at $112.  For a Saturday morning, the pace was amazing and we finished in about 3.5 hours.  The group behind us must have loved their round as they were at least 2-3 holes behind us. We finished the last 3 holes in the rain so we got a bit lucky with that.

 

Considering the conditions of the greens, our comp group generally played well with 75% finishing over the bar for Stableford points.  

 

Next round in 2 weeks at the Highlands. Hoping for an old man hooky round at Blackstone this week.

 

I'm curious to how you do these comp rounds, or what's involved.  Just looking for some options outside of the normal money games I have with my group. We have about 8-10 guys who rotate in and out, it'd be fun to have some sort of season long thing with them.

[DavePelz4]

13 minutes ago, MountainKing said:

 

I'm curious to how you do these comp rounds, or what's involved.  Just looking for some options outside of the normal money games I have with my group. We have about 8-10 guys who rotate in and out, it'd be fun to have some sort of season long thing with them.

 

First, we keep a handicap just based on the comp scores.  Then it's Stableford format with points based on the net score.  VNutz is the lowest index at a 4 and we have guys who are as high 27.  This year we added a match play component where you can win or lose an additional point.  Then who ever has the most points on the day gets 1 bonus point.

 

Games wise, we play net skins off the handicaps, CTP's and the final round has all kids of bonuses.  Last year the total payout in cash and prizes was just short of $5,000 over the season.  We play for an ugly trophy and mostly the bragging rights.  Good group of guys from their 20's to 70's and amazingly, everyone gets along very well. Only once in 20+ years has someone gone back to back and there's no correlation between handicap and winning.  VNutz won a couple of years ago as did the oldest guy in the group.

[MountainKing]

1 hour ago, DavePelz4 said:

 

First, we keep a handicap just based on the comp scores.  Then it's Stableford format with points based on the net score.  VNutz is the lowest index at a 4 and we have guys who are as high 27.  This year we added a match play component where you can win or lose an additional point.  Then who ever has the most points on the day gets 1 bonus point.

 

Games wise, we play net skins off the handicaps, CTP's and the final round has all kids of bonuses.  Last year the total payout in cash and prizes was just short of $5,000 over the season.  We play for an ugly trophy and mostly the bragging rights.  Good group of guys from their 20's to 70's and amazingly, everyone gets along very well. Only once in 20+ years has someone gone back to back and there's no correlation between handicap and winning.  VNutz won a couple of years ago as did the oldest guy in the group.

 

How many guys total do you have an do they have to play every event?   How do you determine the schedule?    I guess I could ask these via PM, but there might be others trying to figure out something similar.  

[VNutz]

51 minutes ago, MountainKing said:

 

How many guys total do you have an do they have to play every event?   How do you determine the schedule?    I guess I could ask these via PM, but there might be others trying to figure out something similar.  

Definitely don't have to play every event. I've missed all but 1 this year with little league coaching duties. I think we set a minimum at 6 rounds for the year and play probably 20+ times.

[St Jimmy]

6 hours ago, TheBear95 said:

 

Sounds about right on Oak Grove.

 

I was wondering because the day after the March 31 storm, I read reports of blowdowns and wind damage northeast of Harvard. Was curious if the course received damaged?

 

I told LD yesterday that I wasn't too interested in playing Oak Grove anytime soon and now here I am, asking questions about the conditioning. I'm sure I will be out there sometime in May as usual, lol.

 

 

I’m trying to think…

 

-They lost some branches on the walk from 10-11 in the spruces. 

-Opened up the clearing on 16 making the tee shot easier.

-front nine bunkers all currently have sand (last year it was washed out by June)

last year they:

-took the tree down on the right side fairway 7. 

-took a left side tree down on 10.

 

[DavePelz4]

3 hours ago, MountainKing said:

 

How many guys total do you have an do they have to play every event?   How do you determine the schedule?    I guess I could ask these via PM, but there might be others trying to figure out something similar.  

 

We do a kickoff meeting to start the year where the format, rules, etc. are discussed/revised, if needed.  We do a blind draw of an order and whoever has the first pick chooses their date and course. Some guys have 2 selections.  Some in the group like to play out of state and we've had 1 day rounds in Michigan and Wisconsin, not to mention Galena, etc.  Some guys only play selected events they choose.  That process repeats through a 16 event season, although the first round is always at St. Andrews and the finals at Blackstone.  One of our guys lives 5 minutes from Blackstone and hosts the finals party/bonfire.  The bonfire can be insane and the spouses are invited.

 

You have to play in 6 rounds to qualify for the championship.  Some guys can't play 6 right now because life gets in the way, so they play to keep their handicap, and for the sheer fun of it but aren't in for the financials of the round.  We have 2 guys who have dealt with cancer in the past years so they've been out but are now coming back in.  We've had rounds with as few as 4 people and as many as 14.  Trying to get 4 concurrent tee times on a Saturday at any course is a b****.

 

This year is looks like 10-11 will be the max in terms of competing for the championship and we'll have another 5-8 guys play sporadically, or their sons/brothers/friends will join if we have a slot. 

 

The administration is done through a workbook with 29 connected spreadsheets.  Everyone gets a personalized scorecard with their per hole handicap shown. Over the years, it's gone from taking 6-8 hours per event in terms of setup/scorecard creation/scoring/auditing, etc.  Now it's about 2 hours.