Grinded out 18 on Starboard last Friday. Besides a little burst of rain and the last 3 holes being freezing cold and seemingly always into the fan, it was great to finally get out there. For the time of year and recent weather I thought the course was in pretty good shape.
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Agreed, still quite a bit of sand on the greens but its still April. Also pretty impressed with the lengths they’ve gone the last couple years to make it more playable by removing and redoing a lot of the bunkers.
Practice facility is still tops out there.
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Finally, the weather is breaking through.
Planning on Mt Prospect on Saturday, Ravisloe on Sunday to kick off the season.
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Playing Stonewall tomorrow, excited for this moderate weather. Score low this weekend!
Played Mt. Prospect for the first time on Saturday, and absolutely fell in love with it.
Fairways and greens were in great shape given the interesting weather we’ve had so far this season, and I love what they did with the green complexes. Only hole that was just a bit too “tricked out” was the 9th, as that green has a few tiers too many (seemed like they really forced a bunch of those pinnable areas.
For $50 on GolfNow for a Saturday morning tee time, it’s a great value that I plan on visiting often this year.
Anyone else get out this weekend?
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More than a few people I know call Mt. Prospect “Mickey Mouse” greens. I think most of the greens are fun but sometimes they can get a little too cute putting the pins in tough spots which might have rubbed my friends the wrong way. It’s been awhile since I’ve been there so maybe they’ve figured out what works and what doesn’t. In the past I’ve seen a few good players putt it into a bunker because they couldn’t stop the ball since the pin was located on a slope.
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Checked out The Preserve this week for 9 and a few bonus holes (18 rate wasn’t much more than 9, didn’t have time to finish). Really enjoyed first look at the design, risk/reward, strategic green complexes (backstops, collection areas), very little bomb and find it but a couple you can let loose on (11). Greens rolled really great. Practice facilities seemed nice without using.
They still seem to be figuring out drainage with the new land changes -gravel drain paths in fairways, some flooded-then baked spots, but can’t fault them given all the updates and ambitious environmental plan.
One warning, I was trying to walk a quick round, walking there is fine if a full course or slower pace, but with all the marsh added, there are no cut thrus and a lot of doubling back or walking all the way around a marsh to the cart path - no pedestrian bridges or paths yet. I don’t think I saw a single walker-only path from green to tee or tee to fairway. It wasn’t painful, but you aren’t walking it too quickly.
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Went to Ravisloe for the first time yesterday. #Blessed with good traffic, took 30 mins down there from Wicker park, maybe 45 back.
What a delight.
The only complaint I have is the halfway house was closed and was deprived of my mid round beer and snickers fix.
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9th is probably my favorite hole there. It’s modeled after #10 at Riv. You either got to be in a good spot off the tee or else really need to be precise on your approach. I actually haven’t seen any pins I thought were simply unfair in my 5-6 rounds there. It definitely helps to know the course and therefore know where to leave a miss. #17 took me forever to figure out where I needed to be off the tee to properly play the hole, for instance.
I was out at Ravisloe the other day, too. Took a picture of what they’re up to with adding a tee further back on 12. Still skeptical of this move but here and maybe on 18 seem like the only candidates to add length to the course, which I guess is desirable.
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Anyone looked into the Young Executives Program at Cantigny? The emails I’ve received about it or info that’s on the website is super vague. Do you pay for it? Is it just a discounted rate when you go to pay? Is it a fee like you pay for with Harborside Anchor Club?
I signed up, but haven’t used it. But yes, it’s super easy. All you do is sign up for their mailing list and you get the benefits. No brainer and makes that course a great rate.
Oh wow, good to know. Thats a steal for the peak rates they are charging out there.
Played at Shepard’s Crook last weekend, course was in pretty good shape and was a riot as usual. Worth the trek imho.
Went to Mt. Prospect yesterday. Really cool course and great value. Loved the little bits about the architectural inspiration for each hole on the GPS in the cart. Could be even better if they took a little more care in the course (greens were beat up) and emphasis on the etiquette and experience.
I’m not a huge etiquette stickler, but there was a group of guys that came off the turn with their f**cking shirts off and the starter just joked with them about it. One of the only times I’ve felt compelled to write a negative review or talk to the staff about other players.
Big shout out to the NLU community & @thefriedegg as I probably would have never gone there or to Ravisloe, which is now one of my go-to’s.
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Had a similar experience at Mt Prospect, minus the shirtless dudes. The course was super enjoyable but it seemed like my group was fixing at least 3-4 marks on the green each hole from people in front of us. In general though I loved the green complexes.
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Hey NLU-ers!
Kid from Melbourne, Australia here coming to Chicago to visit family and play some golf. Already have a pretty ambitious schedule lined up here and wanted everybody’s input into what to play/not to play and what to replace it with?
Cantigny
Rich Harvest
River Forest CC
Chicago Highlands
Glen Oak
Harborside
Cog Hill-Dubsdread
Am definitely playing all of these and still trying to get on to Medinah/Shoreacres if I can. Just read through the posts here and saw Ravisloe as a can’t miss, what do you reckon I take out of my current line-up for Ravisloe?
Not sure where you’re staying or if you have time to fit it in, but Shepherd’s Crook is also pretty solid.
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In town tomorrow and got the afternoon to play in the western suburbs. Any course recs? Thanks in advance
Cantigny, Village Links of Glen Ellyn, Preserve at Oak Meadows, Prairie Landing are solid west suburb courses, depending on where you’ll be.