Where are you playing tomorrow - Chicago (Round 3)

[ldchristopher]

16 minutes ago, sittonsideways said:

I live in Wicker Park, so I pretty much only head south at this point. I have given up on anything north or northwest. South Loop would probably shave off 20 minutes? Closer to the lake. Could be an option one day. Turning 30-60 minute drives to 20-40 minutes would be a dream lmao. 
 

It seems that Calumet has been on the verge or closing for 20ish years? I wonder what kinda deal the owners are holding out for. My dream as a new Chicagoan is restoring any 2 of Elks, Rav, and Calumet. Rav isn’t happening with the current ownership. Maybe Elks could happen? I think poor Calumet is my favorite though. 
 

 

Calumet was sold to a developer but since it’s in both Homewood and Hazel Crest, one of the municipalities needed to annex it from the other. There was a really concerted effort by the Homewood residents to preserve the club as a greenspace. Hazel Crest finally annexed it to pave the way for redevelopment but the new owner went from proposing the property be a warehouse to housing for migrants. Meanwhile, no ground has been broken on any of his plans. So, for the right price, it could be yours for the taking. https://www.hfchronicle.com/2024/06/12/half-week-june-12-calumet-country-club-pivot-thornton-township-turmoil-h-f-steppers-camp-youth-scientist-achievement/

[sittonsideways]

28 minutes ago, ldchristopher said:

Calumet was sold to a developer but since it’s in both Homewood and Hazel Crest, one of the municipalities needed to annex it from the other. There was a really concerted effort by the Homewood residents to preserve the club as a greenspace. Hazel Crest finally annexed it to pave the way for redevelopment but the new owner went from proposing the property be a warehouse to housing for migrants. Meanwhile, no ground has been broken on any of his plans. So, for the right price, it could be yours for the taking. https://www.hfchronicle.com/2024/06/12/half-week-june-12-calumet-country-club-pivot-thornton-township-turmoil-h-f-steppers-camp-youth-scientist-achievement/

This sounds incredibly suspicious. I read that more as buyer’s remorse after investment for initial project fell through. Maybe trying to get the city to buy the property? Doubt they can afford it. What a cluster. 

[ldchristopher]

4 hours ago, sittonsideways said:

This sounds incredibly suspicious. I read that more as buyer’s remorse after investment for initial project fell through. Maybe trying to get the city to buy the property? Doubt they can afford it. What a cluster. 

It’s been a huge headache for him. I don’t think he expected the pushback from the community given that it was a private club for so long. And the whole back and forth over whether it would be annexed by one municipality or the other was a big thing. When private clubs around here go public it’s often a headache from a zoning perspective because when they were private, they were often on unincorporated land. I’m sure he’d love to be able to flip it to Hazel Crest and be done with it. But at this point, it reads to me like his bluff has been called. He doesn’t have any partners. 

[MountainKing]

18 hours ago, sittonsideways said:

Last week I did one of the biggest 180s possible in the golfing world. B2B rounds at Lost Marsh (first time) and Marquette Greywalls in the UP. Lost Marsh didn’t disappoint. Truly the most preposterous golf course I’ve ever seen. You could write a full dissertation on probably 13 of the 18 holes. Now I can say I made my patronage.
 

Nearing a year in Chicago. Biggest learning: do not attempt to drive to/from the north suburbs unless you absolutely have to. It doesn’t matter what time of day or day of the week. That eliminates a lot of golf courses for regular play, but it is what it is. I keep reading the past year has been all time bad for traffic and I believe it: it’s hard to imagine it being much worse lol. Ultimately, I think joining a south side club like Flossmoor or Beverly may be the move if life and availability permit. Hopefully one day. 

My new hot-ish take: Calumet CC is a top 5 public layout in Chicagoland and would be a premier course in another life. For me, even as neglected and dilapidated as it is, Calumet might be the more enticing restoration project between its Homewood neighbor, Ravisloe. It’s closer to being bulldozed than that happening, though. Anybody play there back closer to its heyday? 

 

 

Calumet is a great layout, and was a great old school track when it was private, and even the first year or so it went public.   Ravisloe I never got.  The layout is strange, most of the par 4's are identical in that they're straight and fall in the 390-405 range and at some point you feel like you're playing the same hole over and over.   A couple of the par 3's are decent, and some of the green complexes are cool.  I know they did a renovation to try and restore it back to the Ross era style, but having played many Ross courses over the years, I think the entire project fell pretty short of it's end goal.   IMO the only reason people go nuts over Rav is because it was once private.  My bigger hot take on Rav, in that area, Coyote Run is a better course.   In terms of this style of course, give me Kankakee Elks or Spring Valley.  For a modern take Mt Prospect. I'm glad Rav has fallen out of our rotation.

 

16 hours ago, ldchristopher said:

So basically…the guy who suggested living in the South Loop was right. That was me. I tried to warn you. 😜 But, but, but, you’d miss out on Glencoe, Sunset Valley, Winnetka, Deerfie…….zzzzzzzzzz. 
 

Calumet CC was private until pretty recently. The first year it was opened to the public they kept it closer to the conditioning when they were still collecting dues and it was excellent. The greens were quick and would get that yellowish “we can’t run them any faster or we’ll lose them” hue. My grandpa was a member at Beverly and his other favorite course to play in the area was always Calumet for the same reasons as you. Just a stellar old school layout with the bones of a Ross design. Personally, Ravisloe doesn’t do much for me, but Calumet will be missed when it’s an Amazon warehouse. 

 

 

I dunno how any of you guys living in the city do it.   We have a guy that's part of our group that lives in River North and every year he plays less and less because of how hard it is to get back into the city.  He might have 8 rounds this year, and only joins us on courses that are within a certain range.  He too has mentioned how much traffic has increased in the last two years.  His biggest thing is weekday golf is out of the question   With how easy it is to commute to the city for work with public transportation, not sure why any golfer would elect to live down there, but I say that realizing that's just my perspective on it.  Oak Brook is about as close as I want to get to Chicago proper lol.  

[Argonne69]

1 hour ago, MountainKing said:

 

Calumet is a great layout, and was a great old school track when it was private, and even the first year or so it went public.   Ravisloe I never got.  The layout is strange, most of the par 4's are identical in that they're straight and fall in the 390-405 range and at some point you feel like you're playing the same hole over and over.   A couple of the par 3's are decent, and some of the green complexes are cool.  I know they did a renovation to try and restore it back to the Ross era style, but having played many Ross courses over the years, I think the entire project fell pretty short of it's end goal.   IMO the only reason people go nuts over Rav is because it was once private.  My bigger hot take on Rav, in that area, Coyote Run is a better course.   In terms of this style of course, give me Kankakee Elks or Spring Valley.  For a modern take Mt Prospect. I'm glad Rav has fallen out of our rotation.

 

 

 

I dunno how any of you guys living in the city do it.   We have a guy that's part of our group that lives in River North and every year he plays less and less because of how hard it is to get back into the city.  He might have 8 rounds this year, and only joins us on courses that are within a certain range.  He too has mentioned how much traffic has increased in the last two years.  His biggest thing is weekday golf is out of the question   With how easy it is to commute to the city for work with public transportation, not sure why any golfer would elect to live down there, but I say that realizing that's just my perspective on it.  Oak Brook is about as close as I want to get to Chicago proper lol.  

 

I played plenty of weekend golf living in River North. The key was getting out early and getting back before traffic got too bad. 

 

One advantage was being able to head in three directions. Might be Heritage Oaks on Saturday, and Coyote Run on Sunday. Western courses were also convenient. 

 

[MountainKing]

9 minutes ago, Argonne69 said:

 

I played plenty of weekend golf living in River North. The key was getting out early and getting back before traffic got too bad. 

 

One advantage was being able to head in three directions. Might be Heritage Oaks on Saturday, and Coyote Run on Sunday. Western courses were also convenient. 

 

 

He'll only play if we're 7am or earlier and we have to be pretty much east of 294, north of 80 and  which is limiting.  Our rotation doesn't have much in that realm.  His last two trips further west to Arrowhead and PL resulted in 2 hour drives back in. Even the drive back in from Flossy was 90 minutes.  I know you try to get out as a single before the first group, that probably helped a ton, but he also mentioned that last year and this year traffic seems to be at a new level....but yeah, he's elected to live there so these are all him issues. 

[Argonne69]

1 hour ago, MountainKing said:

 

He'll only play if we're 7am or earlier and we have to be pretty much east of 294, north of 80 and  which is limiting.  Our rotation doesn't have much in that realm.  His last two trips further west to Arrowhead and PL resulted in 2 hour drives back in. Even the drive back in from Flossy was 90 minutes.  I know you try to get out as a single before the first group, that probably helped a ton, but he also mentioned that last year and this year traffic seems to be at a new level....but yeah, he's elected to live there so these are all him issues. 

 

I think the traffic only seems worse. The pandemic really lightened things up. Appears that it's getting back to pre-pandemic levels. 

 

Back in the day I'd play Wilmette, Heritage Oaks, Glencoe, or Sunset Valley on the weekends. Tee off between 8 am and 8:30 am, and head back in on the Edens/Kennedy before the express lanes flipped. I was usually home by 1:30 pm. 

 

I remember two nightmare drives. One was Prairie Bluff on a Saturday. Left at 7:30 am, teed off at 9 am, and it was a 5 hour round. Over two hours back in on the bumper to bumper Stevenson. Pulled off the Ohio feeder ramp at 4:15 pm and went straight to dinner. 

 

Took a weekday off to play Highlands of Elgin. Mid morning round that finished around 2 pm. Took an hour to get to the Kennedy, and another 90 minutes to get home from there. Mind numbing. 

 

[sittonsideways]

 

1 hour ago, MountainKing said:

 

He'll only play if we're 7am or earlier and we have to be pretty much east of 294, north of 80 and  which is limiting.  Our rotation doesn't have much in that realm.  His last two trips further west to Arrowhead and PL resulted in 2 hour drives back in. Even the drive back in from Flossy was 90 minutes.  I know you try to get out as a single before the first group, that probably helped a ton, but he also mentioned that last year and this year traffic seems to be at a new level....but yeah, he's elected to live there so these are all him issues. 

Your buddy’s radius is spot on. Currently, there is not much you can do to avoid a hellacious drive either to/from the north or west side if you live in the city. Maybe you get lucky one day here or there, but no strategy is going to yield consistent positive results. But it’s definitely just an “us” problem, as you say. I reckon I’ll live centrally as long as I’m in Chicago, so I’ll report back if any alternatives present themselves 🤣

[ldchristopher]

I don’t even think about playing off 290 and with the Irving Park entrance all torn up, playing off 90 has been tough this year. The return trip on 55 will always be bad until Cicero because of Midway. IDOT tried to get the Peotone airport built for this reason, among others. Move the cargo traffic out there. But noooooooo. And, yes, traffic isn’t any worse than it was pre-pandemic. People have increasingly short memories. It’s okay though, city residents. Tiger’s Jackson Park course will break ground any day now. 
 

Meanwhile, I’ve played 49 rounds this year. So it’s possible. 

Edited July 11 by ldchristopher

[MountainKing]

51 minutes ago, ldchristopher said:

I don’t even think about playing off 290 and with the Irving Park entrance all torn up, playing off 90 has been tough this year. The return trip on 55 will always be bad until Cicero because of Midway. IDOT tried to get the Peotone airport built for this reason, among others. Move the cargo traffic out there. But noooooooo. And, yes, traffic isn’t any worse than it was pre-pandemic. People have increasingly short memories. It’s okay though, city residents. Tiger’s Jackson Park course will break ground any day now. 
 

Meanwhile, I’ve played 49 rounds this year. So it’s possible. 

 

You have summers off if I recall....which has to help.  When I did my IT thing in the education world getting 100+ rounds a year in was cake with all the time off and a sweet summer schedule.  

[ldchristopher]

1 hour ago, MountainKing said:

 

You have summers off if I recall....which has to help.  When I did my IT thing in the education world getting 100+ rounds a year in was cake with all the time off and a sweet summer schedule.  

I’m off for the last two weeks of June and all of July. And Spring Break allowed for 7 rounds in 9 days. I do miss getting all the Jewish holidays off though. Pre-daughter 100+ was easy. Now, 75 is the number I try to hit. 

[Holy Moses]

The PGA Tour SS in Schaumburg now has Trackman in the Ping bay

[orange14]

11 hours ago, Holy Moses said:

The PGA Tour SS in Schaumburg now has Trackman in the Ping bay

 Have they upgraded/replaced the mats in the bay as well?

[Holy Moses]

20 hours ago, orange14 said:

 Have they upgraded/replaced the mats in the bay as well?

No, it isn’t terrible but not great. They don’t even have a good tee for it. You’d think if you spent money on Trackman, you’d have a better tee or better turf.

Edited July 13 by Holy Moses

[MountainKing]

Back to Prairie Landing for an early morning round.  Course was saturated, they got hit hard the last few days with rain.    A bit surprised it wasn't CPO.   Greens were even slower than this past Monday,  possibly the slowest I've ever seen them.   There were some diabolical pin placements, some as bad as being right on big slopes, I don't care how slow and soft the course is, that's just not a smart move on the weekend.    We were the 4th group out today and the 2nd group decides slow play was hot  Props to the ranger for pushing them and giving us updates,  but they waited too long to do so and a pre 7am round ended up being 4:30.   Why not just kick them after 9? 

 

Lot of birdie looks today,  but the impossible to get anything to drop with those pins.   Did drop one on 4, off set that with really bad bookend bogies on 1 and 18 for a 73.

[DavePelz4]

So...after last Sunday's personal golf score fiasco at Silver Lake followed by the team auction, today was the resulting "Silver Cup," a 4 person team event with the 2 best net scores contributing to the team total. ABCD, with A's being scratch to about 9, B's 10-17, C's 18-19, D's 20-35. The prize pool was $21,850. To be honest, I was worried about  cheating considering the teams played together coupled with the amount of cash. People do stupid things for $. 2 years ago, -21 was the winner, last year -20 won.

 

So, our team, which was won at auction for the lowest amount, meaning we had the biggest upside, started out amazing. Eagle and birdie on the first (neither me) so -3, birdie/birdie on 2 (one birdie me), eagle/birdie on 3 (my eagle), and I birdied 4, so we're -9 after 4 holes.  Holy Cheese Whiz Batman, at this pace, we're looking at 30 under, right? Reality set in and we sadly calmed down.  To speed to the chase, we finished -20 with -9 being me.  Only used the driver on 4 holes and hit it shockingly well. Hit 3W on the remainder of the holes and didn't miss a fairway the entire round. Missed 2 birdie putts inside 5 feet which I'm pissed about, but now the story starts.

 

We were the second group out, played in 4 hours BTW and NEVER waited on a single shot, thank YOU!!!!

 

When we got in, the group in front of us had posted -27, we're done already. Was planning on going home right away, but stayed and scoreboard watched as the $ is paid out right after the comp and I wanted to watch the sloshy madness. The insanity happened with the D players. On the day, 37 of 76 total players shot under their index. The winning team score was -29, followed by 2 -28's and 4 -27's. The lowest net score of the day was shot by a 5 year member, who hasn't shot under 90 in 3 years. He shot...a F****** 79. Net FIFTEEN FREAKING UNDER his handicap on his ball, with 2 doubles. Statistically, the probability of that happening are 0.005% chance per round. He not only shot the lowest net individual score of the year but he shot the same as the best net 2 ball team together, which was ironically, me and my  partner. He happens to be someone I've played multiple rounds with and in one of those rounds he shot 121. What the hell. We toasted his great success and I asked him what was the difference. He said, "I got so drunk last night that I puked around 3 and thought about backing out. But I didn't want to screw anyone, so I took a bunch of Advil and just played. It hurt too much to think, so I hit the ball and then hit it again." Not thinking and golf are always good.

 

But, to make this more entertaining, his team didn't win, they finished second. The team who won was the typical ham and egg team, with no one contributing more than 9 holes, and no one contributing less than 7 holes. Can't verify this but heard they walked with $10,000 as a team/owner. Not a bad day of golf.

 

Learned a lot today...

 

 

[Holy Moses]

17 minutes ago, DavePelz4 said:

So...after last Sunday's personal golf score fiasco at Silver Lake followed by the team auction, today was the resulting "Silver Cup," a 4 person team event with the 2 best net scores contributing to the team total. ABCD, with A's being scratch to about 9, B's 10-17, C's 18-19, D's 20-35. The prize pool was $21,850. To be honest, I was worried about  cheating considering the teams played together coupled with the amount of cash. People do stupid things for $. 2 years ago, -21 was the winner, last year -20 won.

 

So, our team, which was won at auction for the lowest amount, meaning we had the biggest upside, started out amazing. Eagle and birdie on the first (neither me) so -3, birdie/birdie on 2 (one birdie me), eagle/birdie on 3 (my eagle), and I birdied 4, so we're -9 after 4 holes.  Holy Cheese Whiz Batman, at this pace, we're looking at 30 under, right? Reality set in and we sadly calmed down.  To speed to the chase, we finished -20 with -9 being me.  Only used the driver on 4 holes and hit it shockingly well. Hit 3W on the remainder of the holes and didn't miss a fairway the entire round. Missed 2 birdie putts inside 5 feet which I'm pissed about, but now the story starts.

 

We were the second group out, played in 4 hours BTW and NEVER waited on a single shot, thank YOU!!!!

 

When we got in, the group in front of us had posted -27, we're done already. Was planning on going home right away, but stayed and scoreboard watched as the $ is paid out right after the comp and I wanted to watch the sloshy madness. The insanity happened with the D players. On the day, 37 of 76 total players shot under their index. The winning team score was -29, followed by 2 -28's and 4 -27's. The lowest net score of the day was shot by a 5 year member, who hasn't shot under 90 in 3 years. He shot...a F****** 79. Net FIFTEEN FREAKING UNDER his handicap on his ball, with 2 doubles. Statistically, the probability of that happening are 0.005% chance per round. He not only shot the lowest net individual score of the year but he shot the same as the best net 2 ball team together, which was ironically, me and my  partner. He happens to be someone I've played multiple rounds with and in one of those rounds he shot 121. What the hell. We toasted his great success and I asked him what was the difference. He said, "I got so drunk last night that I puked around 3 and thought about backing out. But I didn't want to screw anyone, so I took a bunch of Advil and just played. It hurt too much to think, so I hit the ball and then hit it again." Not thinking and golf are always good.

 

But, to make this more entertaining, his team didn't win, they finished second. The team who won was the typical ham and egg team, with no one contributing more than 9 holes, and no one contributing less than 7 holes. Can't verify this but heard they walked with $10,000 as a team/owner. Not a bad day of golf.

 

Learned a lot today...

 

 

If you have multiple flights, why even play net? Just play actual scores.

[DavePelz4]

3 minutes ago, Holy Moses said:

If you have multiple flights, why even play net? Just play actual scores.

 

There are no flights, each team has an ABCD player.

 

 

[ldchristopher]

What a day today. Bear wanted to walk Blackthorn and I wanted to play it from the tips rather than the homemade combo I threw together at the end of our Michigan trip. We already knew it would be good but that place really delivers. Back nine start and 10 had some dollar spot fungus. However, I didn’t see much evidence of that on other holes. Greens were outstanding, I enjoy the tour sand in the green side bunkers, and since we were the third group off pace wasn’t an issue. We actually waited on most shots for 10-18 but the foursome in front of us picked up the pace. We ended up playing in under 3 hours. No birdies and I was kind of sloppy off the tee. Scratched out a 38 on the back and played much crisper on the front but put up another 38. 76. 
 

Round two was at Angel’s Crossing. Tee to green it’s so good. Maybe the best layout in Michigan, and there’s plenty of competition for that title. Of course, the greens are just insane. Comically huge with wild slopes and various buried elephants and dinosaurs under every green. The sixth hole was 140 to the front and 220 to the back. Oh, and absurdly large bunkers. Angel’s is the definitive maintenance hog. The greens were damp and felt spongy but were rolling quicker than expected. Odd but easy to adjust to. The tips at Angel’s are also no joke but I birdied the first and thought it might be one of those rounds. It was in the sense that I played excellent but  I didn’t make any other birds. 10 fairways and 14 greens (for what that’s worth) and I walked to the 18th tee foolishly thinking I could play the whole round without three-putting. Welp, a solid drive and a 6 iron to the front of the green left me about 130 feet away. So much for no 3 putts. Still, a solid 74. 
 

Ahh, but traffic would undoubtedly be bad so what to do? Well, rather than sit we drove 30 miles out of the way and played a quick 9 at Grand Beach. Childhood memories came alive there. Though I never shot even par with 9 pars at GBN as a kid. That course…does not hold up against modern equipment. Though the super slow greens got me. I missed some very makeable birdie putts. Still, a really fun 45 hole day. 

[ldchristopher]

Balmoral Woods today. They’ve got the dollar spot fungus bad. It’s all over every tee box and most fairways. They’re trying to fight back. They did lots of tree removal, especially along 9 and 13, and they had the sprinklers going during the round. The course kind of looks like Whittaker Woods last year, though it’s not built on sand so it’s not quite so egregious-looking. 
I played pretty well but left myself some nasty putts that were pin high but broke 8-10 feet. It’s kinda funny. No greens look sillier than those at Angel’s, but I didn’t play a single putt to break that wide on Monday. Anyway, I did make two birdies on 11 and 14 but I’m kicking myself for the strokes I left out there on all those short 5’s. 74. 

[ldchristopher]

Chalet Hills and Stonehenge yesterday. No fungus in the Northwest suburbs. Chalet was in phenomenal shape, sans one dead patch on the 11th green. Kudos to Chalet for still having a walking rate while Foxford across the street now sits on my permanent s*** list. I’ve finally accepted that I have to hit 5 wood or 4 iron off the tee on 5. First par on that hole in a long time for me. I shot even, though even there is a 73. Two birdies on  3 and 17. 
Nothing really changes at Stonehenge, though it needed the rain it’s been getting. I played the new combo tee. That’s the only course I know where the combo is the blue tees on the front and the tips on the back. After playing the first 5 holes in about 30 minutes, I slammed on the brakes. Everyone who didn’t play because of the heat was out yesterday. Oh well. Shot even again, though I had so many great looks to finish under. Lipped out a 6 footer on 16, one rotation short on 17, burned edge on 18. It wasn’t to be. 

[mikes919]

Played White Deer Run this morning. My second time playing the course; I enjoyed it a lot more the second time. Conditions were fantastic. Pins were all in tough spots, I had a bad putting day but still shot OK. I really like the looks off the tee, there are several holes that play tricks on you visually. Really have to trust the GPS. Some construction on a couple holes on the back 9, but nothing that interferes with play.

[geochitown]

The clearing they have done on the right side of 13 is pretty dramatic 

 

moved away 2 years ago and was back for July 4th holiday and drove by and saw that 

[Holy Moses]

Big Run today. Tough as ever, greens still very slow and thatchy. 5 and a half hour round that was slow from beginning to end with no rangers in sight. I finally was able to par hole 9. I still think this is the toughest course in Chicago that I’ve played. 

[mikes919]

1 hour ago, geochitown said:

The clearing they have done on the right side of 13 is pretty dramatic 

 

moved away 2 years ago and was back for July 4th holiday and drove by and saw that 

Yea it was a big difference from last year. It used to pretty much force a layup off the tee; hybrid or fairway just playing for a good approach angle. Today I fired directly at the fairway bunker with driver, didn’t hit a great drive, and still had an easy 100yd wedge in from the rough. Of course I pulled it straight into the greenside bunker, but that’s not the course’s fault.

[Argonne69]

7 hours ago, Holy Moses said:

Big Run today. Tough as ever, greens still very slow and thatchy. 5 and a half hour round that was slow from beginning to end with no rangers in sight. I finally was able to par hole 9. I still think this is the toughest course in Chicago that I’ve played. 

 

Congrats. I've played BR 6 times, and have one par on the 9th. 

 

[ldchristopher]

Bear is visiting his parents in the Western suburbs so we agreed we’d play off 55, 355, or 394. I got a text from him midweek that said, “I’m looking at our options for Saturday. God, it’s depressing.” That’s how we ended up at Deer Creek. 5:45 AM tee time though, so they at least get the party started early there. Anyway, I was expecting more dollar spot fungus since it’s right down the street from Balmoral and they haven’t gotten as much rain, but the course was disease-free and in pretty good shape. Using a nice combination of water and pesticides there. I endorse. It’s not a difficult course at all but hilariously it got re-rated and now allegedly plays 1.5 strokes over par. Sure. 8 fairways, 13 greens, 3 birdies (6, 12, and 17) and two bogies (10 and 16) for a 71. 

[propman]

16 hours ago, Holy Moses said:

Big Run today. Tough as ever, greens still very slow and thatchy. 5 and a half hour round that was slow from beginning to end with no rangers in sight. I finally was able to par hole 9. I still think this is the toughest course in Chicago that I’ve played. 

IMO, Big Run is the most difficult course in area. 5  1/2 hours-I couldn't deal with that, rather have cocktail in clubhouse.😁

[psygolf]

On 7/19/2025 at 6:23 AM, Argonne69 said:

 

Congrats. I've played BR 6 times, and have one par on the 9th. 

 

20 yrs ago I par’d it with nothing but a driver

 

Was on the right side of the fairway, blocked out by the big tree, hit 975d under it on my 2nd, playing partner was in the cart in the left trees, so I punched another driver that squirted right of the green, gave it a little pop chip that rolled 10-15ft, made the putt with driver.

[chrisf60526]

Prairie Bluff is still my go to but I don't play it on weekends unless its in the early afternoon.  I like the track and you can usually get t a tee time.  Calumet CC; I played it back in the day when it was private and now that its public...meh.  It's supposed to be closing for the last 3 years and its kept up in that way.  Tee box markers are hit or miss and the place just has a dead vibe.

 

Cog Hill and Ravisloe have are like the girl who used to be hot and is still trying to act like it even though her time has passed.  I like Ravisloe but they want too much to play it IMO.  Cog....again, living off of reputation and every time I play there I get hit into.

 

Maple Meadows is my course of late.  Open, reasonably priced and in fairly good condition.  For the price, its in way better shape than others that charge a premium.  Prob is is that its closing for a renovation soon in the fall until 2027.

 

Prices still are high, I like to walk and that's $78 at places these days.    

Edited July 21 by chrisf60526