Where are you playing tomorrow - Chicago (Round 3)

[@_the_crook]

On 9/16/2023 at 9:26 AM, Shriner said:

Seven days ago, seems so long ago.  Our annual Day in Heaven trip where we get up at 4am to make it to Oak Grove for our early round...then we play a second 18 at a course half way back to civilization.  I look forward to it all year, as does the group.  For the first time in 6 years, we invited a 4th to make the day and I think he was having a blast.  Weather was perfect and the day seemed so special as usual, except even moreso.  There was no one on hole 1 when we got to the tee box and no one on the tee box when we finished.  You could not ask for anything better.  Cherry on the top?  I par'd hole 1, which I have not done in the last five years.  As anyone who plays it knows, the first three holes are downright brutal...especially when it is 50 degrees out and you are trying to clear the junk on hole #2.  

 

Hole #4, feels like the whole world changed.  I am playing the backs and the other three are playing the whites...I remember everything in slow motion.  I hit driver left but still in the fairway.  One buddy says "Left rough"...lol.  We gave him crap.  My cell goes off while another is on the tee box, which I quickly silence.  I am walking so I start walking up the left side while two others are on the right side in a cart.  Phone rings again, it is now 7:45ish am and I figure I should pick it up.  It is my wife and she is hysterical..."House is on fire".  I can't understand anything else before a neighbor grabs the phone, tells me it is real bad but the kids got out.  Told my friends to keep playing since I couldn't think straight and I started walking back to the clubhouse.  We are now at the furthest point out on the course unfortunately.  Great friends (thankful for amazing friends and amazing neighbors), they put me on one of the carts and we headed in...drove the 1:20 minutes back.  Despite having no fire hydrants and no fire department in Medinah, six different municipalities showed up with tanker trucks and managed to "save" the house.  Surreal, but all you can do is move forward.

 

Right about now, seven days ago, would be making the turn to hole #10...crazy.

 

Wishing for you and family that everything gets better fast. 

Super glad to hear that everyone is safe.

 

 

 

[B-Man]

14 hours ago, MountainKing said:

Round at the Preserve today was the sort of round that makes me happy the golf season is coming to a close.  Not sure what happened since I was last out there but the tee boxes were long\shaggy and the greens were brutal.  Slow, shaggy and bumpy to the point where you had no clue what line your ball would take or if your ball would get to the hole.  Almost every putt got airborne at some point, impossible to make anything.  Pace was brutal at 5 hours.  I love after the round when the ranger comments "slow day out there huh".  Asked him why he was by the clubhouse remarking on it instead of doing his job, silence on that one.  Luckily I did not pay the rack rate, but if I did pay the $110 that our time was asking for, I would have been right inside demanding a refund for the conditions.  I know conditions can vary in our area day to day, but this was like they stopped taking care of it.  Probably my last round there for year unless I hear something different.

 

My ballstriking and game more or less followed the course.  The snap hooks are back, and putting was just a joke with 37 putts.  I did manage two birdies  thanks to driving #4 and hitting 15 in two, but otherwise I was just holding my breath of every shot.  I had several three putts and a four putt, and the rest of our group didn't fair much better.  I scrapped together an 81, the only real positive to the day was the company of my group was great. 

 

Supposed to play Arrowhead in the morning but looking at the temps, weather and my round today,, I've pretty much committed to bailing. Golf in bad weather is just not fun for me.

 

 

Sounds like similar conditions I experienced yesterday up at Pine Ghetto. Very bad condition. The greens were soft, bumpy and inconsistent. The green surrounds were shockingly bad with 58 random types of grasses at different cuts. So bad that the whole back 9 green surrounds were aerated and some sanded. Not even close to being worth $79 to walk.

 

Oh and I'm playing the Preserve tomorrow.  This rain should 'flatten' everything out right?

 

[MountainKing]

11 minutes ago, B-Man said:

Sounds like similar conditions I experienced yesterday up at Pine Ghetto. Very bad condition. The greens were soft, bumpy and inconsistent. The green surrounds were shockingly bad with 58 random types of grasses at different cuts. So bad that the whole back 9 green surrounds were aerated and some sanded. Not even close to being worth $79 to walk.

 

Oh and I'm playing the Preserve tomorrow.  This rain should 'flatten' everything out right?

 

 

My slight guess is they're going to be punching soon so just letting things grow out a bit for that, with all the rain we got I'd be shocked if the course was playable today.  Rain outs are a bummer, especially given there's only a few good weeks left.

[ldchristopher]

I didn’t play last weekend, this weekend I had a wedding in DP4 country (the greater Lockport area is now just “DP4 country”) and my daughter’s birthday is next weekend. I might have to come down with a mysterious ailment sometime this week. 

[Holy Moses]

I never play well at Hilldale. The tips have a slope of 140 after looking at the scorecard. Harder course than gets credit for. The greens, while not particularly fast, were very smooth and a unique emerald shade of green.

[Shriner]

17 hours ago, Holy Moses said:

I never play well at Hilldale. The tips have a slope of 140 after looking at the scorecard. Harder course than gets credit for. The greens, while not particularly fast, were very smooth and a unique emerald shade of green.

 

Completely agree.  You get seriously punished for wayward tee shots on that course.  I've always enjoyed the course and conditions, but it is target golf.

[DavePelz4]

21 hours ago, ldchristopher said:

I didn’t play last weekend, this weekend I had a wedding in DP4 country (the greater Lockport area is now just “DP4 country”) and my daughter’s birthday is next weekend. I might have to come down with a mysterious ailment sometime this week. 

 

You could have used the house as I was in Michigan...the door code is 1234.

Edited September 18, 2023 by DavePelz4

[DavePelz4]

As just posted, college guys weekend in Michigan.  Played 2 rounds, well, 1 real round and hit the ball on one of the most "interesting" courses I've ever played. 

 

Friday was Indian Lake Hills which has 3 nines and depending on how fast you play the front 9, they route you to the second nine.  They don't apparently believe in having fairways being a different length than the rough.  Regardless of where you were, the grass was about the same height.  Hit a couple of fairway flyers which made things entertaining. Liked the change in elevation but some of the greens had an immense amount of slope.  Fortunately, they stimped about a 6. Will try to post the video as we had a ram walk right in front of us while on a tee box, give us the "I belong here, you don't" look" and then took it's sweet loving time walking through. Decent amount of water in play and nearly all of it was hidden. Some of the holes are parallel and I think it was on the 6th hole which is parallel to 7, we had to wait until one guy hit 7 tee shots until we played our second shots.  He was peppering us on the fairway with his slice, and he wasn't going to stop til he hit one straight. Had a 2some behind us on the back and offered to let them play through. Somehow we waited for this guys on every shot after that. 

 

Saturday played Diamond Lake Golf Club which is in the top 2 of most unique tracks I've ever played and deserves to be called something other than a Golf Club.  Their greens make the greens at Hilton Head look huge, as they were tiny and very slow. Hilton Head's greens are somewhere around 3,500 sq ft, these were probably 2,700 sq ft and the guess is they cut them 2x/week. The layout had back to back par 5's followed by back to back to back par 3's.  Don't ever remember 3 par 3's in a row unless you were on a par 3 course. On the third par 3, you were hitting between a series of trees to a green you couldn't see, and it played 209 yards. No sprinkler system on the course, so in some areas you were playing off hard pan while others were decent.  As we were playing the first of the par 3's, which was adjacent to the 9th tee, there was an 11some on the 9th tee.  Yes, ELEVENSOME. More on the 9th hole in a sec.  The 8th hole is a par 4 that plays straight up hill to a very tight area and then straight down hill to a green where the back edge was at least 30 feet above the front edge. The 9th hole on this 9 hole track is a par 4 where you hit over an active road, twice.  Um, OK, that adds a new level of focus. You have to wait on your tee shot to make sure no one is going to potentially be in the way.  This course is also unique in having OOB inside the perimeter of the course.

 

Fun weekend with the college guys and it's been a helluva long time since I've seen 3A on back to back nights.

 

This week is Blackstone tomorrow and then the Finals of our comp on Saturday, back at Blackstone. Heard they aerated last week, fortunately with the small tines so it'll be fun going from greens that played at a 6 to probably 11.

[stasek]

Busy and very mediocre weekend (at least when it comes to quality of golf).   Saturday - Cantigny (Hillside/Woodside).   Course was in great shape, with some of the fastest greens I've played all year long (probably ~11).   Nothing like starting your round with a brisk 30' downhill putt, running it 15' past and of course missing the come backer.  82 (42/39).   Blah....

Sunday - wet round at Blackstone.   Didn't even think we were going to play, but made the TRIP, anyway.  Steady drizzle for first hour, some break in the middle, more drizzle/rain as we made the turn, break..... etc, etc...   The fairways/rough were surprisingly dry (for the amount or rain we got) - they didn't even do CPO, which was noice.  Bunkers were wet, with occasional standing water, but nothing a rake and roll didn't help with.   Greens were punched pretty recently (small tines) and have recovered nicely.   Despite all the rain, they were pretty quick - ~10 or so.  Played well enough to shoot mid 70s, but of course couple bad swings, few 3 putts, 2 doubles - 82 (40/42).   

 

Got a chance to try out my new (to me, at least) Rogue ST Triple Diamond LS driver (my Malty KE4 spins way too much).  So far so good - misses are still there, but the good swings get rewarded.

 

[@_the_crook]

gonna be a little while before the greens heal at Sunset Valley.

they use the big punch pattern and we had putts running uphill , away from the cup.

many placements were crowned a bit - so the morning crew may have been a bit aggressive when pulling the plug out.

 

our  local rule for these conditions is Did'ya? , meaning Two-Putt, Yes or No?

no explanations or three jack attempts required, unless it was a One Putt - in which case congratulations are in order.

 

two weeks from now - it will be all good.

[VNutz]

Stonebridge for an outing yesterday. They sold mulligans and lots of gimmicks, which we didn't partake in. Winning cores were silly low as a result. Really neat course, could have done with a little less housing on it, but still a nice track. Would have been interesting to play it somewhat dry and not with rain the day before.

[DavePelz4]

Snuck out to Blackstone yesterday and managed to dodge enough of the rain drops to get 18 in.  Because of the rain, these had to be the slowest green speeds in all the years of playing Blackstone. However, the course was as plush and green as you can imagine. The green aeration is recovering nicely and didn't see that impacting putts at all.

 

One of the benefits to the weather was we played the front in 79 minutes which was amazing. So nice to get into that "hit the ball and go" rhythm. The group in front of us had an hour head start but we caught them on 13 and waited every shot after that. Still finished the round in 3:15 so no complaints there. Hate when the pin on 18 is behind the bunker and on that little tier. Probably the toughest approach shot on the course.

 

As shared, our comp finals are Saturday back at Blackstone finishing up year our 22nd year of competition. 

 

[MountainKing]

2 hours ago, DavePelz4 said:

Snuck out to Blackstone yesterday and managed to dodge enough of the rain drops to get 18 in.  Because of the rain, these had to be the slowest green speeds in all the years of playing Blackstone. However, the course was as plush and green as you can imagine. The green aeration is recovering nicely and didn't see that impacting putts at all.

 

One of the benefits to the weather was we played the front in 79 minutes which was amazing. So nice to get into that "hit the ball and go" rhythm. The group in front of us had an hour head start but we caught them on 13 and waited every shot after that. Still finished the round in 3:15 so no complaints there. Hate when the pin on 18 is behind the bunker and on that little tier. Probably the toughest approach shot on the course.

 

As shared, our comp finals are Saturday back at Blackstone finishing up year our 22nd year of competition. 

 

 

I have heard from a person who heard from a person on staff at Blackstone that they've slowed their greens up due to the amount of place they're getting.   They were shockingly slow when I was out there a few weeks back and it sounds like this might be the norm moving forward.

[mci711]

4 hours ago, MountainKing said:

 

I have heard from a person who heard from a person on staff at Blackstone that they've slowed their greens up due to the amount of place they're getting.   They were shockingly slow when I was out there a few weeks back and it sounds like this might be the norm moving forward.

 

Only reason to go all the way out there was their greens. Thats unfortunate. 

[DavePelz4]

23 hours ago, MountainKing said:

 

I have heard from a person who heard from a person on staff at Blackstone that they've slowed their greens up due to the amount of place they're getting.   They were shockingly slow when I was out there a few weeks back and it sounds like this might be the norm moving forward.

 

MK was that your best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend who heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the green's keeper's daughter? 

[MountainKing]

25 minutes ago, DavePelz4 said:

 

MK was that your best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend who heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the green's keeper's daughter? 

 

Something on those lines lol, but I put some weight on this guy for being accurate since he's a greens keeper himself and these guys all seem to know each other.

[TheBear95]

https://www.shawlocal.com/northwest-herald/2023/09/20/funding-of-new-lakewood-golf-clubhouse-prompts-states-attorneys-inquiry/

 

Interesting story here if you're into clubhouses and municipal code.

[MountainKing]

36 at Bowes tomorrow.  Don't think I've been there since 2019. 

[DavePelz4]

12 minutes ago, MountainKing said:

36 at Bowes tomorrow.  Don't think I've been there since 2019. 

 

You'll see tons and tons of new houses sadly. When you get to the 4th hole and see the house with the big umbrella, wave and tell them DP4 says aloha...and apologies for the roof balls.

[MountainKing]

10 minutes ago, DavePelz4 said:

 

You'll see tons and tons of new houses sadly. When you get to the 4th hole and see the house with the big umbrella, wave and tell them DP4 says aloha...and apologies for the roof balls.

 

That's sort of been my gripe about the course.  I have no issues with houses on courses, they work well with being part of the scenery at places like Whitetail and Blackstone.  I'm not sure how to put it without it sounding really bad, but at Bowes you have this beautiful course with houses that, well, aren't (if it helps my house would fit into the houses that don't belong on a course like Bowes category).  

[B-Man]

2 hours ago, DavePelz4 said:

 

You'll see tons and tons of new houses sadly. When you get to the 4th hole and see the house with the big umbrella, wave and tell them DP4 says aloha...and apologies for the roof balls.

Doesn't that hole have a giant pond lining the whole left side of the fairway?

[VNutz]

37 minutes ago, B-Man said:

Doesn't that hole have a giant pond lining the whole left side of the fairway?

Indeed. DP4 recently sporting an impressive 3 way miss.

[Shriner]

1 hour ago, MountainKing said:

 

That's sort of been my gripe about the course.  I have no issues with houses on courses, they work well with being part of the scenery at places like Whitetail and Blackstone.  I'm not sure how to put it without it sounding really bad, but at Bowes you have this beautiful course with houses that, well, aren't (if it helps my house would fit into the houses that don't belong on a course like Bowes category).  

 

I was shocked when I played it earlier this year.  I too had not been back for a few years and the number of rectangle boxes with different colors really caught me by surprise.  That being said, they are just an eyesore.  They don't really come into play and the course layout is still fantastic with some super challenging tee shots.

 

DP.  That is borderline impressive to put it into the houses on hole 4 😀

[DavePelz4]

2 hours ago, Shriner said:

 

I was shocked when I played it earlier this year.  I too had not been back for a few years and the number of rectangle boxes with different colors really caught me by surprise.  That being said, they are just an eyesore.  They don't really come into play and the course layout is still fantastic with some super challenging tee shots.

 

DP.  That is borderline impressive to put it into the houses on hole 4 😀

 

Actually, the truth is I've never done that.  However, one of the guys in our comp group lives on the aforementioned hole and 2 years ago he pumped a couple into his neighbor's yard.

 

However, I have found that pond a time or 12.

[DavePelz4]

2 hours ago, VNutz said:

Indeed. DP4 recently sporting an impressive 3 way miss.

 

Thankfully, I'm down to a 2-way miss, so a 33% improvement.  And BTW, 2-way miss is not a reference to the female in my life.

[Springsteennut]

19 hours ago, TheBear95 said:

https://www.shawlocal.com/northwest-herald/2023/09/20/funding-of-new-lakewood-golf-clubhouse-prompts-states-attorneys-inquiry/

 

Interesting story here if you're into clubhouses and municipal code.

I golf out there regularly with a group. According to the people working there we talk to there is a small but vocal group of residents that have been fighting this from the beginning. This is probably their last ditch effort to stop it. The guys we talk to are all pretty excited to have a real clubhouse to add to what is already a pretty nice on course experience.

[TheBear95]

11 minutes ago, Springsteennut said:

I golf out there regularly with a group. According to the people working there we talk to there is a small but vocal group of residents that have been fighting this from the beginning. This is probably their last ditch effort to stop it. The guys we talk to are all pretty excited to have a real clubhouse to add to what is already a pretty nice on course experience.

 

Odd situation. Not sure why the McHenry Co. State's Attorney's Office is involved.

 

Sounds like some in the Village of Lakewood are supplying political pressure to the State's Attorney's Office. A Hail Mary attempt. 

 

Looks like the groundbreaking for the new clubhouse is next week.

[Holy Moses]

On 9/21/2023 at 2:02 PM, MountainKing said:

 

Something on those lines lol, but I put some weight on this guy for being accurate since he's a greens keeper himself and these guys all seem to know each other.

I play often at Blackstone and that would be disappointing if true. I went out yesterday and the greens were slow. Probably due to the rain and they didn’t seem to be cut in the morning. But if they are worried about a lot of play and wearing out the course, they didn’t have CPO even after all the rain. I teed off at 2 yesterday and there was a friendly “tournament” going off right in front of my group. They were all playing from the tips, but weren’t single digit golfers. It was over a 5 hour round with no rangers asking for the pace to be pushed. The greens did look a little beat up, but probably just from the rain.

Edited September 23, 2023 by Holy Moses

[ldchristopher]

I had a half day yesterday so I picked up an afternoon round in the South suburbs. I wanted White Hawk or Balmoral Woods but both were booked up. Ended up at Deer Creek. Good course to play at for the first time out in three weeks. The greens were slow but smooth and the course was very lush. It looked like Spring. Bright green and a little spongy in spots. Bunkers were trash but that’s not news. I didn’t really hit the ball that well but made a lot of par saves from around 8-10 feet and dropped in 3 birdies for a 74. 
Returned to the South burbs with Bear this morning for a round at Palmira. Man, I’ve been on 394 a lot lately. Bear hadn’t played a round at Palmira with green grass I. A long time. The greens there had been freshly rolled but the bunkers looked pretty sketchy. Glad I stayed out of them. The tee boxes were pretty chewed but good value at $40 on a weekend. 3 more birdies on 8, 12 and 15 for a 73. Good to get back on the course. 

[MountainKing]

36, well more like 40 holes out at Bowes today.  Morning round it was shockingly wet out there, I was honestly a bit surprised carts were off the path.  I guess Elgin got a lot of rain the last few days.  It burned off as we progressed and while the course was still wet for the afternoon round, greens were faster and shots were rolling out about 5-10 yards.  Grass was a tad shaggy, but with the rain we've had that's too be expeted, but the greens rolled great all day long and were really nice by the last 9 holes.  Bunkers ranged from good to garbage.  Weird how two I were in had the perfect amount of sand, but a third had nothing.   Pace for both rounds were great at 4 hours giving us plenty of time for lunch and to get a few extra in at the end. 

 

I put on an elite level ball striking clinic today, but putted like a 30 handicap.  In the morning round the last I hit every green on the back, the last 8 holes I did not have a birdie putt outside of 10 feet, made none of them.   It's almost embarrassing how bad of a putter i currently am I have zero confidence over the ball on the course and not really sure what to do to fix it.  Both rounds I should have been under par, but due to really poor putting I went 76, 75.  Still a great day with great friends and great weather to have my last 36 hole run of the year.