Where are you playing tomorrow - Chicago (Round 3)

[VNutz]

12 minutes ago, B-Man said:

Playing Seven Bridges for the first time tomorrow. Will report back on expectations vs. reality.

Ho hum 73

[MountainKing]

12 minutes ago, B-Man said:

Playing Seven Bridges for the first time tomorrow. Will report back on expectations vs. reality.

 

I always enjoy the front 9 there, pretty decent selection of holes.  The back 9 however is just awful, horrible design choice after horrible design choice.  My favorite is hole 16, big ridge in the middle of the fairway that kicks everything to the water, and a fairway that leans to the water, if you can't navigate the usable part of the fairway on that hole you're either in a creek or OB. The 2nd shot tho is cool tho, you get the nice feature of potentially killing any group on 17 teebox if you go slightly left of the green.

[MountainKing]

Morning round at Willow Crest.  I talked the superintendent there a while back and was excited to hear him talk about getting that course back into the shape it should be.  It is well on it's way.  They're mid bunker renovation, and what they've done so far looks outstanding.  The new bunkers need to settle a bit but they're going to be great by mid summer.  Greens were the best they've been in years, smooth and rolling very quick, especially if you got on the wrong side of the hole.  Tee to green was solid.  Pace was 3:30, hard to really ask for more.  Really excited to see them putting the work into the course, I live under 10 minutes from it and with my schedule this year I plan on putting a lot of miles in there.

 

I played okay.  Driving it great, still struggling with the irons.  My playing partners finally told me that almost nothing with my irons that  I've hit this year sounds like it normally does when I make contact, kind of figured that one out.  Couple birdies, couple three putts, few bad bogies for a 74. I really need some range time, might have to forgo a weekend round sooner than later so I can get that in since weekdays are impossible at the moment. 

[ldchristopher]

Wife and daughter surprised her parents with a Friday visit and sleepover at Lolo and Lola’s house so I got the okay to play 36. Bear and I looked around a bit for something more inspiring but settled on Brighton Dale Blue and Oak Grove. BDale was in great shape. No sprinklers yet so no sopping wet tee boxes and they’re doing some tree removal to let the grass get more sun in spots. Greens were smooth (I guess they punched the White course only), bunkers had wet, compacted sand that was easy to get out of, and pace was excellent at 2:50. We played through one foursome and then had the course to ourselves. Conditions were interesting because most holes were either straight downwind or directly into the breeze. And it was consistent 20+ mph winds with 30 mph gusts. Ball-wise, I’ve figured out how to deal with that. High compression, low spin surlyn junk (think something like the e-12) into wind and high spin urethane with wind behind (I’m a ZStar Diamond guy). Anyway, one birdie on 13 for a 75. 
 

Oak Grove was what it always is, only greener and with no ponds in bunkers. And that’s not a bad thing. Fairways were cut tight, rough was not overly penal (BDale had some very thick spots that created zero spin approaches; not so at OG), the wind made club selection very important, and the slower greens held shots that would otherwise have gone bounding. We played through two groups of………..beginners? People who didn’t seem to really be there for the golf? Whatever. They were nice. One birdie on 12 for a 74. 

[B-Man]

Seven Bridges yesterday. Very windy. Most proud that I had no water balls which was the best achievement for the day. Overall not a fan of the layout. And with the crappy ranger who on the 15th told us the group in front of you have already finished. I said,  "You mean the twosome who teed off 20 minutes before us? What took them so long?" He snickered then drove off.

[MountainKing]

 

1 hour ago, B-Man said:

Seven Bridges yesterday. Very windy. Most proud that I had no water balls which was the best achievement for the day. Overall not a fan of the layout. And with the crappy ranger who on the 15th told us the group in front of you have already finished. I said,  "You mean the twosome who teed off 20 minutes before us? What took them so long?" He snickered then drove off.

 

All the while my buddy is out there right now behind 4 guys playing the tips and not hitting more than 200.  He said 10, 11 and 12 they were all in the water and currently working on a solid 5 hour round.  

 

And yeah,  hole 15 he says something?   If you were actually slow, that's a bit too late to fix the problem.    Moron.

Edited April 28, 2024 by MountainKing

[ldchristopher]

1 hour ago, MountainKing said:

 

 

All the while my buddy is out there right now behind 4 guys playing the tips and not hitting more than 200.  He said 10, 11 and 12 they were all in the water and currently working on a solid 5 hour round.  

 

And yeah,  hole 15 he says something?   If you were actually slow, that's a bit too late to fix the problem.    Moron.

Golf course rangers and starters are room temperature IQ types. And I swear they get dumber every year. 

[MountainKing]

1 hour ago, ldchristopher said:

Golf course rangers and starters are room temperature IQ types. And I swear they get dumber every year. 

 

Ain't that the truth.  I can't wait to retire and get a job as a ranger so I too can act like a moron.

[Argonne69]

1 hour ago, MountainKing said:

 

Ain't that the truth.  I can't wait to retire and get a job as a ranger so I too can act like a moron.

 

Lol. If I was a ranger I'd probably last one day before being fired. You have your good cops, and bad cops. I'd be 

 

 

[TBone0576]

On 4/27/2024 at 7:03 PM, ldchristopher said:

Wife and daughter surprised her parents with a Friday visit and sleepover at Lolo and Lola’s house so I got the okay to play 36. Bear and I looked around a bit for something more inspiring but settled on Brighton Dale Blue and Oak Grove. BDale was in great shape. No sprinklers yet so no sopping wet tee boxes and they’re doing some tree removal to let the grass get more sun in spots. Greens were smooth (I guess they punched the White course only), bunkers had wet, compacted sand that was easy to get out of, and pace was excellent at 2:50. We played through one foursome and then had the course to ourselves. Conditions were interesting because most holes were either straight downwind or directly into the breeze. And it was consistent 20+ mph winds with 30 mph gusts. Ball-wise, I’ve figured out how to deal with that. High compression, low spin surlyn junk (think something like the e-12) into wind and high spin urethane with wind behind (I’m a ZStar Diamond guy). Anyway, one birdie on 13 for a 75.   
 

 

You were probably right behind my buddy and I.  We went off Blue a bit before 6am and were done by 8:15.   After a pretty wet spring the areas around the green have started to dry out and the greens have been running pretty quick, lots of fun.  This is the second year in a row the super has been letting the rough grow and puts a premium on hitting fairways, especially on certain holes.   The bunkers have been a nice surprise as most springs they are all washed out and worthless.   It was definitely a feast or famine day with the wind and don't see it coming out of the south like that very often out there.   

[TBone0576]

Redacted

Edited May 2, 2024 by TBone0576
Wrong forum

[propman]

On 4/28/2024 at 7:13 PM, Argonne69 said:

 

Lol. If I was a ranger I'd probably last one day before being fired. You have your good cops, and bad cops. I'd be 

 

 

Most rangers I talk to mention the main reason they take job is free golf and it gets them out of the house.

Very little incentive for them to be traffic cops🤔. Plus some ( good and bad) golfers don't take  too kindly to rangers telling them to pick up the pace.

[chisag]

17 minutes ago, propman said:

Most rangers I talk to mention the main reason they take job is free golf and it gets them out of the house.

Very little incentive for them to be traffic cops🤔. Plus some ( good and bad) golfers don't take  too kindly to rangers telling them to pick up the pace.

 

 

... I miss the days of Joe's rangers at Cog Hill telling a slow group they need to pick up the pace as a 1st warning. 2nd warning was pick up your ball and catch up to the group in front if they feel behind. 3rd time was pick up your balls and head to the clubhouse and get a refund. 

... Praise Bluff had some ex cops as rangers the I played there and didn't hesitate to tell slow groups to pick up their pace. Although we were twosome that caught a slower 4some on #12 with 3 holes open in front of them and asked the ranger to tell them we would like to play through on the 13th hole. They refused and said thy were within the recommended time and had no obligation to let anyone through. The ranger said sure, but it is just common courtesy and they said "don't care they are not playing through". So we walked around them when they were on the green and they gave us the finger with a nice "F YOU". That's the kind of golfers rangers have to put up with. Since we had to skip a hole I asked if it was OK to play #1 and #9 again when we finished and the ranger thought that was a good idea. 

Edited May 1, 2024 by chisag

[MountainKing]

3 hours ago, chisag said:

 

 

... I miss the days of Joe's rangers at Cog Hill telling a slow group they need to pick up the pace as a 1st warning. 2nd warning was pick up your ball and catch up to the group in front if they feel behind. 3rd time was pick up your balls and head to the clubhouse and get a refund. 

... Praise Bluff had some ex cops as rangers the I played there and didn't hesitate to tell slow groups to pick up their pace. Although we were twosome that caught a slower 4some on #12 with 3 holes open in front of them and asked the ranger to tell them we would like to play through on the 13th hole. They refused and said thy were within the recommended time and had no obligation to let anyone through. The ranger said sure, but it is just common courtesy and they said "don't care they are not playing through". So we walked around them when they were on the green and they gave us the finger with a nice "F YOU". That's the kind of golfers rangers have to put up with. Since we had to skip a hole I asked if it was OK to play #1 and #9 again when we finished and the ranger thought that was a good idea. 

 

When I worked at Naperbrook many moons back we'd remove guys as well. Then the warning was on the first tee and if you fell out of place you'd be moved into place.   Almost every weekend it happened, and it's always one if those groups in the 10am hour. .   With courses having zero issues filing the tee sheet these days I wish that would come back.  Shrink the game is my 2024 motto.

[mci711]

There was a guy who worked for me when I worked in golf that was an awesome ranger. My favorite move of his was when we had a group driving in fairways during CPO. He warned them. We saw them on 9, he went out there and told them they had to leave and took the cart keys out of the cart. They had to walk the rest of the hole. I was just an assistant, so I didn't deal with them. They got into it with the Pro though. It is a no win situation, especially with all of the crazies out there now. 

[chisag]

3 hours ago, MountainKing said:

 

When I worked at Naperbrook many moons back we'd remove guys as well. Then the warning was on the first tee and if you fell out of place you'd be moved into place.   Almost every weekend it happened, and it's always one if those groups in the 10am hour. .   With courses having zero issues filing the tee sheet these days I wish that would come back.  Shrink the game is my 2024 motto.

 

 

... You would think keeping up with the group in front of you is just standard procedure and common sense. But whenever I am paired up with a slow group (thankfully pretty rare) it is almost always the same. They are completely unaware of the fact that other players are also on the course. Their world exits in a 20 foot circle and they are oblivious to anyone outside that bubble. 

... The fact that they never wait on any tee box and there can be up to two groups on the tee behind us doesn't even seem to register with them. I always felt if they played behind a r-e-a-l-l-y slow group and they actually had to wait, it may open their eyes. And fwiw, this has been boomers as well as the younger crowd. Some people are just selfish. 

[Shriner]

There are definitely a lot of new golfers on the courses nowadays, and there are many people who have the mentality of...."I paid the greens fee, so I get to play at my pace"

 

There is a flipside though, we have all dealt with the ranger who didn't have a clue.  I didn't post but we played Sunday at Prairie Bluff around 830am.  It was such bad conditions that two of our foursome really would have canceled if I wasnt so persistent!  Course had standing water in most fairways to the point where you had to watch where you walked.  Throw in the insane wind gusts and there were shots that were simply unplayable.  I watched as the ball would oscillate on the tee when teeing off...something to behold.  Anyway, We were on the 9th tee box at about 1:55 into the round and ranger used an F-Bomb and says something about someone having a baby, gotta speed it up.  Uhhhh buddy, we can barely walk through the fairways, there is no one on the entire par 5 8th hole, literally not one group....what are we even doing here?  

 

As someone above said though, alot of crazies out there so why take a chance.  It's a tough gig to be a ranger, not what it used to be.

[Shriner]

55 minutes ago, chisag said:

 

 

... You would think keeping up with the group in front of you is just standard procedure and common sense. But whenever I am paired up with a slow group (thankfully pretty rare) it is almost always the same. They are completely unaware of the fact that other players are also on the course. Their world exits in a 20 foot circle and they are oblivious to anyone outside that bubble. 

... The fact that they never wait on any tee box and there can be up to two groups on the tee behind us doesn't even seem to register with them. I always felt if they played behind a r-e-a-l-l-y slow group and they actually had to wait, it may open their eyes. And fwiw, this has been boomers as well as the younger crowd. Some people are just selfish. 

 

100% correct, slow play is NOT age related at all, just a course etiquette issue.

[MountainKing]

Big Run on Sunday.   Really glad we're getting all this rain, it's no fun playing there when the fairways are shorter than us open rough.

[mci711]

10 hours ago, MountainKing said:

Big Run on Sunday.   Really glad we're getting all this rain, it's no fun playing there when the fairways are shorter than us open rough.

 

They haven't turn it into houses yet? Thats a shame... Kidding we need all of the courses we can with the amount of golfers now a days. 

[MountainKing]

3 hours ago, mci711 said:

 

They haven't turn it into houses yet? Thats a shame... Kidding we need all of the courses we can with the amount of golfers now a days. 

 

They haven't and they won't - the farmer won't give up the land needed and they aren't able to get water into that area to support a residential area.  From what I was told the refinery over that way purchased the land and there's no real timeline to what will actually happen.  The guy who gave me this info said they are on a lease right now that ends next year, unsure if they'll re-up the lease or close it then.   Now this is all hearsay at this point, but the guy who told me this has played every Sunday @ Big Run for the last 30 years, and the details were rather specific/odd to just be randomly made up. 

[ldchristopher]

On 5/3/2024 at 11:26 AM, MountainKing said:

 

They haven't and they won't - the farmer won't give up the land needed and they aren't able to get water into that area to support a residential area.  From what I was told the refinery over that way purchased the land and there's no real timeline to what will actually happen.  The guy who gave me this info said they are on a lease right now that ends next year, unsure if they'll re-up the lease or close it then.   Now this is all hearsay at this point, but the guy who told me this has played every Sunday @ Big Run for the last 30 years, and the details were rather specific/odd to just be randomly made up. 

I’ll miss Big Fun when it’s gone. It gets hate for being inconsistently maintained (understandable) and difficult (don’t get that beef). They should try to get a LIV event. PERFECT clubhouse. Would change nothing. 

[ssp]

Played Whitetail Ridge today.  Very enjoyable.

[MountainKing]

1 hour ago, ldchristopher said:

I’ll miss Big Fun when it’s gone. It gets hate for being inconsistently maintained (understandable) and difficult (don’t get that beef). They should try to get a LIV event. PERFECT clubhouse. Would change nothing. 

Big Run still sits in my top 10 in IL.  I'll always put layout over conditions.   There's nothing fun to me about playing a course with pristine  conditions that's non stop driver and wedge.

[Holy Moses]

On 4/26/2024 at 9:36 AM, MountainKing said:

 

I almost for sure think we're going to see several scores under 60.  I'm guessing they'll play it as a par 70.  Bolignbrook hes zero defense from that level of golf, even whipping winds won't do it.  It's short by pro standards, fairways are really generous, plenty of room to miss tee shots on most holes, greens are very mundane and won't be flying in the fall.   Rich Harvest I know never wanted them, I know they asked Floss and multiple other privates and all got turned down.  I'm guessing they also went through about 20 other public courses and got No's before landing on Bolingbrook.  What a joke.

Rich Harvest never wanted them? Then why did they have LIV events there?

[Holy Moses]

Blackstone is $100 during prime weekend hours now. Is that $15 more than last year? 

[ldchristopher]

20 minutes ago, Holy Moses said:

Rich Harvest never wanted them? Then why did they have LIV events there?

Jerry Rich was/is desperate to host a tour event. He settled for LIV but has a membership that I’m sure didn’t appreciate giving up tee times for the black sheep of golf tours. I don’t know about “never wanted” but LIV was never the tour Rich wanted on his property. 

[ldchristopher]

Whisper Creek today with Bear. It was in pretty decent shape by Whisper standards. Very lush yet the fairways were offering roll. The greens were recently rolled as well. Not fast but smoother than usual. There was fresh sand in the bunkers on the front but the big fairway traps on the back and the giant one on 15 are either filled with weeds or ground under repair. They look like they’re being gradually converted into native areas, like 16 at GDN. Just too big a hassle for Billy Casper to maintain as traps. I don’t think I’ve ever played there with a Northwest breeze. Very pleasant. I hit the ball really well and finally got birdies to drop on 17 and 18. 73. 

Edited May 5, 2024 by ldchristopher

[mci711]

1 hour ago, ldchristopher said:

Jerry Rich was/is desperate to host a tour event. He settled for LIV but has a membership that I’m sure didn’t appreciate giving up tee times for the black sheep of golf tours. I don’t know about “never wanted” but LIV was never the tour Rich wanted on his property. 

 

Rich Harvest Farms has no business hosting a PGAT event either. They told him they'd need to make a bunch of changes. As nice as it is, it is a bit of a Mickey Mouse layout. 

[MountainKing]

3 hours ago, Holy Moses said:

Rich Harvest never wanted them? Then why did they have LIV events there?

 

From what I was told,  they wrote him an enormous check, and funneled money into some charities he supported.