Where are you playing tomorrow - Chicago (Round 3)

[psygolf]

A member who had broken 80 several times, but never at the home course, was frustrated...I told him to play a few rds by yourself where you play short-front of every green, then force yourself to get up & down the entire round.

He shot 78 not long after, with a low of 75 later on that season.

I learned the short game from caddying for grey-haired ladies that collected pars & bogeys all day, but couldn’t hit the ball 150yds...Driver, 4wd, 4wd...chip, putt. lol

[reperna]

one buddy lives in lincoln park, but ill most likely be staying with the other one who lives in aurora. Looking to play 36 holes in a day. I want to get dubsdread in, but it sounds like the other 3 courses arent worth it. what else is close enough by that would be a nice pairing?

[DavePelz4]

Our group played Bartlett Hills yesterday and managed to dodge the quick rain shower. The Hills are in great shape, greens were fast and hard and 1 only saw 1 shot yesterday stop where it landed or spin back. Tons and tons of roll out.

Post round we were enjoying a Shandy on the veranda. We were sitting on the far right side with no view of the 18th tee. Some jack rabbit hit a huge hook, didn't yell FORE and a ball landed in a recently emptied chair, and ended up hitting me in the chest and somehow instinctually, I caught the ball. The perpetrator of that shot didn't even have the courtesy to say anything and played 18 like nothing happened. I threw the ball back to him, let him know he hit me and he just left the ball there as if that would make everything OK. Have a nice little bruise on the sternum today.

[chisag]

 

... I love wide open courses IF they have scenic views, lots of wild life and no houses. Of course I love a good tree lined course that has those same attributes. I live in Bolingbrook and would choose Mistwood and then Cantigny over Bolingbrook GC. He!! I like Prairie Bluff more than BGC. While the layout is nice with a few interesting holes, I find most of BGC kinda boring and of course too many homes. Any course with as much land as BGC that has zero wildlife is always a red flag for me. I think Dubs Dread and Mistwood would be a great two day golf trip and they are close enough to easily get in both with a nice lunch in-between.

[Argonne69]

Mistwood would be a good pairing with Dubs. It's going to be pricey, but it'll be worth it. Mistwood and Dubs are ~20 minutes apart. Out near Aurora I'd pair Cantigny with Prairie Landing.

[Argonne69]

For the life of me I will never understand why somebody is hesitant to yell fore. If there's nobody there, no harm. Better safe than sorry.

[chisag]

 

... Just embarrassed and it is dumb. I play with strangers a lot and the amount of times someone either said nothing or a weak little "fore" that only our group might hear is mind boggling. I have no problem screaming FORE! for my ball or anyone in my group to protect those in the line of fire.

[Eagleman]

That’s something I never understood, I would be way more embarrassed if I hit someone and did not yell fore. I sometimes have poor depth perception and if my ball is in line with a group ahead I will yell fore, even if the ball is 50 or 100 yards short because at the time I have the cold feeling in my stomach that I just sent a white rock in the direction of an unexpecting person, I want them to know to duck.

 

played Dubs yesterday. Course is in very good shape and greens are speeding up and healing well after being aerated this spring. Had my best day putting ever and had 25 putts for the round and no three putts. The driver is still causing most of my issues. Which brings up my question to you all, who do you all see for lessons and who do you recommend? I live in Channahon, but I am willing to drive up to an hour. Thanks!

[Well Played]

Tough round yesterday in the late afternoon winds at Preserve at Oak Meadows before the storms rolled through. But I gotta say that course has settled nicely, and am really loving the new layout. Fun and unique layout that is challenging but fair, in really good shape right now, great bunkers and pace of play right at 4 hours.

My only criticism - like others - the slow greens... and I mean sloooooow. I just don’t get it. They are in good shape, and provide a true roll, so that makes them playable, but just shaggy and slow. I think the value overall right now is solid for the area. Having said that, I’d pay a lot more for this track if they figure out the greens.

Happy Father’s Day!

[geochitown]

I really like Todd Sones, but that’s too far for you

Kevin Weeks at Cog Hill is supposed to be good as well, and closer

 

[geochitown]

There are a lot of courses near Dubs for a good 36 hole day

money no object, definitely Mistwood

10 years ago, my friends and I did a Mistwood/Big Run day.

prairie Bluff is closer to Mistwood, I remember driving by it as I drove from Mistwood to Big Run

you could also play Ruffled Feathrrs (Pete Dye course) right next to Cog, but not sure how good it’s been conditioning wise

 

 

 

[geochitown]

Near Aurora, Prairie Landing /Cantigny is solid, as already mentioned

it’s too bad conditioning at Orchard Valley isn’t better, as that is a solid layout, I think.

[mci711]

John Platt at Mistwood. He is the swing coach of a ton of the top chicago area junior golfers, college kids and obviously "normal" players. He works primarily with single handicaps, he has a really good system of coaching though. I find it really helpful and simplified.

Kevin Weeks is overrated. And the rankings aren't very reliable....$$

[reperna]

Looks like we’re doing dubs and mistwood. Thanks for all the advice guys!

[psygolf]

More important to match the type of instruction the student responds to best to the teacher that teaches that way.

[mci711]

100%. The only way to do that is try teachers out though, specially if you've never had lessons.

[VNutz]

Gotta take it with a grain of salt..the elderly bruise easily I hear.

[geochitown]

Todd Sones did a nice series on facebook during the stay in place time.

Covers full swing in a bunch of mini-episodes.

Called "Critical Moves"

[DavePelz4]

Ouch...in more ways than 1!

[geochitown]

Hope you are healing up

[DavePelz4]

Thanks for the kind thoughts! Sadly, I inflicted more pain during Saturday's round on myself than was caused by getting hit.

[Argonne69]

Frustrating day at Wilmette. Ever have one of those rounds where a million and one things conspire to annoy you? On the positive side I did get to play with two excellent junior golfers. It was fun to watch the two high school sophomores carve up the course. The issues started on the first tee. The foursome in front of us had two players running late, so two teed off, expecting the other two to catch up. When we were clear to hit the two juniors, playing from the back tees, hit their balls. I then walked on to the gold tees to put a tee in the ground. One of the two missing players decided he couldn't wait 15 seconds for me to hit, and decided to race his cart up the fairway while I got to stand there and watch. WTF. After he cleared the landing area I addressed my ball, and just as I was about to start my swing a maintenance worker cut right across the front of the teebox. 'Didn't even bother to turn his head and see if anyone was hitting, just a buzz across the fairway heading to the 9th green. FFS. 'Same bloody thing happened on the 3rd tee. On the fourth tee I was ready to hit when two players on the 17th hole decided to stroll out into our landing area. No look at our teebox to see if it was safe. Of course one of the two players managed to hit the ball ~50 yds up our fairway, so I got to watch him stroll in our direction and wait for him to hit his third. Ugh. The skies opened up on the 6th hole for ~10 minutes of downpour. 'Not enough to do the grass any good, but heavy enough to get our gear wet, and increase the humidity by 1000%. The four knuckleheads in front of us must have thought they were made of sugar and spice, because instead of playing through the squall, or pulling out of the way, they decided to sit in their carts near the 6th green, preventing us from hitting our approaches. The groups behind us must have appreciated the holdup.

I thought we caught a break at the turn. There was league play in front of the foursome, but they only played 9 holes. The back was wide open, and I thought the group in front might let us play through. Yeah, right. You just know it's going to be one of those days when you get four dudes in carts playing from the tips and spraying the ball every which way. I don't recall seeing any of them in the fairway up to that point. After following them through two holes on the back, and with no indication that they'd acknowledge us and let us through, we skipped the par 3 12th, and headed straight to the 13th. In front of us was a wide open course, and we finished the round in 3:30.

Course conditions tee to green were decent. However, for the 2nd time in a few weeks the greens appeared to have been punched. They were rolling at good speed, but the holes were knocking the putts offline. What am I missing? Who punches greens in June?

In spite of the play stoppages, distractions, and general nits, I had a good round, which was a surprise. A few loose drives, but 12 greens. Only one birdie on the punched greens, though.

The Preserve tomorrow. Hopefully the t-storms won't be an issue.

 

[ldchristopher]

Harbor Country today for 36 in Southwest Michigan. We played Hawkshead and Beeches. Hawkshead doesn’t advertise their walking rate but at $40 on a weekday Bear and I got outstanding value for the course. It was in excellent shape, though since the entire course is built on sand, it had some brown spots in fairways. The greens were very good. They weren’t ultra fast but they probably ran at 9.5 or 10 and were country club-smooth. That’s a really good layout in my opinion, and the types of holes it features aren’t in the Chicago area. It isn’t as difficult as some other Arthur Hills courses around here and definitely lacks the teeth of a Washington County or a Stonewall, but it’s a fair test. I hit all but one fairway en route to a 76.

Beeches is a little different. It’s not as aesthetically appealing as Hawkshead but it plays long. We didn’t bother with the tips but maybe we should have since on a number of holes the blue tees were no more than four or five paces from the blacks. The greens there are monstrous and several have almost cartoonish undulation. The most hilarious part is, the super tricked out greens aren’t on short par 4’s or 5’s. Nope, they’re on 3’s that are already over 200 yards and 4’s that are over 430. Because that’s necessary. Anyway, I won’t complain because I hit the ball extremely well, pounded fairways off the tee, hit plenty of greens and used my wedges to put chips into tap-in range. I dropped one long birdie putt on 11 but missed a 4 footer for bird on 16. 72.

A few minor details worth noting: Hawkshead has regular cups. No pool noodles or anything. First course I’ve seen all year that had that. Also, Beeches had a number of water coolers on the course. Thank God too, because it was crazy humid and in the mid 80’s, with no shelter from the midday sun.

[mci711]

I would have into a couple of people, you're a better person than me.

[Dashfast]

Played Warren Golf Course at Notre Dame today and it was a real treat. Still played like the 10HCP that I am, which was a bummer, but the course was kind of perfect. It was like a parkland / links hybrid. Maybe a little punishing at times (some tough greens thrown in as well), but you got to work on all aspects of your game. I struggled with fairways and my wedges, but my irons and putter were working well enough. The people were super friendly and the hospitality touches were great (complimentary bottles of water, friendly regulars, good staff). Highly recommend.

[mci711]

Been trying to get out there this year. They were closed later than like everyone else for Covid. I've never been and it is tops on my "area" list before I move. Need to get there and play the Purdue courses as well.

[Argonne69]

If you're in South Bend, Blackthorn is worth pairing with Warren.

 

[Argonne69]

Sigh. Cart path only at The Preserve. It's going to be a long day. On a positive note, the practice green is rolling 10 to 11. Nice.

[BC33]

You couldn't be more right! Blackthorn and the Warren are two very different courses and are both fantastic. Not very similar and I always feel as though they are in two different states as Blackthorn almost has a Carolina feel to it.

I've got business in Elkhart so I always try to play those two, one on the way in, the other on the way out. Another good course out that way is Meadow Valley Golf Club in Middlebury IN. Located east of Elkhart, It's reasonably priced and has a few picturesque holes.

Hopefully I'm able to travel for work soon so I can hit all three.

[cpeck12]

Hawkshead is a great course and nice change of pace from what we're used to in Chicago. We have a place in South Haven and I always try to play either Hawkshead or the Ravines when we're up there. I was also very surprised when we played 2 weeks ago to see there was no noodle or anything in the cups.

 

Going up for the 4th and will likely play the Ravines. In all my years going up to South Haven, I've actually never played Beeches. Will have to check it out soon.