Where are you playing tomorrow - Chicago (Round 3)

[Symphonize]

Played Bowes Creek for the first time this morning. Really enjoyed it. Greens were soft and my chipping was on point. Got up to a gimmie putt 4 times and made up and down to 4-6 foot range another two times. Shot a 98, but a 10 on a par 5 and 3 8’s on par 4’s... turn those into doubles and I am at an 89 and breaking 90.

[Eagleman]

Played Mistwood today, and I have to say, I love that course. Greens are quick and conditions are wonderful. Ball marks on the greens aren’t being repaired but that’s not the course’s fault. I fixed as many as I could while waiting for my playing partners to putt, as long as I wasn’t in their line of sight. Driver is finally figured out, but 100-120 yards and I’m all over the place. Either knifing them or getting under them to much and coming up way short. I ended up hitting a bunch of different wedges after the round with the help of my coach Chris Ioriatti and I will most likely be getting rid of my Pm grinds for some SM8s. PMs are great for around the green, but very hard to hit longer shots. Overall a great day. Shot an 84 and hopefully getting my game together!

[B-Man]

 

Played way out west yesterday at 7,666 feet. Kinda crazy fun when you can drive through the green on a 300yrd hole into the wind. Oh, and the locals were most inconsiderate on this par 3.

[taylorx300]

 

I played yesterday at 6,831 feet for the first time. The ball does travel 8-10 further. Very fu

[taylorx300]

Very fun golf course

[Argonne69]

A very nice afternoon at Pleasant View GC just west of Madision. The terrain feels a lot like Univeristy Ridge a mile away, but the course is by no means at the same level. 'Decent design with some fun holes, and a number of snoozers. There are 3 nines, and I played the Prairie/Woods combination. As the names suggest, the opening nine was primarily prairie-style with three 5's, three fours, and three 3's, and the back a traditional parkland style. The clubhouse sits at the top of a ridge, and the Prairie plays down to the low area (1st tee pic below), and then climbs back up for the 9th. The Woods is up and down for most of the holes, and was my favorite. Conditions were OK. A few dead spots in the fairways. Greens were quite nice for an inexpensive track, rolling 9 or so. Sand was playable. Place was a bit on the slow side at 4:25, but not out of character for a Saturday afternoon.

Nice day ballstriking with 10/13 fairways, and 13 greens. The par 5's played short, and I managed three birdies and five bogies on the day. A couple of very nice drives allowed me to nearly reach two of the 5's, setting up two birdies.

Can't say I'd recommend the course. University Ridge is much nicer all around, but if you're in the area and looking for something different or cheaper, it won't disappoint.

Full photo set: Pleasant View

 

[TheBear95]

I was out fishing in McHenry Co. today and decided to give Boone Creek a try for a late afternoon round. My first-time there. Played the Prairie/Creekside combo.

Nice setting. That said, I feel they could have done way more with the design. I don't know if it was a cost issue or they wanted to create a short course for the Average Joe, but they certainly have the room to create a stellar 18 hole course on the property. The creeks that flow throughout the course could have been utilized to a far greater degree to create demanding tee shots or approaches.

There was some overgrowth to contend with on the back tees on a number of the tee shots, which definitely added a little spice to the round. Otherwise, it was a fairly benign course tee-to-green. The greens were excellent though. That was a pleasant surprise.

[St Jimmy]

 

I went there after work on Friday and played the middle and right courses (if facing them from the club house). Quite a few "blind" tee shots due to trees/bushes as you said and the greens were very good. Fairly large too.

That being said, It was a constant feeling of deja vu since half the holes are practically the same. I asked my buddy more than once if we already played this hole. Don't think I'll be returning for awhile.

[taylorx300]

Boone was an old sod farm that opened as a 18 hole. Then added the Valley nine. I had my one and only Ace at the course which was also the first ace recorded at Boone so it has a special place in my heart. Hole 11 ( now 2 on Creekside) 148 yard 8 iron.

[ldchristopher]

We played Cardinal Creek in Beecher this morning. There's some clever photography on the course website that makes the place look better than it is. Alas, while I called it "the Oakmont of Beecher," that's only because there's no competition and in reality it's not much to look at. We were originally slated to play the Cardinal (North) nine and the Crooked Creek (Center) nine but when we made the turn, there was a line of carts on the first tee of the Center course. The person working in the pro shop said he didn't expect us to get around so quickly so instead he sent us off the Road (South) nine, which was wide open. I didn't really understand his reasoning. If we play in, say, 90 minutes instead of 70 we would have been stuck behind even more carts. But props to him for just moving us to the open nine. The Cardinal course is a 3-3-3 set-up. It has homes off a handful of holes and the entire course is extremely flat. It's just past Balmoral Woods off of 394 but the terrain is more like Deer Creek (another nearby 394 course). It's got one longish (422 yard) 4 and the 5's 531, 513, and 526, so there's not much length. I was even through the first three holes and holed out from 90 yards for eagle on the 4th hole, which is a short 513-yard par 5. I had visions of going really low but my ball striking wasn't as consistent as it was earlier in the week and I bogied two easy par 3's to finish the front even.

The Road course had a bit more teeth. It also only has one long 4 (442 yards) but it was a little better looking and had less homes. The third hole was weird because it's only 334 but it has a huge creek that forces players to either lay up short of 150 or hit driver and carry it at least 240. It's a more conventional set-up with two 3's and two 5's. I bogied the longer of the two 5's. It was listed at 550 but was uphill to an elevated green and into the wind, so it was playing more like 580. I had plenty of chances to get my bogey back with a birdie but couldn't get a putt outside 6 feet to drop. One other critique of note: the whole place had a faint but noticeable septic smell. Not the kind of aroma a person just gets used to. Anyway, I finished with a 73 and we played in 2:40, so the course served its purpose for me.

[DavePelz4]

Played an afternoon round at Springbrook yesterday. Have played hundreds of rounds there and the fairways were in the worst conditions I can remember. Not sure if they have a fungus or disease but there were bare spots everywhere. The greens and bunkers were in good shape and the greens rolled fast and nicely.

Was paired up with part of a small outing celebrating the passing of a golfing uncle. Nice enough people but there was THAT GUY in the group I was in. Happy Gilmore swing, twirling the club on the tee box and then swinging and on the 6th hole, he got lost for at least 10 minutes and we had to wait for him. Apparently in their competition there are multiple mulligans allowed and if you hit the ball in the junk, you're not penalized. One of the other guys in the group said he putted for birdie on every hole on the front but he only hit 1 green in reg. Whatever. He didn't like the fact that I hit more than a few shots past him and would look for his ball 50 yards up from mine when he was behind. On the 17th hole I pulled an iron left into the bunker, his ball rolled into the front of the bunker but he went 20 yards over the green, dropped a ball and played that one. I suggested to him that his ball was in the bunker and he said he "flushed it" so he knew it went over the green. After we finished the hole, I asked what kind of ball he play playing and went over to the bunker, picked up the ball and tossed it at him and said here's your Titleist.

At the end of the round I asked what he shot and he said 74. I'm guessing it was closer to 94. As long as they had fun.

[stasek]

Haha! I should have paid attention to the warning ?‍♂️. After taking a 4w off the tee (playing into the wind), I had about 195 to the pin. Foolishly forgot to check the “green view” on the cart Gps. The hazard in front is quite obvious, but I had no idea that it wraps around the left side. What looked like a perfect 4i tracking just left of the pin wound up bouncing left and trickling into the penalty area. An ill advised attempt to chunk it out of tall grass, terrible chip, chip, 1 putt later, I wound up carding a 6 ?.

My entire round was plagued by bad decision after bad decision - took 3 tee shots off first tee to get it in play (first 2 sailed into the driving range) - easy 8. Still trying to dial in my new clubs, which meant lots of short or long approaches to the green.

The course, overall, is in good shape, with greens easily the quickest I played all year long.

[Eagleman]

Played Dubsdread today. Course is in pretty good condition, greens were a little slower then normal for some reason, rolled smooth though. It was my best round of the year so far. Shot an 82 from the blues and started and finished with the same ball, which is a first. Would have been better but my friend told me what my score was on the 17th tee and I ended up choking and finished double, double... Usually wouldn’t have gotten to me but this spring I lost my swing and after some lessons I am finally getting it back. Holed out a bunker shot on #9 from the deep bunker on the right side of the green was awesome, all I heard was a light tap on the stick and my buddy laughing. It was a great day!

 

also if you’re looking for an instructor in the south burbs, I highly suggest Chris Ioriatti from Mistwood. Phenomenal instructor and fitter. He has turned my golf game around! Can’t say enough good things about him!

[Dashfast]

@Eagleman really enjoyed John Platt over at Mistwood too.

[jimwgt26]

Preserve on Sat, the course is getting a little beat up. Not horrible, but showing the signs of August. Prairie Landing yesterday was in great shape.

After all my complaining about Club Champion. I have to admit the driver is a beast. Good shots are 10 to 20 yards longer and the bad ones are significantly better. On Prairie Landing 7, the par 5, I smoked one over the traps on the right and had 200 in. I've never come close to that before.

[VNutz]

Estes??

[VNutz]

Loved that course. Such a unique place.

[mci711]

My wife and I go to John. He is great.

[mci711]

For anyone that goes out to Michigan ever, which do you prefer - Tullymore or Pilgrim's Run? Thanks in advanced.

[VNutz]

Pilgrims by a mile. I LOVE that course, very unique and fun layout cut out of the trees. Tullymore I played once about 10 years ago, and couldn't have been more disappointed. Part of the disappointment was that we chose to play it to change things up over Arcadia, and it didn't live up to the hype for us. We all walked away wondering why it was ranked so highly.

[B-Man]

Yep. 18th hole with a birdie putt coming up. I'll let you know how it worked out after a short break.

[VNutz]

Ho hum

[DavePelz4]

Had a chance on Saturday to talk with one of the Managers at Springbrook about how the year is going. He said March/April were obviously disasters but he said through the end of July, they had caught up to the number of rounds played through July 2019 AND their range/bar/food business is well over the comparison to last year.

[Shriner]

That is great to hear! There is less to do so I am not surprised more rounds are being played but that is impressive to have already made up for the two lost months.

[Argonne69]

I guess I'm the outlier again. I preferred Tullymore to Pilgrim's Run. PR just didn't do a lot for me, and the conditioning was fairly poor when I played it.

I'd take PR over St Ives, though.

 

[Argonne69]

Nice day out at Maple Meadows. Thankfully the popup showers stayed away. Conditions were better than I expected given the rain we had yesterday. Bunkers were on the wet side, but not washed out. Greens were running slow at 8 to 9. They cut down some of the "hay", making it easier to find wayward balls. Pace was fine.

Rough front nine. Only managed 1 fairway on the 3rd. The back was much better. Only one birdie on the day, and four bogies. #8 got me again. Less than driver, and I hit the ball dead straight instead of a draw, and wind up in the junk again. Didn't I say I was simply going to hit driver last time and take my chances? Oy.

Sunset Valley tomorrow. First time out there this year.

 

[DavePelz4]

As soon as I saw the PR/Tullymore question, I knew VNutz and I would be on the opposite ends of the discussion. I agree with you on Tullymore.

[VNutz]

Well you also think Maple Meadows is harder than The Preserve, so... I kid. The conditioning at Tullymore when I played there wasn't bad, but not up to expectations or price levels. Pilgrims I've seen have some suspect conditions before as well, but my primary factor in judging a course is my enjoyment of the holes. Pilgrims has such a fun assortment (IMO) of holes, both tight par 4s with trouble and some potentially driveable ones, with some cool par 5s as well. Just my opinion though. And I do believe Pilgrims is a different price level as well.
@mci711 Here is a thread on Tullymore from someone that visited recently. Just an FYI. https://forums.golfwrx.com/discussion/1837795/tullymore-avoid-until-further-notice#latest

[mci711]

Interesting and concerning. Thanks for the comments everyone.

[DavePelz4]

Hmmm...maybe I need to start listening to VNutz.

 

Nah.