Kwhitlock80

We should have known that something was amiss when we pulled into the parking lot at 7:30 AM to see two cars in the lot. Door was locked and the course was opening at 8 AM - never saw that before as normally a course will have had about 1.5 to 2 hours of tee times already on the course.

No driving range - just a ripped up screen to hit a ball in - not sure if the ball would not rip through the screening. NO putting green.

Carpeting in the pro shop might be the original shag carpeting from 1948. I am pretty sure I saw remants of a spagetti dinner that was in the shag carpeting from 2016. When we asked the guy working the register if we were a two-some, he laughed a bit and said "Yeah". That should have been another dead give away.

No tee signs on any holes to tell you what hole you are driving up to. Causes a problem in areas with tee boxes in the same area. Tee boxes are awful - not cut with very high grass on them in clumps. To say that they have a gopher hole problem is an understatement - I can estimate 2000-3000 of them. If you remember the scene from the movie Caddy Shack when Carl Spackler (Bill Murray) turns on the sprinkler system and he sees all the geysers shooting up water, that is about right here.

Grass is green due to the rain but you cannot tell what is fairway and what is rough. Greens are small and if you put a stimp meter on them, they might roll at a 6. Grass on the greens should not be blowing in the wind with a mild breeze. Club house is something out of The Shining - I was waiting for little Danny to be running from Jack Nickelson with an axe in his hands. This property is a perfect scenario to see someone like Leather Face from Texas Chain Saw Massacre running through the holes as an additional hazzard.

No sand in the bunkers - this saves on investing in rakes.

There are a few good layout holes but they are so poorly conditioned, your only goal is to finish without breaking an ankle.

Took us 5 hours to play 15 holes. We decided to just walk in.

$9 for a small reange ball bucket seems a bit extreme.

For November, the greens rolled well ( a number of them were recently aerated and top soiled - taking that into consideration, I can see where these are good greens.

Fun layout with some open and some tight holes. Multiple tee boxes for all players.

Nice layout - greens were a little slow. Bunkers were well done! I like the course - I would recommend it.

This is an old time Country Club feel to a course that is outstanding from tee to green. Rough was long - a true penalty for missing the fairways. Greens roll very well. Food service and staff are outstanding. This is one of the best kept secrets in the far North suburbs as you have other courses like Thunder Hawk and Sheppard's Crook not to far away. This is the jewel of Waukeganites and they are proud of it.

Only issues are 3:
1. Upgrade the driving range if possible
2. The need for new range balls on occasion
3. Somehow go on a campaign to educate golfers to fix ball marks. Great greens but they get pounded from people not wanting to bend over. Maybe invest in ball repair tools to give at the first tee and have the starter go through how a player fixes them. You do get new players out there and they don't know. Fix your mark and 1-2 more on every green - that should be the slogan.

Had a great day on this course. I have played it in very tough weather and today - for the time of the year, it was very good. I recommend this course for good players - it is a real gem. Long par 5's over 570 years and you cannot hit them in two. Greens roll well - course was set up to lay very long and it was alot of fun.

Only negative is not the courses issue - more the players that are playing there. BEND YOUR FAT BUTTS OVER AND FIX YOUR BALL MARK AND ONE OTHER WHILE YOU ARE AT IT!!! I fixed 20 on every hole and I still didn't get to all of them. It is embarrassing to see a really good course like this and how people's golf ediquette is to fixing ball marks and replacing their divots. I would recommend they put some seed on the carts to fix divots.

A course that is perfect for every type of golfer - you just don't find many of these types around. I love the history of this Club - and it has alot of charm. Unusual layout with only one Par 3 on the back night - only 3 total. It has numerous tee boxes that allows players of all skill level to play. It is a challenging enough course for me to play from the back while my son-in -law and daughter can play the white tees. Another great sign is that it isn't fill with water hazards where the novice player loses 8-10 balls a round.

Fun set up on holes - outstanding greens and locations for pins that bring false fronts into play - forcing you to hit towards the middle of the greens on some of those front pins. On 9 and 18, you need to stay below the hole in order to score. Good location of bunkers and the course is well maintained. What I also love about this place is the way the locals and regular players treat this golf course - they respect it and treat it like a private club.

I play BonnieBrook, Thunderhawk and Sheperds Crook on a regular basis. These are 3 unique courses and they are all excellent. What I love about the Brook is bringing family members out here to spend time with them on a course that is fair for all of us when it comes to skill level. I cannot take them to the other two - too hard.

Only negative is the driving range. It is a bit short and the quality of the golf balls are beyond bad. Trying to work around the little creek should be looked at in order to flatten this facility out a little. It is an eyesore to a great facility. At least you do have one here - Shepperd's Crook doesn't have this. Would also be nice to have a chipping green but I know room could be an issue. Shrinking the putting green and locating this between that and the driving range could be an option.

Regardless - this is the best thing going in the town of Waukegan - just a fun place to play. I really love this course.

Poorly conditioned fairways. The course is more weeds in the fairway with burned out fairway grass and dirt. Greens were okay and they rolled fairly well.

Slow play - no marshall or beverage cart. For an older or beginner player, this course will work for you. I played their due to its location.

From 1995-2002, I played Midlane on a permanent time and was a member that brought some attractive playing privlidges. Bad then, Midlane was easily one of the best courses in the Northern suburbs. Fast greens, lush fairways, weekly events for the weekend players, a nice bar/restaurant and other amenities. I left to join in at Thunderhawk when they opened their doors, but would come back to Midlane a few times a year. You saw a gradual deterioration of this course over time as they sold a chunck of the real estate to developers and shrunk the course from 27 to 18 holes.

What I saw yesterday was a train wreck - an embarrassment of a once solid facility. If there was ever a year that courses should be in great shape with Covid causing the season to start late and a summer with the right amount of rain - this is the year. Midlane has never looked worse. Third hole fairway is destroyed from flooded water that burned out the fairway, now just dirt and burnt out grass. Brown spots all over once great greens that shows that the lack of water must be hurting them. No ranger to keep the pace of play up - resulting in a 4:45 round with two carts and four quick players. We were informed by the beverage cart woman that "last call" before she stopped working was happening on the 9th hole - IT WAS 1:30 PM IN THE AFTERNOON!!! THE MONEY LEFT ON THE TABLE AND THE FACT THT YOU HAVE NO WATER JUGS ON THE COURSE DURING A BRIGHT, SUNNY DAY, IS HARD TO BELIEVE. SELLING MORE BEVERAGES TOT HE CROWDED GOLF COURSE MIGHT JUST BRING INT E REVENUE YOU NEED TO FIX THE COURSE. We went in to grab a bag of waters/beers at the turn and see that the girls working the golf counter and the head pro were calling it a day. No one to replace them but an assistant and a bartender.

I think the Kyatt family may still own this facility. They should look to see if there is a buyer for this once great course, they clearly stopped caring. The layout is a good one and the greens do hold well. It is like watching something in front of your eyes just die over time - very sad. I doubt I will ever be back - I will go to Bonnie Brook, ThunderHawk or Sheppard's Crook. Midlane was a big part of my golfing life for a number of years with a bunch of buddies that I played with. We have all since left - this course does not deserve attention until an owner shows he is willing to get this place back to its better days. Very sad.

Course was in rough shape with few amenities available. That is to be expected as weather usually doesn't allow courses to take care of it yet with rolling/cutting greens, fairways, etc. This is a good course for the average golfer.

Fox Bend was very playable for this time of the year in Chicago. With the sun out, there was a lot of players. No electric carts forced all to walk, making the round much longer than it normally would be. We were not upset, the fact we are playing in an UnderArmour shirt at this time of the year make it very enjoyable.
I am sure this course is well worth playing. A sign of a good course is when you have sets of tees for every level of player and FB had that. We saw younger and older playing different tees and enjoying themselves. I would not hesitate to play this course during the normal golf season. Good staff and they cared to make the experience fun. Price was incredible!! Amenities grade is low only because the restaurant/bar was closed since it is the off-season. Not a big deal.

Conditions were not ideal. Very wet, with drizzling rain, soaked fairways, and a lot of wind. Reminded me of playing on a typical Scottish day.

Solid layout and with these conditions, this course played about 7000 yards. Incredible 651 yard par five 14th hole to go along with a par 3 that played 254. This course has it all when it comes to a challenge. Very tough pins on this day that once I played this course once, I will know which ones to attack and which to play safe on.

On the negative side, the course only had one guy running the whole show, making it impossible to get any food or drink at the turn. Incredibly slow play and without a marshall, it made it tough for our 2-some to play through. Though the weather scared most away from the course, one foursome held up the whole course and would not let anyone play through. Definite lack of course etiquette with some of these older guys out on the course. I had my daughter playing with me and they didn't even think of letting us through. The fact that she was a much better player than all of them was not even considered. We jumped from the 10th tee to the 14th hole just to get in front of the slow play. By the time I hit the 18th tee, the old group in front of us were on the 12th green!

Ball marks were rampant but I think that was from a large outing there the day before.

I want to play this course in good weather. It is a great layout and there are tee boxes for every kind of golfer.

This is a good course that is challenging for all levels of players. Speed of play was very good and the layout of the course is very good where you have to work the ball in both directions off the tee. Fairways are narrow to hit while the rough was just long enough to make a player pay if they were not on the fairway. Only issue I had was with the dryness of the greens to the point that you would hit some great shots to greens that did not hold. In some cases, the first bounce would be substantially high and these were even to greens with false fronts. I know I played much better than my score indicated as you would have to club down in order to let the ball roll on the green in order to keep it somewhat close to the pin. Firing right at pins that were middle or back of the green was a guarantee of winding up over the green. Greens had great speed to them which was excellent and being below the hole is a definite advantage. I like the course but the greens keeper needs to throw a little water on the greens.

Beautiful weather, course was in great shape considering the amount of rain over this summer. Greens were very quick and pin placements were in very challenging spots.

Play was very slow - two deep on some of the par 3's and we had to wait on every shot. Round was 5+ hours and basically took up the whole day for us.
Two suggestions:
1. Invest in a marshall on the course. Find the group that is slow and have them skip a hole to speed up play. Let that group go back to play the hole they skipped at the completion of their round.

2. A lot of the golf balls at the range are very old. May want to check which ones should be retired. Bad look.

I love this course nd 99% of the things about it. Great to have the grill working outside after the 9th hole!!

I really liked Midlane in the past. I had played on a permanent tee time and had a membership there for 5 years. I left for Thunderhawk years ago but I come back to play this course 1-2 times per year. I was really surprised how poorly maintained this course was on Memorial Day weekend - a time when courses should be showing themselves off. Not one bunker was raked by the grounds crew, greens were not cut and much slower than other years. There were an incredible amount of weeds growing in the rough, an obvious sign of lack of upkeep. The management also let customers drive carts everywhere and during this rainy period of weather, the carts have ripped this course up a lot. My guess is that ownership is not doing well with the course or it’s hotel and banquet facilities and they just aren’t putting the money into it for the upkeep. I have always liked the layout and if the deal wasn’t good, I would not play here for full price. Sheppard,s Crook or Thunder Hawk are much better.