Kevin5569102

Stay away from this abomination. It’s not fit to be a cow pasture.

The crown consists of my five favorite courses in the Chicagoland area. Harborside sits atop them all. It's becoming rare to find a facility that truly cares more about delivering a superior all-around golf experience than sardining as many golfers onto the course as possible because "bottom line". The greens, bunkers and fairways are perfection. Pace of play is a joy. Course architecture is a master class in how to make a course beautiful, interesting and challenging yet fair and enjoyable for golfers of nearly every skill level (very high handicappers may lament the steady depletion of balls over the course of a round). Great practice facilities, great staff.

Before heading to this course on a weekend, check your to-do list. Maybe you need to fill out multiple long-form tax documents, knock off a few hundred pages of War and Peace, contemplate your mortality or watch the grass grow. You'll be able to do all this and more in between each and every shot while slogging through a weekend round at this otherwise decent park district layout. The condition of bunkers, fairways and greens has improved compared to past years, but 5 1/2 to 6-hour rounds are still the norm on Saturdays and Sundays. Given the relatively affordable greens fees, I'd say you're getting what you pay for, but there are plenty of quality Chicagoland courses one can play for the same price, without having the time to finish a crossword puzzle between each shot.

Unremarkable in terms of layout and course condition and priced accordingly. Sneakily challenging with a few long par 4s (#1 and #10 are both 445 yards from the Blue Tees and a couple par 3s (#5 and #12) that require perfectly placed tee shots. What stands out most is pace of play which, at times, can be best described as a death march. If you're playing after 8am on a weekend and you're just itching for a leisurely 5 1/2-hour round, this is your course. During my latest visit, there were three groups waiting at the tee box on the par 3 12th hole and the par 3 15th. If you want a better shot at finishing in four hours, make your tee time before 8am on the weekends. #4 and #17 both offer fun risk/reward challenges: if you can hit your tee shot over the trees on both holes, you'll be left with a short iron into receptive greens.