GCA poster Eric Terhorst and I, along with Eric's wife Laurie, recently played Bonnie Brook Golf Course in Waukegan, Ill. The course, opened in 1929, was designed by Jim Foulis, one of the famed Foulis brothers who emigrated from Scotland and made their mark in golf architecture, particularly in the Midwest. (For more background on the Foulis' contribution to golf, read the excellent GCA interview with St. Louis golf writer Jim Healy:
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/interviewhealey.html )
We set out for Bonnie Brook at the suggestion of regular GCA poster Dan Moore, who knew of the Foulis work there. It is part of a nascent effort by some Midwestern GCA posters to find somewhat obscure courses with strong architectural merit that deserve consideration for playing. Courses are given additional credit for encouraging (or not discouraging) walking, for lacking pretense, and for not setting back your wallet too much. GCA discussion board regulars may recall Dan's trumpeting last year of the obscure Langford/Moreau Spring Valley Golf Course, near the Illinois/Wisconsin border in Salem, WI.
Bonnie Brook sits near more acclaimed neighbors -- Robert Trent Jones Jr.'s Thunderhawk Golf Course lies just a few blocks north, and not far south is Seth Raynor's famed Shoreacres Golf Club in nearby Lake Bluff. Befitting its true muni roots, Bonnie Brook sits adjacent to a Target store and a strip mall with a Dollar General store. The course, in the classic tree-lined parkland style, has maintained its original routing. The terrain is rolling, but not hilly, and its primary feature is a creek that winds its way through several holes. The folks working the pro shop said all of the greens are original save for one (the 12th), although at least one other (the 14th) looked to my eyes to be somewhat out of character with the other greens. A comparison of a 1939 aerial dug up by Dan and the current course shows it has lost a few bunkers, particularly in the fairways. The course plays 6,626 yards from the tips, with a rating of 71.8 and a slope of 127. We played it from the blue tees at 6,294 yards (rating 70.3, slope 123.) The course also offers a set of white tees (6,026 yards) and reds (5,382 yards). Yardages cited in the text are from the blue tees. (Sorry, no pictures, as I didn't have a digital with me. The course offers some basic pictures of each hole here:
http://www.waukeganparks.org/parks_facilities/parks/bbrookmap.htmlHoles of note:
1 -- For the most part, Bonnie Brook's challenges are readily apparent from both tee and fairway, and the 1st hole sets the stage for the course to follow. From an elevated tee, the par 5 plays straightaway for 495 yards. A creek cuts directly across the fairway -- a 265-yard carry. Perhaps with a helping wind the bold and bombing player will try to carry the creek right out of the gate; most play short and use a long iron or fairway wood into a green protected on both sides by bunkers. The green is the star here -- a false front, and a sharp back-to-front tilt (sharp enough that I putted off it).
2 -- A short, dogleg-left uphill par 4 of 324 yards with another back-to-front tilted green -- a characteristic of Foulis greens. The bold golfer has to contend with trees and fairway bunkers left on an aggressive tee shot. The tall mounds running along the right side of the hole, well past the rough, keep balls from the adjacent practice range from bounding into the fairway of the 2nd.
5 -- A short, slightly doglegging left par 5 of 480 yards made interesting by Foulis' use of a ridge cutting across the middle of the hole. The ridge obscures the green for those who want to go for it in two.
7 -- A steadily rising par 4 of 357 yards that features a green sitting atop a small knob. The approach shot can be tricky, as the green is protected by bunkers left and in back, along with a clearly grassed-in bunker on the right.
9 -- The best hole on the front nine is an uphill par 4 of 358 yards with a fairway that has some significant slopes and cants; level lies are hard to come by here. The green, framed by the clubhouse in back, slopes sharply from back to front, and is guarded by a trap left and another right shared by the adjacent 18th hole.
10 -- A downhill par 4 of 428 yards with a feature all-too-uncommon on municipal courses -- a front-to-back sloping green. One of the larger and trickier greens on the course to putt. The 1939 aerial shows three cross bunkers on this hole, approximately 270 yards from the tee. Their restoration would make this good hole a potentially outstanding one.
11 -- The 11th hole begins a run of several holes where Foulis directly incorporates the creek and other water features into hole designs and strategy. The 11th is gambling par 4 of 295 yards; the creek cross the fairway at about 150 yards from the tee, then runs alongside the left side of the fairway all the way to the green. The right side of the narrow fairway past the creek features the course's largest bunker; mounds and three more bunkers surround the green. A fun hole that looks easier from the tee than it does on the green looking back up the length of the hole.
12 -- The golfer on this 363-yard par 4 crosses the creek here twice on a 90-degree dogleg right -- once on the tee shot, and again on the approach. Although heavily wooded, the trees at Bonnie Brook tend not to come into play that often. Here they do -- on the tee, the golfer is left with little choice but to play to something of an island fairway created by the creek. Some judicious tree clearing on the corner of the dogleg would allow the bold golfer to take a chance in clearing the creek twice in one shot.
16 -- A very good risk-and-reward par 4 of 342 yards. The creek (quite wide at this point) again cuts across the fairway; from the blues, it's a 223-yard carry. The green is small and narrow, with a sharp back-to-front slope, and well-protected by deep bunkers left and right. Carry the creek, and you're left with a wedge into the green. Play short with a long iron or fairway wood, and you're left with an uphill approach shot of about 150 yards -- not an onerous shot, but one that's a club or two longer (at least) than the bold player willing to take on the creek. Eric noted this would be an excellent match-play hole, given where it sits in the round and its clear choice of bold vs. safe play.
17-- A picturesque, slightly downhill par 3 of 161 yards with a carry over the creek. The green is wider than it is deep, and trouble lurks in front and on both sides.
18 -- The course ends strongly, with a brawny, uphill par 4 of 403 yards. It covers some of the same terrain as the adjoining and strong par 4 9th, and features one of the largest and most boldly tilted greens on the course -- there is easily five feet of drop from the back edge of the green to the front.
The course does have a few weaknesses. Its three par 3s play within a few yards to the same distance, as do several of the front nine par 4s. The back nine offers more variety, along with the only par 5 of more than 500 yards on the course.
A word about maintenance and pace of play. The course is run by the Waukegan Park District, which operates two other courses in Waukegan; Bonnie Brook is obviously the star attraction. Despite the heavy play it gets, the course is in very good condition -- better, from what I've seen lately, of the Madison, WI, municipal courses, and better than some Eric has seen closer to Chicago. The greens were were a tad slow but maintained in very good condition, and it's apparent that the regulars who play there take pride in maintaining it to high standards. As for pace of play, we wondered if we would be faced with a long slog on a busy Sunday morning. But we managed to finish in four-and-a-half hours -- not bad for a weekend late morning round in the Chicago area. The clubhouse is inviting and modern, with a nice patio out front to watch players finishing up on 18.