Ravisloe Country Club Pix: Chicago's Best Public Course?

[Jud_T]

Ravisloe Country Club in Homewood, Illinois, was a private Jewish Country Club for 107 years until the club had lost too many members to sustain itself and it was sold in early 2009.  Fortunately a wealthy veterinary surgeon who's not a golfer but loves open green spaces bought the club and has hired a firm to run it as a public course as a service to the community.  The course was originally done by Moreau & Foulis in 1901 on 120 acres and was revamped by William Watson from 1910-13 after the club had purchased an adjacent 55 acre parcel.  Donald Ross was brought in to renovate the course from 1917-1919 with fine tuning under his direction done through 1924.  In 2001, the club hired David Esler, who also designed Black Sheep Golf Club in Sugar Grove, IL, to restore the course, keeping the original Ross principals in mind.  

For my money this is now the best public course in the greater Chicago area, particularly after the Open Doctor got done with the latest renovation of Cog Hill #4.  While only 6321 yards from the tips and par 70 it's a really fun track that has a nice variety of holes and isn't exactly a pushover.  There's a fine set of greens and the bunker restoration that Esler did is quite good.  I've played the course enough times to speak reasonably intelligently about it and hopefully others may chime in as well.  Unfortunately the day I took these pics it was overcast but hopefully you can still see some of the interesting details.  I don't have quite enough pictures to do a comprehensive tour as I was playing with my 12 year old son but here's the interesting ones:

#1:
395 Yard Par 4:

A fine starting hole.  The play is to challange the bunkers on the left side, but it depends on wind direction as to whether the average player can carry them.  One can always bust a driver up the right side as the bunkers aren't reachable except for the long hitters, but this leaves an awkward angle of approach.  On approach one either challenges the left greenside bunker or risks catching the wrong side of the swale on the right side of the green and funnelling well down into the runoff area which leaves a difficult up and down.
















#2:
535 Yard Par 5

The long hitter who wants to get home in 2 here needs to hit a big draw off the tee and try to run a fairway wood or long iron up on the green with their second which is a pretty tall order as the crowned green isn't very accepting of anything more than a mid-iron shot. Trees encroach the approach from the left side and the bunker comes into play on right.  The green runs off left and long, which is a common miss and leaves a tough up and down.

[Jud_T]

Third hole from the fairway after a blind tee shot with out of bounds right.  While this Par 5 is only 490 yards going for it in 2 is dicey at best as the slope of the green is quite severe and it's well bunkered.

[Jud_T]

Third Green.  The slope is more severe than it appears.  Long of the swale is a very difficult up and down.



 

[Jud_T]

4th Hole:

181 yard Par 3.  Another very well bunkered green with a lot of movement that's one of the tougher pars on the course.  Notice the false front on the green.  Very difficult when the pin is on the rear section.

[Jud_T]

5th Hole:

315 Yard Par 4:

One of those holes you walk off with a 5 scratching your head on what is seemingly an easy hole.  You either need to hit a fade with a driver off the tee and get a wedge in your hands to have a chance at birdie or hit an iron straight away and take your chances on the approach.  Another solid green with a tough rear hole location.  The targets on some of these greens to get it close is very small and if you're too aggressive and miss in the wrong spot you're looking at bogie or worse.























 

[Jud_T]

More later...some of these are out of order so I'll do my best to get 'em up properly....

[Terry Lavin]

Nice course, but not best in class in any category in Chicago.  It might have been the best private, Jewish 18 hole course in Chicago, but it was never a top 30 "all-ethnic" private club  in town and it didn't vault to the top public when it went bust.  Not nearly as good as Cog Hill #4, Pine Meadow or Big Run, not to mention Shepherd's Crook or Thunderhawk, neither of which I've played.

[Sean_A]

JUd

I don't know about Terry, but this looks exactly like my type of course.  I am stunned that folks haven't talked much about this place.  More please!

Ciao

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Sean

There have been many threads about Ravisloe. Here is just one prior thread:


http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,43775.0.html

[Jud_T]

Terry,
In terms of the fun quotient only Shepherd's Crook comes close on the public side IMO.

[David Kelly]

Terry,
In terms of the fun quotient only Shepherd's crook comes close on the public side IMO.

It certainly looks more interesting than Pine Meadow just from the little I've seen here.   I'm not the biggest Cog Hill fan either but I would reserve judgment until I have played Ravisloe.

Doesn't Ravisloe have the reputation of being too tight because of the over abundance of trees?

[Chris Flamion]

David,

Having played Ravisloe a number of times last year, I never felt it was very tight.  Most of the fairways were amply wide with another 10 yards are each side before you reach the trees.  I believe I only ended up in the trees one time last year, and that is with one of the worst drivers in the game of golf.

The greens are fantastic.  Every single hole is a fairly simply GIR, but missing to the wrong side leads to an extremely difficult par and a challenging bogey.  3 is a great example, if you go long the entire green runs towards the front, rather severely.  Going long leaves a delicate shot that if played down the wrong part of the green will go off the front or into one of the steep bunkers.  Leaving it short however leaves a shot with an ample number of backstops to use for an aggressive chip.

Chris

[Jud_T]

#1 pix inserted above. 

David,  as an average player who enjoys width, I don't find the trees a problem at all.  Not sure, but I'm guessing Esler cleared a bunch out during the renovation a decade ago.

[Jud_T]

#6:

135 Yard Par 3

A short par 3 which can yield a birdie, but just as easily a bogie.  Depending on pin position one can use the ridge in the green to funnel one's ball in.  A short hole, but a pretty small target if one want's a realistic shot at birdie. The back left pin position is the toughest one to attack.  Notice the bunkers short and right, which are only in play for a very poor shot yet appear to be closer to the green and are just enough to add a bit of pucker factor for the average player.

[Jud_T]

#7:

203 Yard Par 3

Ok, admittedly there's 3 par 3's and a short par 4 from holes 4-7, but both 4 & 7 play pretty tough and 8-10 can bring a string of bogies as well.  Most players only par this hole as a result of an up and down as it's a pretty tough green to hold in regulation.  It's a pretty healthy carry over the water on the correct line and for most players this involves a rescue club or a fairway wood which brings long into play.  Into the wind this hole's a very stern test and the subtler movement on the green may be missed by the untrained eye after the big swales of the previous 4 holes.

[Jud_T]

#2 updated above, sorry about the ordering.  can't figure out how these got jumbled up...

[Jud_T]

#8:

390 Yard Par 4

Best angle is to hit a fade over the left edge of the bunkers and catch the slope over the crest of the hill, but although it's about a 220 yard shot it's deceptively uphill and difficult unless playing with a tailwind.  You can barely make out the top of the flag but it's blind from the tee.  The area short of the green allows for a shot to be run up on the green.  Again notice the nice foreshortened bunkering.

[Jud_T]

#9:

405 Yard Par 4

A solid par 4 with out-of-bound right and yet another very good green with some nasty break. The fairway bunkering challenges the strong player off the tee and the high handicapper on the approach.  Unfortunately I don't have a shot of the bunkers short of the green but you can see them in the distance.

[Jud_T]

#10:

395 Yard Par 4

The third in a string of solid par 4's.  Nice downhill tee shot and a large green with more subtle break.  When it's firm and fast a good drive is amply rewarded here.

[Jud_T]

#11

226 Yard Par 3

A really good hole.  As at the first, one has to either challenge the bunker left or risk running down the slope to the right which leaves a likely bogey.  The smart play for most is actually to lay up just short and right which leaves a simple chip and a chance at par.  I wonder how much of the fairway bunkering is as originally intended.

[Jud_T]

Nice course, but not best in class in any category in Chicago.  It might have been the best private, Jewish 18 hole course in Chicago, but it was never a top 30 "all-ethnic" private club  in town

Terry,

I'd love to hear 30 better private club courses in the area.  I'd have a tough time listing more than a dozen and there's only 3 I can think of that I haven't played that are likely candidates...certainly not a stern test for the best players in the broad-shouldered Chicago tradition.  But for most non-single digit players, which is most players, I can only think of a handful of private clubs in the area I'd rather play day in and day out...Again, if the category is FUN as opposed to CHALLENGING or PRETTY, it definitely makes the list with a bullet IMHO....

[Terry Lavin]

For eighty-five years or so, Ravisloe was your typical, flat, overtreed and well-manicured Chicago private club.  Then David Esler came in and put some minimalist touches on the course, cut down a minimal amount of trees, restored lost bunkers, planted native grasses and restored some of the charming touches that had been lost over the years.  But it was still a pretty decent private country club course, IMHO.  The restoration didn't do nearly what nearby Flossmoor had done with its, or Olympia Fields South.  You want to talk about where it "ranks" in Chicagoland, I'll name a host of courses within miles that are far superior to it.  Both courses at Olympia, Flossmoor, Calumet and Beverly for a starting five.  And they're all on pretty much the same street!  If one moves to the western suburbs, Butterfield, Butler, Glen Oak, LaGrange are all better.  The number one and number 3 courses at Medinah are superior.  The number 2 course is pretty close to being Rav's equal.  River Forest is probably an apt comparison course, because, like Ravisloe, it has a bunch of good holes, several snoozers and three junk jobs.  Oak Park is a better golf course.  Naperville is better than Rav.  Black Sheep, also by Esler, is vastly better than Rav.  Want me to keep going?  Let's travel north and northwest.  Here's an off-the-top-of-my-head list of better courses:

Ivanhoe
Knollwood
North Shore
Exmoor
Old Elm
Skokie
Evanston
Bob O'Link
Sunset Ridge
Briarwood

I'd say that Bryn Mawr is comparable to Ravisloe, but would probably vault past it if the members would cut down some darned trees.  I haven't played Northmoor.  


Among public courses that are better, I'd include Cog Hill #4, Big Run, Pine Meadow, Orchard Valley.  As I mentioned before, I haven't played Thunderhawk or Shepherd's Crook, so I can't really compare.  So, I don't know if I came up with thirty better courses pretty much off the top of my head, but pretty close.

Bottom line, just because you put some minimalist fluorishes and native grass eye candy on the okay bones of a golf course, it doesn't become a masterpiece of some sort.  There is a handful of holes at Ravisloe that really work, particularly at the northwest nook of the property, but it's just a run of the mill track.  If it were that much better, why would everybody leave Ravisloe and go to Idlewild?

Well, maybe because a lot of people (not me) think Idy is better.

[Jud_T]

I never said it was a masterpiece.  Not sure there even is one in the area if Doak 9 or 10 is the standard.  And you make a good point about what a good restoration/renovation can do.  Perhaps there's just so many overgrown penal courses in the area that it's a refreshing diversion.  Disagree about Ivanhoe and I'd have to get back out to Sunset Ridge and Oak Park to judge fairly.  Flossmoor is one of the likely candidates I have yet to see.  And obviously places like Medinah and Butler are "better" although I think your average 15 hdcp would have more fun at Ravisloe day in and day out...I'm playing Shepherd's Crook today and will try to take some pix.  I think you'd really like it although it's a pretty long trek up to Zion...

[Terry Lavin]

Three small edits to my earlier post:

First, Golfweek listed the top 15 you can play in Illinois and it didn't list Ravisloe.  Five of the courses listed are outside the Chicago area, so there's ten that Golfweek thinks are better, unless they simply forgot to switch Rav to the public column, which is possible I guess.

Second,  I neglected to mention the Glen Club as a better track than Ravisloe.

Finally, I have nothing "against" Ravisloe.  I lived in the area for nearly 20 years and played it at least forty times.  I always enjoyed the experience, both before and after renovation.  To me, it was a great members course because it had a bunch of great members, including many charter members of that mythical group of community leaders that I dubbed, "The Jews that Booze".  God's people, in my judgment.  Some great friends hearts got broken when they left, in small tribe fashion, to the inferior Idlewild, just two miles or so to the southeast.

All good things must end, apparently, because I have no reason to return to Ravisloe, since all my buddies are gone.

[J_ Crisham]

For eighty-five years or so, Ravisloe was your typical, flat, overtreed and well-manicured Chicago private club.  Then David Esler came in and put some minimalist touches on the course, cut down a minimal amount of trees, restored lost bunkers, planted native grasses and restored some of the charming touches that had been lost over the years.  But it was still a pretty decent private country club course, IMHO.  The restoration didn't do nearly what nearby Flossmoor had done with its, or Olympia Fields South.  You want to talk about where it "ranks" in Chicagoland, I'll name a host of courses within miles that are far superior to it.  Both courses at Olympia, Flossmoor, Calumet and Beverly for a starting five.  And they're all on pretty much the same street!  If one moves to the western suburbs, Butterfield, Butler, Glen Oak, LaGrange are all better.  The number one and number 3 courses at Medinah are superior.  The number 2 course is pretty close to being Rav's equal.  River Forest is probably an apt comparison course, because, like Ravisloe, it has a bunch of good holes, several snoozers and three junk jobs.  Oak Park is a better golf course.  Naperville is better than Rav.  Black Sheep, also by Esler, is vastly better than Rav.  Want me to keep going?  Let's travel north and northwest.  Here's an off-the-top-of-my-head list of better courses:

Ivanhoe
Knollwood
North Shore
Exmoor
Old Elm
Skokie
Evanston
Bob O'Link
Sunset Ridge

I'd say that Bryn Mawr is comparable to Ravisloe, but would probably vault past it if the members would cut down some darned trees.  I haven't played Northmoor.  


Among public courses that are better, I'd include Cog Hill #4, Big Run, Pine Meadow, Orchard Valley.  As I mentioned before, I haven't played Thunderhawk or Shepherd's Crook, so I can't really compare.  So, I don't know if I came up with thirty better courses pretty much off the top of my head, but pretty close.

Bottom line, just because you put some minimalist fluorishes and native grass eye candy on the okay bones of a golf course, it doesn't become a masterpiece of some sort.  There is a handful of holes at Ravisloe that really work, particularly at the northwest nook of the property, but it's just a run of the mill track.  If it were that much better, why would everybody leave Ravisloe and go to Idlewild?

Well, maybe because a lot of people (not me) think Idy is better.

Just to add to the list of better courses in the near area- Edgewood Valley, Hinsdale, Midlothian, and Kankakee Elks. Rav is certainly fun but hard to put in the top 25 in Chicago in my book.     
                                                                         Jack