Chicagoland trifecta: Oak Meadows to be renovated by Greg Martin

[John McCarthy]

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20120411/sports/704119969/

"Martin also expects to apply his talents at Wilmette, Mount Prospect, Prairie Bluff in Lockport and Oak Meadows in Addison in the near future. Oak Meadows will be the biggest project of the bunch. One of Chicago's oldest public layouts, it was created as private Elmhurst Country Club in 1919 and assumed public status under its current name in 1986.

A charming layout that was the site of Ben Hogan's victory in the 1941 Chicago Open, Oak Meadows has been hampered by flooding problems for years.

“We know we need to fix the golf course,” said Martin, whose firm was chosen from the 22 that applied for the job through the DuPage County Forest Preserve District. He isn't sure how many of the present holes will remain, or if the adjoining East nine-holer will be incorporated into the redesign.

“Nothing's off the table now,” he said. “Nos. 1, 2, 17 and 18 — those are great holes. We should keep them in some way.”


I used to have a permanent tee time at Oak Meadows and always had a soft spot for the course.  There is a lot of mature lumber out there.  Salt Creek runs right through the course and Salt Creek floods a lot.  The course was purchased in the 80s by DuPage County for flood control (or to give the local politicians a nice place to play for free).  The water has to go somewhere seeing as how upstream and downstream towns have built levees over the years. Of course Butler is a few miles downstream...but that is a different discussion.

[Bill Seitz]

I've always thought it was a fun golf course, mostly not too difficult, but a few tough holes thrown in (4, 9, 14, and 18 have always given me some trouble).  It's another one that could benefit from some tree removal, but if the main focus is protecting the course from flooding, it sounds like they're looking at something more radical than just fixing it up a bit.  It will be interesting to see what they come up with.  Honestly, I don't even think I ever knew that nine hole course to the north was even there. 

[Evan Fleisher]

When I lived in both Oak Park and then Bloomingdale we played A LOT of our golf at Oak Meadows.  I too have fond memories of the place...but a facelift certainly cannot hurt!

[Brian Hilko]

The 9 is part of maple meadows. I
t was the front 9 of the original golf course until they built all 18 across the street. Fun 9 hole course but they have let it go. If they can turn oak into something special this 9 won't be missed.

[Peter Flory]

Has anybody seen the results of the renovation?

[Mark Smolens]

Looks cool from the highway

[Mark_Fine]

It looks great but I am biased 😊


Opening is coming up soon.  Greg put his heart and soul into this project. 

[Brian Hilko]

I had the chance to play Oak Meadows on there first day of preview play. The course still has some maturing to do but overall the project is fantastic. 1,6,17,and 18 play through trees and have a similiar but upgraded feel to the original course but once you get away from these holes it is hard to imagine the old course. There is a lot of variety in the par 4s. The par 5s are similiar in length but all present fun risk reward elements to make them feel different. The greens are massive and almost every hole has a wide corridor to run up a shot. The golf course has a lot more hazard space than the original but most holes have plenty of width to deal with it. My only knock is all 4 par 3s play very similiar in yardage from the tournament tees. I do not have a scorecard to comment on the other tees but today we played 175 2 times, 184, and 215. Plus 3 of the 4 holes play in the same direction. The green size and amount of tees will allow for some flexiblty but I would of loved to see at least one short par 3. Everyone behind the project should be very proud. This is a great addition to the western suburbs of Chicago. As someone who grew up at Oak Meadows and Maple Meadows I can not be happier with the finished product. I am looking forward to a few more plays to really give my opinion but on first look I would put Oak in front of mistwood and bowes creek.

[Peter Flory]

Here is a look at it since it opened.   

http://wgntv.com/2017/07/09/the-preserve-at-oak-meadows-ready-to-tee-it-up-again/

[Howard Riefs]

I do not have a scorecard to comment on the other tees but today we played 175 2 times, 184, and 215. Plus 3 of the 4 holes play in the same direction.

Thanks for the review/feedback.


Here's the scorecard:


http://dupagegolf.com/golf/emailer2020/img/oakmeadowsgolfshop/The_Preserve_Scorecard_2017.pdf

[PCCraig]

Greg Martin did a horrible job at Wilmette a few years back. Hopefully he will do a better job with Oak Meadows. So many of these big $ renovations of park district courses are huge misses.

[Brian Hilko]

Greg Martin did a horrible job at Wilmette a few years back. Hopefully he will do a better job with Oak Meadows. So many of these big $ renovations of park district courses are huge misses.

I agree with Wilmette. There is nothing at Oak meadows that is going to blow anyone on this site away. I think Mt. Prospect has a lot more going on in that regard. Oak Meadows will be a crowd pleaser for all the locals that play at Maple and Oak. Greg did a great job of making the course playable for the average Joe and still challenging and fun for the better player. The course has a really nice flow to it. The par 4s are very well done. The drivable 4th is a really good hole and short enough that it may actually be driven by a few of the people that play there. It always cracks me up when they say a drivable 340 yard par 4. Everyone in our group drove it around the green. The 11th is a solid long par 4 with plenty of width but those that challenge the wet lands do not have to play over a well placed fore bunker that disguises most of the green if you play conservatively to the left. I think we have another Chicago doak 4, or 5 on our hands but it will be highly regarded in the Chicago public golf scene. My personal Chicago public rankings I have Highlands of Elgin, Dubs, Cantigny, Ravisloe, Mt. Prospect, Oak Meadows, Glen Club, Prairie Landing, Bowes Creek, and Mistwood.

[Matt_Cohn]

Greg Martin did a horrible job at Wilmette a few years back. Hopefully he will do a better job with Oak Meadows. So many of these big $ renovations of park district courses are huge misses.

I've never been or heard of the course, but looking at it on Google Earth, it appears like it would be quite pleasant. Just curious what's bad about it.

[George Myers]

Long-time lurker, first time poster
First off, thanks to all who contribute here, I've learned a lot from you.

I've been interested in the Oak Meadows project since its inception, and took advantage of the opportunity last autumn to volunteer as a maintenance aide at the course to contribute and to get a closer look at the course as its grow-in period was starting.

Also, read as much info about the project as I could and learned about Greg Martin bringing on Forrest Richardson and Mark Fine to consult on the project speaking about design style and a recommendation for bunker styles used at Mira Vista (bunkers should be close to the greens, located in the fairways so as to influence lines of play).

I was able to play the course this past Tuesday, and really enjoyed the round.

I thought that the short par 4 Twelfth hole reverse redan played very well, and we were able to experience the back right pin position.

I also liked the 14th hole, a mid-length par 4 "bottle hole."

The course is a nice blend of the old Elmhurst Country club routing (1, 6-18) mixed with the Old Brookwood Front Nine land (holes 2-5).

I think this course is a great addition to the public offerings in Chicago (location near O'Hare and not too far from the city should appeal to visiting golfers).

I hope that the course will find its way to providing golf course yardage books to provide information to benefit the walking golfer at some point (the course layout is very walker friendly).

The hole bunkering does require one to have a feel for distance.

And the environmental story (not GCA-related necessarily) was a home run as the course playing surfaces have withstood Salt Creek gauge heights of 12-13 feet, while previously, a 10 foot gauge height would have impacted playing surfaces.

Ron Whitten was on-site a few weeks back, so there should be an article on the course in the near future.

One last point, there is some tree limb interference on some of the holes.

Hopefully, this can be addressed at some point in the future, although it may be more difficult to do so as this course is owned by the Du Page forest preserve.

(trees were planted in the lower elevation prairie of the land to compensate for the trees that were removed from the woodland area east of Salt Creek).

[Terry Lavin]

Greg Martin's got game, so to speak. I'm sure he will do well here.

[George Myers]

Some nice views of the course in this Golf360 piece...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxiQR3nMTpQ&feature=em-subs_digest


There is a nice shot of the cross bunker in front of the par 4 7th green at the 1 minute mark.


Greg Martin is shown hitting a tee shot, I think

[Howard Riefs]

The Chicago Tribune's Teddy Greenstein weighs in on Oak Meadows:


http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/golf/ct-preserve-oak-meadows-greenstein-spt-0823-20170824-column.html

[John McCarthy]

I just finished a twilight round at "The Preserve at Oak Meadows".  It passed the test, I was hoping to play again when I was done. 


There is a lot of water out there now, especially because it is a water impoundment area because of the frequent flooding in the area.  It has more width than Prairie Landing, another local course built to catch water.  The greens are on the larger side and the line you want to play changes a lot depending on the pin. 


There are a few clunker holes, 17 primary in my mind.  2 also.  The 8th tee is almost entirely shaded and grass will never grow there until some more trees go down. 


But my review must be considered very positive.  The tenth is a very good longish par 3.  There are a lot of short par 4s, a fair amount of greens with a front to back slope and many of the fairway bunkers are very well placed, the sixth hole prominent - fly the bunker and a speed slot rewards...or fail like me and hit a wedge forward. 


If anyone wants to go out next Sunday afternoon, drop a line.  Watching the Chicago Bears will give you a loathsome disease so I am avoiding it this year.