Well, I made it out to River Forest...Ask and you shall receive...
Is GCA.com great or what?
? Where else could you pose a simple question, and have someone run right out for a personal inspection and report.
RF is an interesting place. The golf course has some very good and scenic holes, but as I find with a lot of courses around this part of the country the topography is a little severe in places to just lay a course out on the lay of the land without major manipulation. So RF is definitely not what you would call minimalist. And also like many courses around here laid out on the hard GA clay when they first open it is quite firm and that can make for some awkward bounces on the sloping terrain. It will be interesting to see if it softens up with some time.
The membership at RF was sold out completely before the course ever opened, and apparently is a very low handicap bunch. That is probably a good thing, because the course overall is challenging, somewhat unforgiving, and there are a couple of holes that would be quite difficult for mid to high handicappers.
Again there are some good holes, I just think there needs to be a little tweaking of a couple holes out there.
The view from the first tee shows some dramatic earthmoving to make a very level fairway, a great opening hole. Note in all these pictures that they were out aerating the course and doing lots of maintaince. You can see the brown (actually red clay) areas short of the fairway on this pic.
The 2nd hole is one of the ones that is a little difficult for the higher handicapper. If you cannot either place a shot of probably 180-220 yards (over the forced carry and short of the bunker) fairly accurately or hit a little draw there is just not much room to land the ball.
The par 5, 6th hole featured a severe left to right side hill slope for your second shot. My second shot was hit with a long iron draw into the hillside landed in the very left edge of the fairway and still bounced, and rolled across the fairway, into the rough, down the hill and into the hazard on the right. I am sure this will soften up with time, and with the bermuda filling in a little bit, but I would not want to see someone who slices the ball try to play this hole as it is today.
The tee shot on the par 4 9th hole. Exhibiting a couple GCA purist no-no's.
The 30' tall fountian in the lake is visible beyond the creek which is designed to cascade down the left side (although it wasnt on this day). The flag is visible in the distance if you look hard. The hole is a good golf hole though, just a little too busy for some people on here I am sure.
The back nine has some dramatic holes, and a great routing. Led off by the par 5 10th hole here you see the view from the landing area dramatically downhill to the green on the other side of a lake. It is a spectacular hole.
The par 3 11th at 209 yards from the back tee is not only dramatic but also a challenging hole.
What you cant see from the tee is a bail out area/fairway left of the green behind the rocks from this view. This hole reminds me of the 16th at cypress a little. While not as dramatic the thought process is much the same. Do I hit the heroic long iron or utility club shot at the flag which is all carry, or take advantage of the area to the left. Also like Cypress though that decision is made more difficult by the fact that if you are on the line just left of the green there is not as much room as if you miss it further left than that.
This picture is looking back from behind the 183yd par 3 16th green. Also visible in the background are the par 3 11th in the distance over the bridge, and the green of the par 510th on the right side of the picture. Also the 15th green is visible from here although hard to see in this picture it is located just beyond the 10th green. Although I think the flag is directly in line with a tree in the distance, you can see the greenside fan if you look. Also note that this green apron has just undergone an aggressive core areation and the brown plugs are still laying there. This nine was closed to play but I was able to get some pictures.
I love it when there is an area on a course where you can get a view of several different green complexes. While most of the day you are feeling quite secluded on your own hole, there are times on the front nine where when you are given a glimpse of another hole here and there. As you see above this lake down in a valley provides just such an atmosphere on the back nine with four holes playing around this little area. I really like it.
Overall RF is a little rough around the edges yet, but with some TLC and grow in time it could mature nicely. I think its reputation as a players club will likely continue as it has started.