Chicagoland's Best Holes

[Adam Clayman]

If we limit the region to the near north side, my memory says the 2-9th holes at Waveland (Marovitz) are the greatest. The 5th is a tough call, but with the water tugging at my primordials, I'm not going to exclude it. Good green though.

[Mark Smolens]

Some of my finest three and a half hour rounds of golf on sun-splashed summer days have been spent playing nine holes at Waveland. I love the hispanic guy selling beer out of his cooler thru the fence, and driving shag balls into the Lake while sitting on the tee with the three groups ahead of you waiting for the hole to clear. . .

[Adam Clayman]

Smols, One way to lower average round times, was to go out and play in inclement weather. Or at least predict when conditions subsided, so the worst you have to play in is 58 degrees and misting. Similar to a normal day on the back at Pacific Grove. I qualify the back nine because it was uncanny how many days the road that separates the nines, was the edge of gloom.


But seriously, architecturally all those holes have a subtleness to them, that sets them apart, from the ccfad's that came along after 1983. I always loved the feeling of playing the Par 3 6th over the water, at the far of the course. It even had it's own unique transition from the 5th, when you walked thru the trees to see the pretty looking hole, only to be attacked and bombarded by a bird protecting it's nest. Fond memories indeed!

[Terry Lavin]

Yet another example of folks not reading from the beginning and just jumping in during the middle of the conversation.  The first post of the thread indicates we were using a broad definition of Chicagoland.

That may indeed be true, but you do nothing but dilute the integrity of the list with these sort of machinations and, as we all know, lists are all about integrity.

[Mark Chaplin]

I think there are enough great holes in Chicago and the immediate surrounds to publish one a month for several years and stay in state.

My favourites are 17 at Flossmoor, 12 at Chicago Golf and the short par 4 on OFCC South with a raised green 7 or 8??

[Ryan Kelly]

Mark, the short par 4 on OFCC South is 6 with Hell's Kitchen on the right.  The short par 4 on the back is 11.  2 very fun holes.

[Sven Nilsen]

Yet another example of folks not reading from the beginning and just jumping in during the middle of the conversation.  The first post of the thread indicates we were using a broad definition of Chicagoland.

That may indeed be true, but you do nothing but dilute the integrity of the list with these sort of machinations and, as we all know, lists are all about integrity.

The criteria was set from the get go.  It is what it is, a broad and inclusive definition of Chicagoland.  If there are any machinations taking place, its by those seeking to argue for exclusion. 

Any dilution taking place by using a larger available area to choose from has nothing to do with the integrity of the list, especially since there is no limit to the number of holes that can be included.  Its still a list of Chicagoland's (defined broadly) Best Holes.  Its not the 18 best holes in Chicago, or the 25 best holes in Cook County or the top ten par 3's within a 20 minute bus ride of Union Station.

Perhaps the best way to look at this is as an exercise in suggesting golf holes that would be worthwhile to play if one were using Chicago as home base.  I seem to recall a recent gathering on the shores of Lake Michigan by the GCA crowd, and certain out-of-town attendees played the likes of Shoreacres, Lost Dunes, Dunes Club, Olympia Fields and Flossmoor during their visit.  That's a pretty broad range of locations, but does a pretty good job of exemplifying the courses one would want to see after stepping off of a plane at Midway or O'Hare.

I suggest at this point we stop the petty bickering over scope and continue to write Brad's article for him (which interestingly enough seems to have a broader geographical range than that suggested by the original post in this thread).

[Terry Lavin]

Yet another example of folks not reading from the beginning and just jumping in during the middle of the conversation.  The first post of the thread indicates we were using a broad definition of Chicagoland.

That may indeed be true, but you do nothing but dilute the integrity of the list with these sort of machinations and, as we all know, lists are all about integrity.

The criteria was set from the get go.  It is what it is, a broad and inclusive definition of Chicagoland.  If there are any machinations taking place, its by those seeking to argue for exclusion. 

Any dilution taking place by using a larger available area to choose from has nothing to do with the integrity of the list, especially since there is no limit to the number of holes that can be included.  Its still a list of Chicagoland's (defined broadly) Best Holes.  Its not the 18 best holes in Chicago, or the 25 best holes in Cook County or the top ten par 3's within a 20 minute bus ride of Union Station.

Perhaps the best way to look at this is as an exercise in suggesting golf holes that would be worthwhile to play if one were using Chicago as home base.  I seem to recall a recent gathering on the shores of Lake Michigan by the GCA crowd, and certain out-of-town attendees played the likes of Shoreacres, Lost Dunes, Dunes Club, Olympia Fields and Flossmoor during their visit.  That's a pretty broad range of locations, but does a pretty good job of exemplifying the courses one would want to see after stepping off of a plane at Midway or O'Hare.

I suggest at this point we stop the petty bickering over scope and continue to write Brad's article for him (which interestingly enough seems to have a broader geographical range than that suggested by the original post in this thread).

My tongue was firmly in cheek when typing about integrity of lists...

[Mark Chaplin]

Dan Moore and I did The Inverness Club in a day trip from NW Chicago!!

[Sven Nilsen]

Yet another example of folks not reading from the beginning and just jumping in during the middle of the conversation.  The first post of the thread indicates we were using a broad definition of Chicagoland.

That may indeed be true, but you do nothing but dilute the integrity of the list with these sort of machinations and, as we all know, lists are all about integrity.

The criteria was set from the get go.  It is what it is, a broad and inclusive definition of Chicagoland.  If there are any machinations taking place, its by those seeking to argue for exclusion. 

Any dilution taking place by using a larger available area to choose from has nothing to do with the integrity of the list, especially since there is no limit to the number of holes that can be included.  Its still a list of Chicagoland's (defined broadly) Best Holes.  Its not the 18 best holes in Chicago, or the 25 best holes in Cook County or the top ten par 3's within a 20 minute bus ride of Union Station.

Perhaps the best way to look at this is as an exercise in suggesting golf holes that would be worthwhile to play if one were using Chicago as home base.  I seem to recall a recent gathering on the shores of Lake Michigan by the GCA crowd, and certain out-of-town attendees played the likes of Shoreacres, Lost Dunes, Dunes Club, Olympia Fields and Flossmoor during their visit.  That's a pretty broad range of locations, but does a pretty good job of exemplifying the courses one would want to see after stepping off of a plane at Midway or O'Hare.

I suggest at this point we stop the petty bickering over scope and continue to write Brad's article for him (which interestingly enough seems to have a broader geographical range than that suggested by the original post in this thread).

My tongue was firmly in cheek when typing about integrity of lists...

Terry:

My tongue was firmly in cheek when typing my entire post...

Mark:

As Sean kindly pointed out, Inverness belongs on the list of best courses in Detroit.

[Sean_A]

Yet another example of folks not reading from the beginning and just jumping in during the middle of the conversation.  The first post of the thread indicates we were using a broad definition of Chicagoland.

That may indeed be true, but you do nothing but dilute the integrity of the list with these sort of machinations and, as we all know, lists are all about integrity.

The criteria was set from the get go.  It is what it is, a broad and inclusive definition of Chicagoland.  If there are any machinations taking place, its by those seeking to argue for exclusion.  

Any dilution taking place by using a larger available area to choose from has nothing to do with the integrity of the list, especially since there is no limit to the number of holes that can be included.  Its still a list of Chicagoland's (defined broadly) Best Holes.  Its not the 18 best holes in Chicago, or the 25 best holes in Cook County or the top ten par 3's within a 20 minute bus ride of Union Station.

Perhaps the best way to look at this is as an exercise in suggesting golf holes that would be worthwhile to play if one were using Chicago as home base.  I seem to recall a recent gathering on the shores of Lake Michigan by the GCA crowd, and certain out-of-town attendees played the likes of Shoreacres, Lost Dunes, Dunes Club, Olympia Fields and Flossmoor during their visit.  That's a pretty broad range of locations, but does a pretty good job of exemplifying the courses one would want to see after stepping off of a plane at Midway or O'Hare.

I suggest at this point we stop the petty bickering over scope and continue to write Brad's article for him (which interestingly enough seems to have a broader geographical range than that suggested by the original post in this thread).

My tongue was firmly in cheek when typing about integrity of lists...

Terry:

My tongue was firmly in cheek when typing my entire post...

Mark:

As Sean kindly pointed out, Inverness belongs on the list of best courses in Detroit.

If only Michigan would have won (or at least fired a volley or two) the Michigan-Ohio War - heavy sigh.  Carry on gentlemen.  I wouldn't have thought many folks from Chicago would claim Gary as Chicagoland, but Sven apparently does. 

Ciao

[Sven Nilsen]

Sean:

We'll take Gary if it means we get New Buffalo.

In trade you can have the Wu Tang Clan (Chappelle reference - http://videosift.com/video/Chappelles-Show-The-Racial-Draft).

Sven

 

[Mark Smolens]

New Buffalo? I didn't realize that Whittaker Woods had so much support on this site