Stunning finishers in Chicago

[Andrew Buck]

Could you be more specific about the "other side" of 17 green?  Directly behind the mound "over" the green (from 17 view, right of the green hitting up 18)?

[PCCraig]

Could you be more specific about the "other side" of 17 green?  Directly behind the mound "over" the green (from 17 view, right of the green hitting up 18)?

No, what I mean is that you tee off from the south side approach fairway of the green. Or, if you're in the fairway looking at the green, just short right of the green.


It's a more interesting tee shot as you can either try to go left and carry more of the North Branch and give yourself a shorter & more open approach to the green or you can bail out right and leave yourself a tough uphill shot with a mid iron.

[Bill_McBride]

I've never played any of those great courses in Chicago, including OFCC, but have say that finishing hole is completely overwhelmed by that huge structure,  which I find to be somewhat of the Brutalist School of architecture.  If I were a first time player I would find it difficult to play that shot toward that background. 


As always it's likely I m completely wrong!

[Sven Nilsen]

Dave:


Call 'em like I see them. 


You might want to recall the thread where you claimed every club in Chicago sends out double bag caddies.  [size=78%]You were wrong there as well. [/size]


Everyone Else:


I like the finishes at Skokie and Glen View..  Glen View gets special note as I've seen someone play out of a bowl of peanuts and pretzels on the patio.


Sven

[Tim_Cronin]

The person-to-person vitriol here reminds me of Frank Hannigan's line, essentially: "It's easier to criticize someone's wife than someone's golf course."


It also demeans this web site and those who run it.


Beverly, Exmoor, Flossmoor, Glen View, Medinah No. 2, Olympia Fields South, and Stonewall Orchard, to mention but one modern course, all have finishing holes leading to a view of a distinctive clubhouse. To select one over another merely based on clubhouse architecture would be folly, but at Olympia, that is the postcard view, one that is not available on North (and the ninth hole on South, originally the 18th on Course No. 2, is a close second).


If you want to select on the basis of golf architecture, swing away. Then Medinah No. 2 and Stonewall leave the room sulking.

[Sven Nilsen]

Dave:


Call 'em like I see them. 


You might want to recall the thread where you claimed every club in Chicago sends out double bag caddies.  [size=78%]You were wrong there as well. [/size]


Everyone Else:


I like the finishes at Skokie and Glen View..  Glen View gets special note as I've seen someone play out of a bowl of peanuts and pretzels on the patio.


Sven

Are you on crack?   Clearly, this has nothing to do with that hideous tower and everything to do with your desire to try to one up me somehow.  Major fail for you.  Sorry about that but that view remains gawky, bizarre, clearly phallic and obviously borne of an inferiority complex, but is anything but "stunning", which lest we forget is the topic here.  By the way, remind me again, what's off to the left as one makes his way up to this supposedly stunning view?

Dave:


Take your internet tough guy act somewhere else.  The only thing I have to prove to you is that my opinion is mine alone, and I could care less if you don't share it.


Maybe its time for another one of your hiatuses.


Sven

[Scott McWethy]

OK, I'm going to throw out a course no one has probably talked about on GCA, which is Hilldale Golf Club in Hoffman Estates.  Grew up there and it was our home course for the golf team.  I wouldn't use the word "stunning" to describe the 18th hole, but it is a very picturesque hole.  The tee is elevated and looks down to a nice tree lined hole that turns a little left.  Hole only plays about 380 yards, but second shot is uphill to a nicely contoured green surrounded by some beautiful mature oak trees, with a bunker guarding the front and also one in back.  I always thought it was a beautiful hole to finish a round of golf on.

[Sven Nilsen]

Dave:


Call 'em like I see them. 


You might want to recall the thread where you claimed every club in Chicago sends out double bag caddies.  [size=78%]You were wrong there as well. [/size]


Everyone Else:


I like the finishes at Skokie and Glen View..  Glen View gets special note as I've seen someone play out of a bowl of peanuts and pretzels on the patio.


Sven

Are you on crack?   Clearly, this has nothing to do with that hideous tower and everything to do with your desire to try to one up me somehow.  Major fail for you.  Sorry about that but that view remains gawky, bizarre, clearly phallic and obviously borne of an inferiority complex, but is anything but "stunning", which lest we forget is the topic here.  By the way, remind me again, what's off to the left as one makes his way up to this supposedly stunning view?

Dave:


Take your internet tough guy act somewhere else.  The only thing I have to prove to you is that my opinion is mine alone, and I could care less if you don't share it.


Maybe its time for another one of your hiatuses.


Sven

Me the internet tough guy?  Lol.

Your name calling never gets old.  It really doesn't.  Your personal envy and animus is palpable and only makes you smaller with each post.  Child.

Please keep claiming you have nothing to prove to me.  Your protest too much. Who said you did?  Only you.  Project much?   

Wow, that's a first... Projecting and protesting simultaneously... All over a hideous phallis.
Lovely.

Probably best to just put you on my ignore list.  Not going to miss much, other than poor spelling and a poor man's version of Gib's brazen style.  Unlike you, he can pull it off.


Sven

[Jeff_Brauer]

OK, I'm going to throw out a course no one has probably talked about on GCA, which is Hilldale Golf Club in Hoffman Estates.  Grew up there and it was our home course for the golf team.  I wouldn't use the word "stunning" to describe the 18th hole, but it is a very picturesque hole.  The tee is elevated and looks down to a nice tree lined hole that turns a little left.  Hole only plays about 380 yards, but second shot is uphill to a nicely contoured green surrounded by some beautiful mature oak trees, with a bunker guarding the front and also one in back.  I always thought it was a beautiful hole to finish a round of golf on.

Scott,

Hilldale was about the fifth course I played...Medinah 2, Medinah 3, Medinah 1 (neighbor was a member and we snuck on), Rob Roy (18 and old 9, several times) Mt. Prospect, then Hilldale.   I wanted to play an RTJ and off my Dad and I went (me being 12-13)  I found the then treeless course to be a disappointment, given all I had heard about Jones, especially the long cart rides in housing, which Dad or I had never seen.

However, I do recall the more wooded 18th.  I recall thinking it was odd, but nice, that the clubhouse sat midway down the hole, rather than behind it, and never saw that again until NGLA.  I actually just proposed such an arrangement on a new course routing, mostly to get a lake view, but the client is mulling over some other options.

[Jason Way]

I like the 18th at Skokie - pretty view up at the elevated green. Great history as well with sarazen's victory here on this hole .

Neat hole. Not stunning.

Ok, so apparently we have established that the there is no stunning finisher anywhere in Chicago.  Exmoor doesn't qualify for some.  OFCC South is ghastly to some.  Skokie just doesn't have it for some.  And the rest is pure dreck.  Totally subjective, but fair enough.


For you stunning-ness snobs, where in the U.S. is there a stunning finisher?  Anywhere?  Essex County good enough for you?  How about NGLA?  The Country Club?  Boston Golf Club?  Shinnecock?  Those are a few special ones that I recall from my travels, but I'm not sure they even qualify with this picky crowd.


What say you?  Does a stunning finisher exist, and if so, what makes it worthy?  Or is it just a unicorn that will periodically try to run across this highly productive thread only to get shit on?

[Josh Tarble]

Jason,
That's a good questions...as one who said I wouldn't classify them as stunning, yet good holes, here's my list of "stunning" 18th holes I have played:

Harbor Town
TPC Sawgrass
Pasatiempo
Secession
TPC Harding Park
Amelia Island - Ocean Links
Streamsong Red

[Terry Lavin]

I've mostly sat back and avoided the contretemps, but I'll chime in now and say that I have played a lot of golf courses in Chicago and I honestly can't say that I'd use the word "stunning" to apply to any finisher.  I've played Exmoor.  I really like it.  I like the 18th and its gentle rise to the West Wing look of the clubhouse.  But "stunned", I was not.  Pleased, yes.  Do I like it, respect it, want to play it again, yes sir, Senator, but it is far from stunning.  I was a member at Olympia Fields for many years.  I really like the South course, but the only stunning hole on it is the sixth hole.  Even the ninth hole (originally the finisher for the now-gone #3 course) is more impressive and visually arresting, in my opinion.  I don't necessarily think that the presence of an impressive edifice behind a finishing green makes the hole itself stunning.

Some mentioned Skokie.  Skokie is a great course, but the 18th is a ridiculous par-4 and a cheesy par-5.  Does it have a great green site?  Sure.  Is it fun to play?  Sure.  But stunning it ain't.  Going mentally through my top 10 in town, I don't count a stunning 18th on any of them.  Not one.  But each course has at least one hole that is stunning.  #12 at Chicago Golf Club, #11 at Shoreacres, #3 and #14 at Olympia Fields North, #8 at Skokie, #12 at Medinah #3, etcetera.

So you can put me down in the no stunners crowd when talking about this limited field of finishing holes.  But if they had flipped the nines at Medinah #1, the finisher would surely qualify as a stunner.  A phenomenal par-5 with a tough up hill third shot to a great plateau green.  And it even has an unbelievable clubhouse as backdrop for the building architecture crowd!

[Matthew Sander]

18th at Village Links of Glen Ellyn...NOT a stunning finisher. Actually, it is quite stunning, for the wrong reasons.


If you are a fan of center-line ponds it might just be a little slice of heaven.

[John Connolly]

As we are wont to do here, we have (and when I say "we" I mean people other than me  ) unnecessarily delved into the most extreme definition of the word "stunning". It was simply meant to conjour up thoughts of an "extremely impressive or attractive" finisher. It need not represent the second coming. Given the dissension on what constitutes "stunning", and paucity of agreed upon examples, perhaps one could posit Chicagoland golf is not the place to go to find them. It seems many looked for examples of a backing Clubhouse or structure but that was never a prerequisite. Exmoor's just happened to have one and I found it contributory to the experience. But I suppose an infinity green backed by the dunes of Nebraska would do just as well.

[Tim_Cronin]

If a clubhouse isn't necessary, let's start over. Best 18th in Chicago. In no particular order, candidates likely include:


Olympia Fields North (as a par 4)
Flossmoor
Butler National
Chicago Golf
Cog Hill No. 4
Skokie
Kemper Lakes


Y'all can take it from there.

[Andrew Buck]

That renovation (village Links) may have been as bad as Cog Hill ... pinch every landing area to 15 yards seems like a good plan at a muni.

[J_ Crisham]

I'm not sure we have a truly stunning 18th hole in Illinois- I'm struggling to think of one in the Midwest-Interlachen? Milwaukee?We just don't have a Shinny , Riv, Olympic,  Pebble, or NGLA. We have some very nice finishers though.

[Terry Lavin]

I heard they got rid of that fairway tree at #18 at Butler.  If true, that's stunning news.

[J_ Crisham]

I am now thinking of very good courses in Chicago or the Midwest with  finishing holes that are not visually stunning:
Chicago Golf, ShoreAcres, Whistling Straits, Crystal Downs, Arcadia Bluffs, Minikahda, White Bear Yacht Club, Lawsonia, Erin Hills,  and Crooked Stick are examples of very good courses with finishers that lack a visual "POP"

[Adam Clayman]

I've mostly sat back and avoided the contretemps, but I'll chime in now and say that I have played a lot of golf courses in Chicago and I honestly can't say that I'd use the word "stunning" to apply to any finisher.  I've played Exmoor.  I really like it.  I like the 18th and its gentle rise to the West Wing look of the clubhouse.  But "stunned", I was not.  Pleased, yes.  Do I like it, respect it, want to play it again, yes sir, Senator, but it is far from stunning.  I was a member at Olympia Fields for many years.  I really like the South course, but the only stunning hole on it is the sixth hole.  Even the ninth hole (originally the finisher for the now-gone #3 course) is more impressive and visually arresting, in my opinion.  I don't necessarily think that the presence of an impressive edifice behind a finishing green makes the hole itself stunning.

Some mentioned Skokie.  Skokie is a great course, but the 18th is a ridiculous par-4 and a cheesy par-5.  Does it have a great green site?  Sure.  Is it fun to play?  Sure.  But stunning it ain't.  Going mentally through my top 10 in town, I don't count a stunning 18th on any of them.  Not one.  But each course has at least one hole that is stunning.  #12 at Chicago Golf Club, #11 at Shoreacres, #3 and #14 at Olympia Fields North, #8 at Skokie, #12 at Medinah #3, etcetera.

So you can put me down in the no stunners crowd when talking about this limited field of finishing holes.  But if they had flipped the nines at Medinah #1, the finisher would surely qualify as a stunner.  A phenomenal par-5 with a tough up hill third shot to a great plateau green.  And it even has an unbelievable clubhouse as backdrop for the building architecture crowd!

Judge, A very considered opinion. Thanks.

I'll stick by stance that the most stunning, (thrilling) approach to a finisher in Chicago is the 18th on what's currently the Meadow-Valley course in Kohler wisc.



Go Schlubs!

[Frank M]

Don't think it's been mentioned yet (though it should have), but I love Westmoreland's closer and the clubhouse is stunning.

[Josh Tarble]

I heard they got rid of that fairway tree at #18 at Butler.  If true, that's stunning news.

That is definitely stunning!  And makes that hole much better in my opinion - borderline stunning 

[Jason Way]

Don't think it's been mentioned yet (though it should have), but I love Westmoreland's closer and the clubhouse is stunning.

That is a very cool hole and setting, however, a fair argument could be made that #18 is the second best hole on that course that returns to the clubhouse. 

[Frank M]

Don't think it's been mentioned yet (though it should have), but I love Westmoreland's closer and the clubhouse is stunning.

That is a very cool hole and setting, however, a fair argument could be made that #18 is the second best hole on that course that returns to the clubhouse.

I wouldn't argue with that argument Jason 

Both holes are spectacularly set under a gorgeous clubhouse.