Chicago Trip

[jace]

I will have 4 hours to play courses in Chicago next week. I would prefer to stick close to O'Hare in order to maximaze my time, BUT willing to consider travelling a little if I can get some recommendations for those of you who either live in the area or have played.

It looks like I could hit 3 9-hole courses that are about 5-10 miles apart near the airport, or 1 9 holer and an 18 holer.

Thoughts/Recommendations?

[Greg Layton]

I will have 4 hours to play courses in Chicago next week. I would prefer to stick close to O'Hare in order to maximaze my time, BUT willing to consider travelling a little if I can get some recommendations for those of you who either live in the area or have played.

It looks like I could hit 3 9-hole courses that are about 5-10 miles apart near the airport, or 1 9 holer and an 18 holer.

Thoughts/Recommendations?

The best course I've played in that area is Central Park. It's in a ritzy area near the McDonalds World HQ. If I remember correctly, there are quite a few trees to keep you honest... definitely more of a challenge than your typical eastern Illinois course. Madison Meadow is flat and wide open, but it's decent.

The other two courses I've played there are Jericho and Castaldo and I don't think they're worth your limited time. If it were me, I'd play Madison Meadow to get stretched out then hit a couple rounds at Central Park, get an Italian Beef and call it a day.

[atassac66]

Unfortunately Chicago is a bit of a disc golf wasteland. To get an honest shake at dic golf, you need to get down south along I 80 near Joliet. The Oaks in Mokena is a championship level course. It has 27 holes. Also near that area a bit further west is West Park in Joliet. Course was establish in 81 (i think) and is a fun experience.

Other than that there is little love in Chicago. When I go there I exclusively play that area.

Good luck!

[Dave242]

2nd on the responses given from a local....albeit a newish one

[biscoe]

shoulda thought of that before you left crown town dave.

[jace]

thanks! If I get a little more time, then I'll head down to Joilet. Madison and Central Park both look doable within my time frame.

[Dave242]

shoulda thought of that before you left crown town dave.

You mean jugtown, don't you? :)

Yup, DG was a big cost to count in the decision to move. Luckily my job takes me up to Milwaukee 1-2 times a week and 2 of my favorite courses are there - Dretzka & Brown Deer.

[mengde]

Unfortunately Chicago is a bit of a disc golf wasteland. To get an honest shake at dic golf, you need to get down south along I 80 near Joliet. The Oaks in Mokena is a championship level course. It has 27 holes. Also near that area a bit further west is West Park in Joliet. Course was establish in 81 (i think) and is a fun experience.

Other than that there is little love in Chicago. When I go there I exclusively play that area.

Good luck!

The Oaks is my home course, and its really nice. The course in channahon is pretty good. Both Joliet courses are good, but avoid Haines' wayside its terrible

[Geoffro]

See this thread:

http://www.dgcoursereview.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2847&highlight=chicago

[magictenor1]

Madison Meadows is not bad. I may be up there this summer so let me know what you find.

[jace]

Unfortunately Chicago is a bit of a disc golf wasteland. To get an honest shake at dic golf, you need to get down south along I 80 near Joliet. The Oaks in Mokena is a championship level course. It has 27 holes. Also near that area a bit further west is West Park in Joliet. Course was establish in 81 (i think) and is a fun experience.

Other than that there is little love in Chicago. When I go there I exclusively play that area.

Good luck!

OK Seriously! How can you have this many courses and not have some showcase courses to play!

I played Central Park and Madison Meadow. 1st - let me say Greg was dead on! Madison is WIDE open and you have to be half blind to lose a disc. Still fun, but only a couple of holes where the trees keep you honest. Not much frill to the course.

Central Park was pretty cool and a great couple of rounds! Nice short semi-technical course that was definately worth the drive .

I also hooked up with a local college kid that was playing which made it even better. He mentioned there just isn't much quality in the area. He mentioned Central Park was the best course he's found without having to go south as mentioned above.

Again - I don't understand how you can't have a showcase course with so many courses in the area. Thanks for the tip Greg! Had a blast and got 56 holes in. Both courses were a nightmare mud fields since it rained ALL night and morning in Chicago. I looked pretty ridiculous when finished. Good thing I had a change of clothese before i got back on the plane.... could you imagine :)

[Greg Layton]

OK Seriously! How can you have this many courses and not have some showcase courses to play!

I played Central Park and Madison Meadow. 1st - let me say Greg was dead on! Madison is WIDE open and you have to be half blind to lose a disc. Still fun, but only a couple of holes where the trees keep you honest. Not much frill to the course.

Central Park was pretty cool and a great couple of rounds! Nice short semi-technical course that was definately worth the drive .

I also hooked up with a local college kid that was playing which made it even better. He mentioned there just isn't much quality in the area. He mentioned Central Park was the best course he's found without having to go south as mentioned above.

Again - I don't understand how you can't have a showcase course with so many courses in the area. Thanks for the tip Greg! Had a blast and got 56 holes in. Both courses were a nightmare mud fields since it rained ALL night and morning in Chicago. I looked pretty ridiculous when finished. Good thing I had a change of clothese before i got back on the plane.... could you imagine :)

Awesome! Glad I could help you out. The only question now is, did you get the Italian Beef?

http://www.amazingribs.com/images/recipes/italian_beef.jpg

[atassac66]

Italian beef is great. Ricobenes Steak sandwich is immortal. Seconds on the shout out to chanahan. Nice course.

I must admit I am a bit biased of Chicagoland courses. I am from there but live in the Detroit area. The courses in Michigan put Illinois courses to shame.

[jace]

Awesome! Glad I could help you out. The only question now is, did you get the Italian Beef?

http://www.amazingribs.com/images/recipes/italian_beef.jpg

Ahhhhh - no! but that was only because I was pushing my time limit to get the second round of 19 in at Madison before driving to the airport..... DG comes first! had to settle for a smoked pepper turkey sandwich at the airport :(

BTW - loved hole 19! i only have one course in KC where water comes into play & it's only about 150' to clear. Hole 19 was probably closer to 200' and was totally cool! I obviously teed from the shorter loaction - i didn't really care to play 695' football field fairway at the end of the round. 300' over the water was much too cool to pass up! & twice!

[Three Putt]

It's political. Seriously.

Illinois has multiple layers of government. A lot of times when you want something done in Illinois, the biggest hurdle is trying to figure out whose responsibility it is...is it the City, the Township, the County, the State...there are a bunch of overlapping bureaucracies.

In the case of recreation, you have stand-alone Park Districts and Forest Preserve Districts. These are totally separate from your City and County governments that level their own taxes and operate autonomously. The Park Districts usually are interested in active-use activities and programming, while the Forest Preserves are more dedicated to the preservation of undeveloped passive use areas.

Now, since the Forest Preserve Districts are out there preserving big chunks of undeveloped land, the Park Districts don't have to. They mostly collect smaller areas for community parks. They love flat open pieces of land that they can develop into soccer fields and baseball/softball fields. So the Park Districts have a lot of 5-10 acre flat parks. They suck for disc golf. It's the Forest Preserve Districts have the big 100+ acre wooded chunks of land that would be great for disc golf.

Here is the thing...the Park Districts usually don't mind things like disc golf and would approve courses. They just don't have any decent land. So you do what you can, which has resulted in a lot of unremarkable flat and open 9 hole courses in the area.

The Forest Preserve Districts get hit up by every Tom, Dick and Harry in the area looking for some recreational land. Every meeting they have has somebody wanting to use their land for disc golf or mountain bike trails or orienteering courses or model airplane flying or alpine yodeling fields or whatever. With the population density in the area, they could quickly develop ALL of their land if they started approving these requests. So since there are so many of them and no way to prioritize them, they blanket deny all of them. The only active use they have approve is ball golf courses, and that is becasue all bureaucrats like things that make boatloads of money.

So, the land that would be good for disc golf is not available. The land that is available by and large is no good for disc golf.

There are a few disc golfers fighting the good fight that have gotten a proposal on the table with the Lake County Forest Preserve District, but it died in committee. Because the PDGA only runs their cockamamie tour and does not get involved in the real development of the sport, these Chicago golfers have pretty much been on their own to keep the fight alive. Maybe once day.

At any rate, anybody who lives in the Chicagoland area is used to driving over an hour to do anything. Depending on where you live, you can usually get to a good Wisconsin course or Highland or Lemon Lake in around an hour. That will probably have to do.

[Greg Layton]

It's political. Seriously.

Illinois has multiple layers of government. A lot of times when you want something done in Illinois, the biggest hurdle is trying to figure out whose responsibility it is...is it the City, the Township, the County, the State...there are a bunch of overlapping bureaucracies.

In the case of recreation, you have stand-alone Park Districts and Forest Preserve Districts. These are totally separate from your City and County governments that level their own taxes and operate autonomously. The Park Districts usually are interested in active-use activities and programming, while the Forest Preserves are more dedicated to the preservation of undeveloped passive use areas.

Now, since the Forest Preserve Districts are out there preserving big chunks of undeveloped land, the Park Districts don't have to. They mostly collect smaller areas for community parks. They love flat open pieces of land that they can develop into soccer fields and baseball/softball fields. So the Park Districts have a lot of 5-10 acre flat parks. They suck for disc golf. It's the Forest Preserve Districts have the big 100+ acre wooded chunks of land that would be great for disc golf.

Here is the thing...the Park Districts usually don't mind things like disc golf and would approve courses. They just don't have any decent land. So you do what you can, which has resulted in a lot of unremarkable flat and open 9 hole courses in the area.

The Forest Preserve Districts get hit up by every Tom, Dick and Harry in the area looking for some recreational land. Every meeting they have has somebody wanting to use their land for disc golf or mountain bike trails or orienteering courses or model airplane flying or alpine yodeling fields or whatever. With the population density in the area, they could quickly develop ALL of their land if they started approving these requests. So since there are so many of them and no way to prioritize them, they blanket deny all of them. The only active use they have approve is ball golf courses, and that is becasue all bureaucrats like things that make boatloads of money.

So, the land that would be good for disc golf is not available. The land that is available by and large is no good for disc golf.

There are a few disc golfers fighting the good fight that have gotten a proposal on the table with the Lake County Forest Preserve District, but it died in committee. Because the PDGA only runs their cockamamie tour and does not get involved in the real development of the sport, these Chicago golfers have pretty much been on their own to keep the fight alive. Maybe once day.

At any rate, anybody who lives in the Chicagoland area is used to driving over an hour to do anything. Depending on where you live, you can usually get to a good Wisconsin course or Highland or Lemon Lake in around an hour. That will probably have to do.

Thanks for the detailed and thoughtful explanation, Three Putt. That makes a lot of sense. I lived in the Chicago 'burbs for almost two years and I can confirm that life is different (sometimes marginally better, sometimes a lot worse) in many ways from anywhere else I've ever lived. The local government is at least partially to blame.

Not that Michigan is exactly a bastion of hope in these troubled times... but that's fuel for another post.

[Dave242]

Excellent post! Very informative. I have been learning of this in the 8-9 months I have been here. I do have good hope for a course close to me on park district land - as good a piece of land as I can imagine in these flatland areas. In my talks with them, it sounds 50/50 if they will be interested....and the timeline is at least 2-3 years.

[amcarlson83]

At any rate, anybody who lives in the Chicagoland area is used to driving over an hour to do anything.

Absolutely true. I have lived in the Chicago burbs for the majority of my life and have been disappointed with the DG in the area. Regardless, whenever me and my friends go out we always go to West Park in Joliet and then usually hit up Shorewood on the way back.

Other than WP, we will play Madison Meadows every once in awhile but never excited about it. In the spring, MM is wet, cold, and has a frustratingly constant strong wind that you have to play straight into on the back nine (where the longest holes are). MM is not usually boring though. MM also has a couple tournament throughout the year that I used to do, but continued to be foiled by sand-baggers! so MM has additional negative connotations for me and my friends.

I haven't been to Central Park (or maybe I have and didn't like it, so I left).

Peace

[Dave242]

I played Margreth Riemer Resevoir yesterday. It is on this huge hill - wide open and I bet the grass gets out of control in the summer. It is pretty cool/unique feeling, but is designed to be not too strenuous for the recreational player. As it is now, the feeling is cool/unique, but the holes themselves are the boring average of every other 9-hole IL course I have played (a few good, most bad).

It could be designed into the coolest "terrain park" course. I would love to see a tournament set up on a temp course there in the spring when the grass is low (and hopefully the wind is low too).

[amcarlson83]

I almost forgot about the 9-hole in St. Charles. Lot of trees, some up-hill shots, and an elevation shot to finish it off.

Not too easy to get to from the highway though.

[amcarlson83]

I just played Central Park, the first time I only did the first two holes and realized I didn't feel like playing that day, and it is a real good 9-hole. I was very surprised, and mad that I didn't keep going the last time.

[practiceputts81]

Oswego!

[discin311]

they pretty much all suck like everyone has said most of them r small 9 hole courses

[hacocacyb]

I've played pretty much every course in Chicagoland. I live downtown and usually try to play on weeknds, so I expect to drive at least in hour in any direction.

My top 5 courses in order:
Rogers Lakewood Park - Valparaiso, IN
Highland Park - Joliet (This course is new, and is the BEST in the Northeastern part of Illinois)
West Park - Joliet
The Oaks - Mokena
Eagle Ridge Civic Center - Oswego It's hard to be certain, because I've only played it twice, but nothing else stands out for this list.

[martinb]

howsabout the lemon lake courses?

[mashnut]

I've only played the red and blue courses at Lemon Lake, but they were both really nice. I've heard good things about the other two courses there too.