Chicago Highlands - Illinois - USA

Great course and great club. The course plays up to 7600 yards (but as little as 5000) with a lot of strategy and challenge built in, but all of it fair. The course is extremely well maintained—with some of the nicest tee boxes, fairways, and greens in the region. The greens regularly roll a 12-13 but run true and are very readable and consistent. Highlands recently hosted a Korn Ferry tour event and is in the running for the BMW Championship starting in 2025. With tons of tent-able elevated areas with nice views of multiple greens, it seems a near guarantee that this will club (which opened around 2009 and is just now maturing) will host PGA Tour events with some regularity in the coming decades.

My only beef with the course is I’d like to see a few more trees, a little more water on the finishing holes, and a “safe” zone added to the volcano-like 9th green that has great views, won new hole of the year when it opened, but IMO is somewhat lame in that your drive basically doesn’t matter, and your lob onto the green will roll 30 yards off the green if you’re just a little too short or long with it.

The club itself has everything you could ask for and more, including tennis, paddle, bowling, fitness center, simulators, a huge pool with a slide, basketball, etc etc etc. the new clubhouse opened in 2018-19.

Last but not least, Highlands has one of if not the best practice facility in Illinois with a 2-sided range with ample targets and a “fairway” for aiming—plus 2 putting greens, 2 chipping greens with practice bunkers and lots of ball stations, and 3 fully maintained practice holes (of about 120, 140, and 270 yards).

As a member (so some bias), this is a great course to visit but an even better place to “live”.

Chi Hi is probably the biggest capital c Country club of been to. The club has basketball, bowling, tennis, a massive pool and a great clubhouse. Because of that the course can be an absolute zoo at times. The property has great views and manmade landforms that attempt to mimic Irish dunes (but come up short of doing so). There are a lot of quirky holes that can be loved or hated. The second hole has seemingly a elephant buried under the fairway. The fourth is a long par three that plays straight through a shoot of hills to a massive green. The seventh has a wild green that has a back section that is probably a good five feet below the front, which I'm not sure you can actually keep it on. Nine is a straight uphill driveable par 4 that is a kinda cool hole if you can get there but kinda annoying for the every man. Despite this, the green has a perfect view of the skyline once its reached. 14 is a similarly driveable hole with a perfect view of the skyline.

Highlands is a unique course. Its not spectacular, there are plenty of weird shots that golf purists and bag tag Barry's will scoff at. The course always plays fast and firm with lightning greens, which is a plus.

Underrated course that deserves more recognition.

I ranked Chicago Highlands average only because it is well-maintained. The golf course is absolutely terrible. This used to be a landfill and I think I would rather visit that site. I’ve never been a fan of Arthur Hills design, and this is one of his worst efforts. There are a lot of blind shots and several idiotically designed holes such as a par three with an incredibly narrow yet lengthily green nestled between two giant mounds of what used to be garbage. I seem to recall another severely uphill par four with no features of any kind other than a tremendous drop off behind the green. To make matters worse, the membership seems to pride themselves on the excessive speed in the greens. I played the North course at Olympia Fields the day before playing here and their greens weren’t nearly this fast. Extraordinarily deep rough combined with outrageously slippery greens and terrible design made for the worst golf experience at a private club I have ever had.