Highlands of Elgin - Illinois - USA

Keith Foster has cultivated a knack for moving earth, but typically it's for one of his many accomplished restoration projects. When brought on to redesign the Spartan Meadows Golf Club (a Larry Packard design from the ‘70s), he used it to create a faux-links persona west of Chicago. The result is the Highlands of Elgin, a course open to the general public (unlike its predecessor).

Among the visual highlights is the land raised to create a dunes-like atmosphere for holes such as No. 4, a par three with significant green movement, backed by bunkers and a hill-full of fescue. Some of the land’s movement could not be helped, which is not necessarily to the detriment of the course. No. 11, the number one handicap hole, features a Cape-like tee shot, as the entire left side of the hole tumbles a long way down to the property’s primary pond.

Features that are a touch more links-like include a number of centerline bunkers, and almost every green has several levels for flag-pin possibilities.