Robert Trent Jones Jr. designed the layout at ThunderHawk Golf Club, carving many of the fairways out of a forest preserve. This was the first public course in Illinois to achieve Audubon Signature certification status.
Overall rating
3.5
Robert Trent Jones Jr. designed the layout at ThunderHawk Golf Club, carving many of the fairways out of a forest preserve. This was the first public course in Illinois to achieve Audubon Signature certification status.
Robert Trent Jones Jr. has been vocal about his commitment to ecologically-friendly golf course construction over the past few decades, and this philosophy is in practice at ThunderHawk Golf Club, the first public-access course in Illinois to receive Audubon certification. Much of the course is open, with native marshland and prairie preserved between the holes, with a few playing through strands of forest.
The course’s branding features a capital letter for both the “T” and “H” in "ThunderHawk," but perhaps they should have considered “H” and “A,” because it’s the second holes that make the biggest splash on both halves. At No. 2, players can take a longer fairway left, or they can opt for a daring carry across a pond to offer a better angle to the green. Completing that step, they’ll need to avoid a Road-style pot bunker to the right of the green before they can putt for eagle.
No. 11 is much more reachable, playing 520 yards from the back tees, but an area of marsh separates the green-side and tee-sides of the fairways. Do you trust your second shot to cross?
The latest ranking of the Top 100 Golf Courses in the World serves as the ultimate global golf bucket list. Most members of our World Top 100 Panel are seasoned golfers, each playing 20-30 of these courses annually while travelling extensively over decades to form their opinions on others. We recognise that opinions vary—even among our panel members. Rankings are subjective, and there are undoubtedly 50 or more courses in the UK and USA alone that could easily fit onto this list. Links Golf Pilgrimages The rankings
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