ThunderHawk - Illinois - USA
39700 North Lewis Avenue,
Beach Park,
Illinois (IL) 60099,
USA
+1 847 968 4295
2 miles N of Beach Park
Welcome
Alex Eichman
Alex Eichman
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?
Reviews for ThunderHawk
Jason Hironimus
Going out to play ThunderHawk was a treat. When it comes to public golf in Lake County, ThunderHawk has premier conditioning and a fair amount of strategic golf shots.
To me, the hole that stood out was the 10th (409 yd par 4). A massive bunker juts into the line to the green which dictates the strategy of the hole. Drive it over the bunker and you get 50+ yards of rollout and have a short wedge on a downsloping lie. However, the hole also plays down-wind so flying a high wedge into a green fully protected by bunkers on the sides and a false-front, the approach shot takes a lot of calculation.
That being said, I did find a couple of the par fives to be uninteresting. Being a fairly long hitter and being forced to take hybrid six iron nine iron on 16 best case due to OB left and hazard all the way up the right does not lead to a hero shot into a par 5 as driver off the tee is impossible.
Some of the tee shots can be frustrating due to the fact that although the fairways are really wide, there is no rough and no finding your ball if you are just off the fairway. Due to conservation areas, many of the holes have OB on either side so not having it off the tee the day I played was a massacre. That being said, now having played the course, I look forward to playing it again so that I would be able to have a better result off the tee so I can enjoy the approaches.
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Brian Moran
I'm not a huge Jones family fan but Thunderhawk is a pretty interesting design that is a treat to have in the Chicago public golf scene, despite being as far north in IL as you can get. The par 5's are all interesting and requite strategy in order to capitalize. There are tons of fun shots like the driveable 8th and the sloping green at 17. Not enough people make the long trek up to Thunderhawk but its a must see, one of the top 10 public courses in the area.
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I had to glance at which Jones handled this design but your reaction tipped me off. It's been my experience that RTJ2 differentiates himself enough from his brother and father as to deserve being separated from them when discussing the "Jones" school of design.