My first round of golf in Chicago came about because a buddy of mine cracked out an early season Golf Now coupon for an after-12pm round on Sunday at Links at Carillon. We got lucky on the April weather crapshoot and my lightweight mock turtleneck with vest (shorts, of course) was actually too warm at times.
It was a 12:32 tee time and we were directly behind a group, but we were done by 4:45. We waited a little, but with a foursome and plenty talk about, it went fast. It was a very relaxing round for me, I paid very little attention to the course and didn’t take any pictures. It was a great way to start the year in golf.
The course was nice. It was the first time I’ve ever played. We played one tee from the backs so it was short and relatively trouble free. The bent grass fairways were already in good shape and the course didn’t seem to have any significant ill effects from the huge April rains. We used the coupon, but I checked the rates online and $50 for weekend with cart seems really cheap. I’m seriously questioning if that’s a seasonal rate and if it will go up later in May or after.
This is a very good golf course at that price. I didn’t pay much attention to the level of challenge or the design in general. I was hitting the driver flawlessly so if it wasn’t a par three I just pulled the driver and ripped it. I do recall some strategic landing areas on a few of the par fives, several complicated approach shots, and many difficult pin positions on multi-tiered greens. It looks like they have a grass range, but I couldn’t tell for sure. And I didn’t even get to play the famous 18th hole on the White course.
I gotta tell you, walking this for $39 on a weekend is a very, very good deal. I need to keep an eye on this.
