Off the Fringe, “Golf’s best short read.” The award winning newsletter, sent twice monthly, that provides an unconventional perspective on the golf world.
Dick Platt
Evanston
2012-04-28
$10 (cart not included), played on Sunday, July 2006 at 10am
I attended NU decades ago but had no interest in golf then. My brother and I have played it about fifteen times since. He was a scratch golfer and he never complained. It was what it was. I believe it cost us eight dollars many years ago; and we got $8 worth of course. An advantage was that golf was not as popular then, so there were not many golfers which allowed us to go at our own pace.
It came with its amusing quirks. No one has mentioned, maybe because they are no longer there, that coming back from the southward Baha'i Temple hole, one passed by a fenced-in area with goats, rabbits, small deer and other animals: a tiny zoo-like enclosure feet from your path.
It only takes a very short time to recognize what kind of course it is. Maybe we weren't as demanding because we were accustomed to playing the public courses of northwestern Lake County, most of which did not resemble a country club. I remember viewing the fairways at Pine Meadows and thinking they resembled some of the better greens we had played on in the past. There was a split moment when I recoiled at the thought of tearing into the beautiful turf with my club.
Many weekends, for example, we played at Brae Loch before the Lake County Forest Preserve took over its management. There would be an occasional yellow dandelion with a very short stalk growing on a green. And also my brother grew up playing Sunset Valley in Highland Park before they installed an extensive watering system. The clay-based fairways would present a challenge to even the young backs and wrists of teen-aged players hitting their irons.
$10 (cart not included), played on Sunday, July 2006 at 10am
I attended NU decades ago but had no interest in golf then. My brother and I have played it about fifteen times since. He was a scratch golfer and he never complained. It was what it was. I believe it cost us eight dollars many years ago; and we got $8 worth of course. An advantage was that golf was not as popular then, so there were not many golfers which allowed us to go at our own pace.
It came with its amusing quirks. No one has mentioned, maybe because they are no longer there, that coming back from the southward Baha'i Temple hole, one passed by a fenced-in area with goats, rabbits, small deer and other animals: a tiny zoo-like enclosure feet from your path.
It only takes a very short time to recognize what kind of course it is. Maybe we weren't as demanding because we were accustomed to playing the public courses of northwestern Lake County, most of which did not resemble a country club. I remember viewing the fairways at Pine Meadows and thinking they resembled some of the better greens we had played on in the past. There was a split moment when I recoiled at the thought of tearing into the beautiful turf with my club.
Many weekends, for example, we played at Brae Loch before the Lake County Forest Preserve took over its management. There would be an occasional yellow dandelion with a very short stalk growing on a green. And also my brother grew up playing Sunset Valley in Highland Park before they installed an extensive watering system. The clay-based fairways would present a challenge to even the young backs and wrists of teen-aged players hitting their irons.