Rolling Knolls Golf Course in Elgin, Illinois is possibly the most ridiculously terrible course in America. It's very easily the worst I've ever played (out of ~20 courses in the Chicagoland and southwest suburbs area, on through central Illinois)
Par 65, 3968 yards (from Men's tees, which were either labelled with white or blue tee markers...no real reason why they didn't just stick with one color I suppose)
Greens: hard as a rock. couldn't get a ball to stop to save a life, regardless of shot played into them.
Bunkers: hard as a rock, many of them with standing water or covered in weeds, also most of them had very large stones in them. I played 3 bunker shots in my round, and every time I had to break the rules and remove large (3" inches) stones from my club path so I didn't ruin my brand new wedges
all of the par 4's were mid-200 yards, and I drove two of them (a 260 yard par 4 with driver, a 220 yard with a 3-wood...the 260 yarder was guarded by the rock-bunkers but my drive skipped over them and onto the dance floor), missed both eagle putts but easy easy birdies.
I must say, the back 9 (4 par 4's, 5 par 3's) was reasonably playable, especially because most of the wholes circulated a large pond which kept the greens soft enough to hold a good tee iron. I went 7 over (should have been 5, but I hit a bad iron shank into water on a par 3 and duffed the shot afterward), but the front 9 was absolutely miserable. the course just seemed like absolutely noone there cared 1 bit for how the course played. the only saving grace was that greens fees, for noon Saturday with a cart, were $20/player
i went out +12 (had two 7's and an 8), in +7 for an 84. given decent course conditions, I think I would have shot in the +10 range for the round, which is unheard of for me (and I actually did better than usual today, I was striking the ball very well and was finally making some putts)
oh, i forgot to add that there was no happy medium as far as course moisture was concerned. the playing surface was either rock hard or swamped over (holes 5-9 had very large portions blocked off because of swamps)
anyway, i've rambled enough. has anyone else here played this course, or would like to share their story of the worst course they've ever played? I know this topic has probably been brought up before, but sorry, i just had to rant :)
Par 65, 3968 yards (from Men's tees, which were either labelled with white or blue tee markers...no real reason why they didn't just stick with one color I suppose)
Greens: hard as a rock. couldn't get a ball to stop to save a life, regardless of shot played into them.
Bunkers: hard as a rock, many of them with standing water or covered in weeds, also most of them had very large stones in them. I played 3 bunker shots in my round, and every time I had to break the rules and remove large (3" inches) stones from my club path so I didn't ruin my brand new wedges
all of the par 4's were mid-200 yards, and I drove two of them (a 260 yard par 4 with driver, a 220 yard with a 3-wood...the 260 yarder was guarded by the rock-bunkers but my drive skipped over them and onto the dance floor), missed both eagle putts but easy easy birdies.
I must say, the back 9 (4 par 4's, 5 par 3's) was reasonably playable, especially because most of the wholes circulated a large pond which kept the greens soft enough to hold a good tee iron. I went 7 over (should have been 5, but I hit a bad iron shank into water on a par 3 and duffed the shot afterward), but the front 9 was absolutely miserable. the course just seemed like absolutely noone there cared 1 bit for how the course played. the only saving grace was that greens fees, for noon Saturday with a cart, were $20/player
i went out +12 (had two 7's and an 8), in +7 for an 84. given decent course conditions, I think I would have shot in the +10 range for the round, which is unheard of for me (and I actually did better than usual today, I was striking the ball very well and was finally making some putts)
oh, i forgot to add that there was no happy medium as far as course moisture was concerned. the playing surface was either rock hard or swamped over (holes 5-9 had very large portions blocked off because of swamps)
anyway, i've rambled enough. has anyone else here played this course, or would like to share their story of the worst course they've ever played? I know this topic has probably been brought up before, but sorry, i just had to rant :)
