Chicago Golfers

[jlt73]

I wish i could but easter weekend kills that possibility for me

[Wisguy]

Could one of you Bears fans answer this:  when you Illinois guys are playing down in the Chicago area, do you absolutely, positively refuse ever to repair ball marks on greens or is that just behavior you reserve when you drive due north on vacation and cross the state line into Wisconsin?

Last year on vacation we spotted a bunch of fresh dents on most of the greens, that we figured were from the group in front of us.  At the turn, we caught up to the group and I asked "Are you guys from Illinois?"  After a bit of a pause and a hard look, one of the guys says "Yeah.  Why?"  I responded "I thought so - you haven't repaired a ball mark since you've been up here, have you?"   I've seen this so many times over the years when there are Illinois plates out in the parking lot.

The following day I'm out with my kid on a big fishing pier that is at a county park where there's also a swimming beach a hundred yards over.  We're two of about six people with lines out and it's pretty obvious what we're doing with fishing poles in our hands.  This jackwad with two kids on board guns his shiny new boat right at us, oblivious to the no-wake-near-shoreline laws and doesn't even seem like he's going to slow down in time to avoid hitting the pier.  He rips to a stop no more than about 10 feet from my daughter's bobber, which by now is bouncing around on the boat-created waves almost a foot up and down.  The guy's two 10-ish year old sons jump out of the boat in cannonballs and start splashing their way toward the ladder on the side of the pier within five feet of where my daughter's line had just been, thrashing around like Special Olympians (they weren't, though).  I wasn't going to swear in front of kids, but I called out "You're from Illinois, aren't you?"   The guy says belligerently "What's it to you?"  I said back "I thought so.  No one from Wisconsin would be rude enough to ruin someone's fishing like you just did." He made some sort of wise-ass remark but I didn't hear it as I was saying to my bewildered and very disappointed daughter "Let's go."

When I first moved to Wisconsin two decades ago, I was amazed at how many people here had prejudices against our southern neighbors and I knew people in college from Illinois that I thought were allright, so I asked some people about it; I'd been subjected to some pretty harsh and ridiculous regional prejudices in my younger days, so I was taken back by these comments coming from people that seemed to me to be very decent sorts.  Time and again, I heard "Just wait until you're up here a little longer and you'll start to see that almost every time you've got some SUV riding up your tailpipe on I-90, every time you see someone toss garbage out the window of a car or on the ground 20' from a trash can, every time you see a group that's really loud in a restaurant that's treating the waiter badly, their car will have Illinois plates.  You'll learn all about FIBs once you've been here a year or two."  I didn't believe anyone at first, but sure enough, the longer I've lived here, the more and more examples I've seen of rude, thougthless behavior from Chicagoland visitors to our state.  Even several of my friends that are transplants from Illinois will agree that their former state's residents very frequently can be jerks when they vacation up here.  Is Chicago really such a nasty, kill-or-be-killed environment that no one thinks about anyone else or do you just reserve that behavior when you head to Packerland on vacation?

If you are a decent human being (odds are there's got to be at least a few of you down there) and you're on a trip up north with some fellow Illinois folks, please, try to keep in mind the reputation that Illinois people have in Wisconsin and try to be a conversation starter:  get some Cheesehead that night to tell his or her friends "So I run into this bunch from Chicago and they were actually really polite and nice people...."  If it happens enough, maybe there will be fewer responses "Is this before or after you saw bigfoot dancing with the Easter Bunny?"

[clearwaterms]

  Wisguy said:

Originally Posted by Wisguy

Could one of you Bears fans answer this:  when you Illinois guys are playing down in the Chicago area, do you absolutely, positively refuse ever to repair ball marks on greens or is that just behavior you reserve when you drive due north on vacation and cross the state line into Wisconsin?

Last year on vacation we spotted a bunch of fresh dents on most of the greens, that we figured were from the group in front of us.  At the turn, we caught up to the group and I asked "Are you guys from Illinois?"  After a bit of a pause and a hard look, one of the guys says "Yeah.  Why?"  I responded "I thought so - you haven't repaired a ball mark since you've been up here, have you?"   I've seen this so many times over the years when there are Illinois plates out in the parking lot.

The following day I'm out with my kid on a big fishing pier that is at a county park where there's also a swimming beach a hundred yards over.  We're two of about six people with lines out and it's pretty obvious what we're doing with fishing poles in our hands.  This jackwad with two kids on board guns his shiny new boat right at us, oblivious to the no-wake-near-shoreline laws and doesn't even seem like he's going to slow down in time to avoid hitting the pier.  He rips to a stop no more than about 10 feet from my daughter's bobber, which by now is bouncing around on the boat-created waves almost a foot up and down.  The guy's two 10-ish year old sons jump out of the boat in cannonballs and start splashing their way toward the ladder on the side of the pier within five feet of where my daughter's line had just been, thrashing around like Special Olympians (they weren't, though).  I wasn't going to swear in front of kids, but I called out "You're from Illinois, aren't you?"   The guy says belligerently "What's it to you?"  I said back "I thought so.  No one from Wisconsin would be rude enough to ruin someone's fishing like you just did." He made some sort of wise-ass remark but I didn't hear it as I was saying to my bewildered and very disappointed daughter "Let's go."

When I first moved to Wisconsin two decades ago, I was amazed at how many people here had prejudices against our southern neighbors and I knew people in college from Illinois that I thought were allright, so I asked some people about it; I'd been subjected to some pretty harsh and ridiculous regional prejudices in my younger days, so I was taken back by these comments coming from people that seemed to me to be very decent sorts.  Time and again, I heard "Just wait until you're up here a little longer and you'll start to see that almost every time you've got some SUV riding up your tailpipe on I-90, every time you see someone toss garbage out the window of a car or on the ground 20' from a trash can, every time you see a group that's really loud in a restaurant that's treating the waiter badly, their car will have Illinois plates.  You'll learn all about FIBs once you've been here a year or two."  I didn't believe anyone at first, but sure enough, the longer I've lived here, the more and more examples I've seen of rude, thougthless behavior from Chicagoland visitors to our state.  Even several of my friends that are transplants from Illinois will agree that their former state's residents very frequently can be jerks when they vacation up here.  Is Chicago really such a nasty, kill-or-be-killed environment that no one thinks about anyone else or do you just reserve that behavior when you head to Packerland on vacation?

If you are a decent human being (odds are there's got to be at least a few of you down there) and you're on a trip up north with some fellow Illinois folks, please, try to keep in mind the reputation that Illinois people have in Wisconsin and try to be a conversation starter:  get some Cheesehead that night to tell his or her friends "So I run into this bunch from Chicago and they were actually really polite and nice people...."  If it happens enough, maybe there will be fewer responses "Is this before or after you saw bigfoot dancing with the Easter Bunny?"

while I won't disagree with some of what you have said, I will tell you that it is the exception not the rule.  I vacation in Northern Wisconsin quite a bit, and I meet just as many jerks from Wisconsin as I do from Illinois.  Prejudice, REGARDLESS of the intent, is ugly.

That being said, to come into a thread of people who are looking to use TST as a place to meet other friendly golfers and spit out what could be (very likely misconstrued) hatred makes you no better than the guy in the boat who unintentionally ruined your fishing day.

So I will ask you kindly to please delete your post, and let us Chicago people be to ourselves.  In exchange, when I visit your state, I will continue to do everything in my power to ensure the natural beauty of Wisconsin is maintained.

Thank you

Chris

[Dave H]

  clearwaterms said:

while I won't disagree with some of what you have said, I will tell you that it is the exception not the rule.  I vacation in Northern Wisconsin quite a bit, and I meet just as many jerks from Wisconsin as I do from Illinois.  Prejudice, REGARDLESS of the intent, is ugly.  That being said, to come into a thread of people who are looking to use TST as a place to meet other friendly golfers and spit out what could be (very likely misconstrued) hatred makes you no better than the guy in the boat who unintentionally ruined your fishing day.  So I will ask you kindly to please delete your post, and let us Chicago people be to ourselves.  In exchange, when I visit your state, I will continue to do everything in my power to ensure the natural beauty of Wisconsin is maintained.   Thank you Chris

+1.

[Wisguy]

a) My post isn't filled with hatred, it's filled with disapproval of thoughtless behavior.

b) I strongly oppose stereotyping people.  Even if someone falls within a group that I have found has more unified characteristics than the population as a whole, I will give them the benefit of the doubt and still treat them as if they were not members of any group.

c) Having said that, I have been shocked over the years by what a high correlation I have witnessed between rude, thoughtless behavior and origins in the Chicago area.  I do not exaggerate even slightly that probably 40% of the time that someone is tailgating me on a Wisconsin road or highway, that driver has Illinois plates; Illinois drivers make up vastly less than 40% of the drivers in Wisconsin and certainly not in my part of the state which is more than an hour from the border.  Of course not every person acting like a jerk in my state is a native of Illinois and not everyone from Illinois acts like a jerk.  But we don't have a negative acronym for people from our other three neighboring states and I've never heard anyone talk about people from Michigan, Iowa or Minnesota as having common characteristics of any sort. Tell me, why is that?  I'm not from Wisconsin, I don't have some brainwashed-from-infancy dislike of anyone from the state where the Packers' oldest rival is located (nor does anyone I've met here in two decades even if they are diehard Green Bay fans), I resist efforts to stereotype groups of people, and am much more free of bigotry of any sort than the vast majority of people.  I don't feel any sort of need to single out a group of people to put down.  I honestly can't imagine any reason why people from one state should act so much differently than those from a neighboring state.  But a disproportionate number of Illinois people do act differently and not in a positive way.

d) My purpose in posting here wasn't to accuse any specific person in this thread of being a jerk - it may be that none of you are and all of you display as much consideration for others as I could reasonably expect of anyone.  However, you probably aren't aware of the common view held by most Wisconsinites, based on countless examples witnessed (not simply blind prejudice), that people from your state act rudely and inconsiderately when they visit Wisconsin.  I posted in this thread in the hopes that it may encourage at least a few Illinoisans to take a bit of extra care to be polite or to encourage your less considerate friends or relatives to lose the bull-in-a-china-shop attitude when you visit Wisconsin (or any other state for that matter).

[breakingeighty]

I'm going to be speaking at a conference in Chicago in early May, and was hoping to stay for a couple extra days and get a round or two in. Any recommendations on good courses in the area?

[JeMo636]

Planning a trip for the summer, wold like a little insight from you folks who live up there. Of course we want to play Cog Hill, but are there any other courses that might be appealing? Thanks!

[walk18]

  Wisguy said:

a) My post isn't filled with hatred, it's filled with disapproval of thoughtless behavior. b) I strongly oppose stereotyping people.  Even if someone falls within a group that I have found has more unified characteristics than the population as a whole, I will give them the benefit of the doubt and still treat them as if they were not members of any group. c) Having said that, I have been shocked over the years by what a high correlation I have witnessed between rude, thoughtless behavior and origins in the Chicago area.  I do not exaggerate even slightly that probably 40% of the time that someone is tailgating me on a Wisconsin road or highway, that driver has Illinois plates; Illinois drivers make up vastly less than 40% of the drivers in Wisconsin and certainly not in my part of the state which is more than an hour from the border.  Of course not every person acting like a jerk in my state is a native of Illinois and not everyone from Illinois acts like a jerk.  But we don't have a negative acronym for people from our other three neighboring states and I've never heard anyone talk about people from Michigan, Iowa or Minnesota as having common characteristics of any sort. Tell me, why is that?  I'm not from Wisconsin, I don't have some brainwashed-from-infancy dislike of anyone from the state where the Packers' oldest rival is located (nor does anyone I've met here in two decades even if they are diehard Green Bay fans), I resist efforts to stereotype groups of people, and am much more free of bigotry of any sort than the vast majority of people.  I don't feel any sort of need to single out a group of people to put down.  I honestly can't imagine any reason why people from one state should act so much differently than those from a neighboring state.  But a disproportionate number of Illinois people do act differently and not in a positive way.   d) My purpose in posting here wasn't to accuse any specific person in this thread of being a jerk - it may be that none of you are and all of you display as much consideration for others as I could reasonably expect of anyone.  However, you probably aren't aware of the common view held by most Wisconsinites, based on countless examples witnessed (not simply blind prejudice), that people from your state act rudely and inconsiderately when they visit Wisconsin.  I posted in this thread in the hopes that it may encourage at least a few Illinoisans to take a bit of extra care to be polite or to encourage your less considerate friends or relatives to lose the bull-in-a-china-shop attitude when you visit Wisconsin (or any other state for that matter).

Trust me, it isn't only in WI that many Chicagoans don't fix ball marks, they do it on their home courses too. Drives me nuts. That said, I've met some true ahole WI natives, but there are exceptions to everything.

[clearwaterms]

  breakingeighty said:

I'm going to be speaking at a conference in Chicago in early May, and was hoping to stay for a couple extra days and get a round or two in. Any recommendations on good courses in the area?

What is your price tolerance? Harbor side on the south shore and cog hill are both really nice and well rated. Where is the conference at? McCormick? 7 bridges is nice, oak brook golf course is a nice muni in a very high end town.

[clearwaterms]

Alright, yesterday didn't work for anybody. How does this coming weekend sound? Saturday or Sunday? I am thinking 9/18 at an easier course. I am available both days but would need to tee off early on Saturday so I am home in time for my evening plans.

[jlt73]

I'm in for Saturday. I'd have to tee off no later than 10 though. I'm a 20 capper as well if you don't mind that

[clearwaterms]

Jlt, I am about a 20 as well. Where do you live? Lets see who else wants to play and we will pick a course that is convenient for everybody. I live in westchester, which for those that don't know the western suburbs is just east of Oak brook and just north of la grange.

[jlt73]

Im in cedar lake Indiana. Driving doesn't bother me

[breakingeighty]

Thanks for the recommendations!

I think I'm going to try and get in a round at Cog Hill. Working on the Top 100 Public Courses and have heard good things.  Fees are a little steep, but the rest of the trip is paid for so I figure I can splurge a little bit :)

[clearwaterms]

jlt, I think it might just be the 2 of us.

How does Meadows golf course sound?  $37 for 18 /w cart and they have a 9:16 tee time available on Golf now.  It is in Blue Island.  It looks like about 37 miles from Cedar Lake and 21 miles from me, but not far off of the highway.

http://www.golfnow.com/chicago/tee-times/golf-courses/il---chicago-south/meadows-golf-club-of-blue-island/search

Let me know what you think and we can each book a single on Golf-now for that time.

[jlt73]

Im good with that. It also appears to be 37 on the meadows site as well

[clearwaterms]

cool, I will book a single for 9:16AM and will see you then.  Looking forward to playing on Saturday.

***update*** booked for 9:16 with 2 spots left open.

[jlt73]

I just booked