Best Public Golf Courses in Chicago

Hickory Hills has been there since 1917 and the North is its short course: 1,560 yards to a par of 30, laid out by William Langford, on hilly ground at the southwest edge of the city. It is a walk rather than a cart ride, there is a driving range, and it is one of the few courses in this guide that lists a year-round season.

Golfers who came back to it after it had been shut for five years describe a place that plays well above its length, with old-fashioned greens and a bar and kitchen attached, and more than one says it feels like a country club. The reports on service are genuinely split: some found the staff warm and helpful about the layout, others were brushed off over carts, and the kitchen closes earlier than people want. Conditioning gets mixed marks too.

Recent rates have run $17 to $40, and it is comfortably the easiest tee sheet to get onto in this guide. Hickory Hills North tee times.

Chicago spent three years building this course out into Lake Michigan and opened it in 1932 as Waveland. It was renamed in 1991 for Sydney R. Marovitz. The nine holes run parallel to the water in Lincoln Park, so you get the harbors and the lake on one side and the skyline on the other, and the layout is credited to Edward B. Dearie.

It plays 3,240 yards to a par of 36 over ryegrass fairways to poa and bentgrass greens, with a driving range, a putting green and a teaching pro on site. Golfers rate the conditioning highly and the pace of play a great deal less so: rangers are scarce and summer rounds drag. If you want 18 you have to book two tee times back to back. It also plays through most of the winter, and the people who go out there in the cold think that is when the course is at its best.

Recent rates have run $20 to $35. Marovitz tee times.

South Shore began as a private club in 1906 and the Chicago Park District has owned it since 1974. The golf is nine holes credited to Tom Bendelow, 2,720 yards to a par of 33, bentgrass greens over ryegrass fairways, rated 66.4 with a slope of 111. It runs along the water, so the lake and the downtown skyline both come with the round.

There is a putting green and a teaching pro but no driving range, and the season runs April to the end of November. South Shore tee times.

Wilmette Golf Course opened in 1922 to a Joseph A. Roseman routing and has been reworked since by Dick Nugent, Brent Wadsworth and Greg Martin. The Wilmette Park District runs it. At 6,363 yards and par 70 it is not long, but a 128 slope against a 70.8 rating says it defends itself, and it is close enough to the city to be the default eighteen for a lot of North Siders.

That popularity is the defining fact about the place. A far larger share of posted tee times disappears here than at any other course in this guide, so it is not one you book on a Friday for a Saturday. Golfers like the greens, which roll true and consistently, and the GPS carts, and are much less impressed by thin fairways, bunkers left without rakes, a back nine that backs up with no ranger to sort it, and the noise from the quarry next door.

Recent rates have run $29 to $83, the widest spread on this list, and the season is short at mid-March to the start of November. Wilmette tee times.

Bonnie Brook is the Waukegan Park District's course, opened in 1926 and credited to James Foulis, the St Andrews professional who won the 1896 U.S. Open representing the Chicago Golf Club and then designed courses across the Midwest until his death. Bob Lohmann has reworked it since. It runs 6,701 yards to a par of 72, bentgrass tee to green, rated 72.4 with a slope of 126.

Golfers describe a course that gives long hitters room off the tee and then asks a hard question with the second shot, and they are unusually warm about the staff, who hand out rainchecks without an argument. The complaints cluster on pace, with five-hour rounds reported more than once, on greens that some found heavy and slow, and on a driving range that several called below average.

The season runs April to the start of December. Bonnie Brook tee times.

This course opened in 1928 as Pipe O' Peace, a Forest Preserves of Cook County course on Halsted Street in Riverdale, and through the decades when Black golfers were shut out of most of American golf it was where they played. Charlie Sifford, Lee Elder and Cliff Brown are all remembered in money games here. Joe Louis took a sponsor's exemption into the 1952 San Diego Open and forced the question of the PGA of America's whites-only membership rule, which survived until 1961. The Forest Preserves spent three years and $5 million rebuilding the course and dedicated it in his name on August 14, 1989.

Dick Nugent's name is on the layout you play now: 6,742 yards to a par of 72, rated 71.4 with a slope of 124, walkable, with a driving range and a putting green, open April through October. Recent rates have run $21 to $54, and tee times sit on the sheet here, which makes it one of the easier weekend rounds to arrange in Cook County.

Joe Louis tee times.

Columbus Park is a Tom Bendelow nine laid inside the West Side park that Jens Jensen designed. It is 2,753 yards to a par of 35, and a slope of 96 makes it the most forgiving course in this guide by a distance.

Golfers are clear-eyed about what it is. The fairways are wide and open, there is little elevation and no trickery, and it is a good place to work on your game without anyone making you feel unwelcome; the staff draw real praise. The conditioning does not. Muddy ground, tee boxes in rough shape and sprinklers running while people play all come up more than once. There is no driving range, though there is a teaching pro.

Recent rates have run $12 to $21, the lowest in this guide, and the season runs April to mid-December. Columbus Park tee times.

Marquette Park is a Chicago Park District nine dating to 1917, credited to Tom Bendelow with later work by Dick Nugent. It is 3,246 yards to a par of 36, bentgrass greens over ryegrass fairways, rated 35.5 with a slope of 119, and it is walkable. There is a driving range and a putting green, which not every city nine has.

The season is long by Chicago standards, running from the start of March to the start of November. Marquette Park tee times.

Buffalo Grove opened in 1990 to a Dick Nugent and David Whelchel design and is run by the village park district. It is only 6,447 yards, but a slope of 137 against a 71.6 rating makes it the hardest course in this guide, and golfers agree on why: water, and greens sat on enough movement that a shot in the wrong place leaves you nothing.

Those greens are what people praise most, along with conditioning that holds up early in the season and a clubhouse that has clearly had money spent on it. There is no outdoor driving range, but there are indoor simulator bays you can warm up in, which several golfers name as the reason they book here in March. The complaints are about service rather than golf: thin staffing, long waits for food and drink, and no coffee in the morning.

Recent rates have run $15 to $57 and the tee sheet fills, so weekend mornings want booking ahead. Buffalo Grove tee times.

The Course at Aberdeen is in Valparaiso, Indiana, southeast of the city and inside the Chicago metro. Jack Kidwell and Michael Hurdzan built it in 1997, and at 6,917 yards to a par of 72, rated 73.0 with a slope of 134, it is the longest and stiffest full-length test in this guide.

There is a driving range and a putting green, it is walkable, and the season runs mid-March to the end of November. Recent rates have run $32 to $84, the top of this list, and a large share of posted times goes before it is played, so a weekend morning is worth booking in advance.

Course at Aberdeen tee times.