Robert A. Black Golf Club

Excellent City/Park District Course. It is a little short, but a good mix starting with a par 5 1st hole then a mix of par 3s and 4s. It keeps it interesting by putting a dramatic dog leg on on hole 3, and gentler ones on the other par 4s. 2nd hole provides a good simple warm up par 3, but from there they start becoming more interesting with guarding bunkers, tiered or undulating greens and other quirks. It is nicely balanced to let you practice full range of golf skills without being to difficult for a beginner or demanding/relying on a strong long game. Extra plus - No water so you are more likely to end the game with the same number of balls you started ;) Focus has been on maintaining the greens and fairways over decorative landscaping, so it is not as photogenic as some other courses, but is very pleasant to stroll through and enjoy in the spring, summer and fall of Chicago. My only "constructive criticism" is the bathrooms - Perhaps they are true public park bathrooms rather than associated with the course, but they were... less than spotless lets just say. Go before you go ;)

There is an older guy who works here who will straight up harass you while you're playing golf. Would recommend literally any other city course over this one, as we've never been hassled like this elsewhere and we've played every course in the city. Context: we were 4 golfers on pace to finish the 9 hole course in <2 hrs. So if you golf, good speed. But it wasn't enough for the older guy --didn't catch his name-- who worked here; he would constantly approach 3 of our golfers and tell them they weren't playing fast enough, good enough, etc. We couldn't get a rhythm going because 1) he would heckle people as they were trying to play and 2) we had to constantly stop and talk with this guy to leave our golfers alone. So as you can imagine, we didn't get any faster. He kept saying the group behind us was waiting, but we weren't the ones who scheduled a single golfer behind four, not to mention we offered to let them go ahead if they were so mad and his response was to tell us not to go talk to this other golfer and instead to just play better. Basically, he was making up a pretext to harass our party. Not surprisingly, we had the only black golfer on the green that day. I'll spare you the rest of the details but eventually we had to call it, it just isn't fun to play golf while being harassed and the guy who supervises the course basically took the employees side. The only bright spot on this staff is Patrick, who was incredibly understanding, helped us get refunded for leaving two-thirds of the way through the day, and confided in us that we were not the first group to leave for getting harassed by this guy. Save yourself the trouble, especially if you have women in your group, and just go to any other course --the drive to lakeview is worth it.

Really impressed! I've played a lot of cheap golf courses as a high handicapper. This is definitely one of the better ones. Limited on course amenities (bathrooms are just Porta potties, for example) but the course is very well maintained! Muddy and soggy areas were minimal, decent sand traps, challenging greens, and good tee boxes. Keep doing what yall are doing because this place is a great budget course! I think this will be my new regular 9 hole course!