Golf is a great sport and a fun game. One of the best things about it is that it can be enjoyed by people of all ages, skill levels, and physical abilities. It’s also a relaxing way to get outside into the fresh air and have an abundance of uninterrupted quiet time with someone else, during which you’ll have lots of opportunities to converse or simply experience each other’s company.
This makes Chicago area golf courses perfect not only as a place for friends to hang out or for business associates to work out contract deals, but also for people visiting from out of town to instantly slot into a recreational community and get some healthy exercise.
*Note: This article explains a bit about how to rank and evaluate Chicago area golf courses to select the best one for you. If you want to see the names of specific courses, that list is at the bottom.
What Are The Skill Levels in Golf?
Like in any other sport or game, skill levels between participants can vary wildly. Among golfers, these skill levels are referred to as “handicaps.” That word might sound like a medical problem, but it is actually used to indicate how many more strokes/swings of the club above a course’s par it will take a particular golfer to complete the course. If a golfer has a higher handicap, it means they are less skilled and will need more strokes to complete a hole or course. The reverse is true for a golfer with a lower handicap (or no handicap). For clarity, par is the number of strokes/swings a highly skilled player is expected to need to complete a hole or a course (more on that below).
Once you have calculated your handicap, you can rank yourself into one of a few skill levels for the purpose of finding Chicago area golf courses that are appropriate for your skill level. This is not an exact science, and it may take some tweeking, but, for the most part, your skill level is synonymous with your handicap index. The lowest skill level is that of a beginner or novice who has either never played golf or has played it so little that they don’t actually know what their handicap is. From there, you progress from higher handicaps to lower handicaps until you eventually reach a point where you have no handicap at all. Having no handicap is not common and is called “scratch” or “elite.”
How Are Holes and Courses Ranked?
For all courses and all individual holes within courses, the ranking/rating system is based on “par.” And as we mentioned, par is the number of strokes/swings a “scratch/elite” golfer with no handicap is expected to require in order to complete the hole or course. In other words, the difficulty rating of every hole and course in golf is based on how difficult it is for the most elite players in the world. We put emphasis on that part because it’s common for golfers, especially beginners, to get discouraged by how far they are from what they initially perceive as being the “normal” skill level. But being “scratch/elite” is not normal or common. So take it easy and just enjoy yourself.
What Does a Course’s Rating Mean?
The higher the rating number, the more difficult the course. That’s the basic rule, and that rating number is calculated based on the number of “tees” on the course. A tee is the place where you position your ball at the beginning of a hole. Tees are sorted into three colors (red, white, and blue/black), with red being the shortest and lowest difficulty, while blue/black is the longest and most challenging. In general, red tees will be used by beginners, white tees will be used by most moderately skilled golfers, and blue/black tees will be used by highly skilled or professional golfers. A golf course will typically offer 3-5 sets of tees to choose from.
What is Slope?
This is pretty important for choosing a course because it is a rough calculation of the relative difficulty of the course for highly skilled golfers compared to lower-skilled golfers. In other words, if you’ll be playing with someone who is more or less skilled than you, a course’s slope helps you determine whether or not that course will be consistently challenging enough for both of you that you’ll be able to compete on a more or less “equal” footing. The higher a course’s slope is, the harder it will be for golfers with higher handicaps (higher skill levels) to get a similar score to an elite/scratch golfer. The lower a course’s slope is, the easier it will be for a higher handicap player to do this. Put in simpler terms, the higher the course’s slope is, the more difficult that course is usually going to be.
Ok, We’ve Got the Numbers. Now What?
Now you can actually choose a course in the Chicago area to play on. Gathering the numbers helps you and the other person or people you’ll be playing with figure out how fun and challenging it will be for each of you and how well-balanced it will be for you to compete with each other. Or if you’re by yourself, it helps you track your own progress as you become a more proficient golfer. In addition to the score, though, there are a few other things to consider that could determine whether or not you’ll ultimately enjoy a particular course. These include:
- Recommendations and reviews from other golfers (especially golfers who are of the same skill level as you)
- Course layout (There will ideally be a balanced mix of both easy and difficult holes.)
- Pace and crowding (The more crowded a course is, the faster you’ll feel you have to move through it.)
- Course facilities (driving ranges, practice greens, bathrooms, and all the rest of it)
Alright Already! Give Me Names!
Fair enough. We’ve explained how you can evaluate and compare different courses with each other to choose which ones you want, but we haven’t specifically named any of your options yet. So here’s your list of some local Chicago area golf courses and parks (with multiple different courses) that we like, ranked in no particular order. However, it’s up to you to choose between them based on the information we’ve given you here.
Good luck, and have a great game! ⛳
