Ravisloe Country Club

Favorite Hole

No. 16, par 4, 310-390 yards

The 16th hole sits on a lovely, rolling section of the property. The tee shot prefers a fade, and a good one sets up a wedge into a green that runs away. It’s an extremely hard shot to get just right and requires real precision to set up a birdie look. The use of a fallaway green late in the round, when the course predominantly features greens that slope from back to front, is a smart bit of variety.

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Overall Thoughts

At one point in my 20s, Ravisloe was my home course. It’s easy to get to from the city and, in my opinion, the best public golf option in Chicago. You can score here, but you have to find the right positions. Ravisloe’s defense is its greens, most of which slope strongly from back to front and can be devastating when you miss in the wrong places. The course’s flat front nine contrasts with its more topographically varied back nine, and holes 11 through 17 are the highlight.

With proper care and respect for history, this course could be in the discussion for most fun place to play golf in Chicago, public or private. Unfortunately, owner Claude Gendreau has spent a striking amount of money, time, and energy planting trees in places that compromise the architecture and agronomy of the course, while also allowing the greens to shrink. These decisions have dulled Ravisloe’s design. Every year, it loses a little more of its spark.

Ravisloe is an example of the importance of well-informed golf course ownership. I do not think Dr. Gendreau’s intentions are malicious. They are just misguided. The course can be a sanctuary for trees and wildlife and also represent the architectural brilliance of Donald Ross, as seen in this 1938 aerial photograph:

Despite these issues, Ravisloe remains a valuable resource in an area with a lot of public golf but few excellent options. Chicagoland is a swamp, for the most part flat and featureless. Ravisloe is south of what used to be part of the lake, so it has some compelling terrain. Since it has been a private club for most of its existence, it has retained much of its old-school charm and architecture. Many of Chicago’s Golden Age public courses, on the other hand, were bulldozed over in renovation efforts between 1960 and 2000. Take Pine Meadow, a beautiful course in the north suburbs. Its William Flynn design was mangled by Joe Lee in the 1980s.

One of my good friends—not a Club TFE member—just recently picked up golf again and had the chance to play Shoreacres. He knows very little about golf architecture, but he loved the course. I asked him why. He said, “I only lost a few golf balls and felt like I had a chance on every shot.” A few weeks later, we played Ravisloe together. It was his first time. After the round he remarked, “I love this place—it reminds me of Shoreacres.” Again, I asked him why. “We played fast and I didn’t ever feel like I was going to lose a ball,” he said.

To be clear, Ravisloe is not in the same league as Shoreacres. It could be really fun with the right renovation, but it will never have architecture or topography that could be accurately called extraordinary. But not losing golf balls and always feeling like you have a chance are wonderful traits for a public golf course. So yes, I have my qualms and complaints about how the property has been managed over the past 15 years, but Ravisloe remains a terrific place to call your home course. -AJ

0 Eggs

The clearest path to any Eggs for Ravisloe would involve substantial tree removal and green expansion. It’s unlikely that either of those things will happen on Dr. Gendreau’s watch. All we can do in the meantime is hope the routing and green contouring stay intact so that one day Ravisloe can undergo a true restoration.

Additional Content

Unconserved: Unforced Errors at Ravisloe
A Golden Age Public: Ravisloe

Course tour

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