Brae Loch Golf Course

The course is in decent condition. It's been pretty dry recently and that was reflective in the course. The main thing that stood out where the greens were very fast and difficult. It was hard to hold the green and the pins always seemed to be on a pretty severe slope. It added a lot of strokes in the putting game.

Also there were a lot of trees on the course. Some narrow fairways and on #11 we weren't even sure where the fairway was from the tee box because of a dogleg and some big trees.

Overall a fun course which might be dry for some but not nearly as bad as the 2020 reviews said it was.

I understand that it gets hot in the Chicagoland area, but the fairways had so many spots without grass, it felt like I was golfing on an asphalt road. At 26 dollars/round walking, you'd think they'd take better care of the course. Not to mention we had a tee-time of 2:30 pm, and when we got there the starter let two singles go off by themselves, and he was quite rude when we asked if we could start on the back 9. I would not recommend this course, plenty of other decent ones in the area.

The Good: Brae Loch is a sporty Lake County Forest Preserve managed muni that has some interesting short Par-4’s and back-to-back demonic Par-5’s on the front nine. Nice variety in the Par-3 lengths. While the course is certainly no Taj Mahal of greater Chicago, it does have decent greens and an excellent pace of play for a weekday afternoon round. No driving range, but a nice short game area right off the 16th green. Good value at under $40 during peak season.

The Bad: Course conditions overall have been ravaged by a dry summer, with many of the fairways pretty barren. This could definitely be an interesting course with a few trees taken down. On-course service and amenities were severely lacking, but this tends to be the case with many low-budget courses in the Covid-19 era. Staff didn’t appear to be too excited to be at work that day. No driving range is a bummer.

The Verdict: Brae Loch is another example of “you get what you pay for”, but it has the potential to be a very fun, quirky course with the right amount of TLC and expectations. It’s a good course to gain some confidence and work on your short iron play.

Best Hole: The 7th is the second of back-to-back Par-5’s on the front with a semi-blind tee shot to an tight, uphill fairway and then an approach that must be cut around trees to a “peninsula” style green cut into wetlands.

Course is in pretty bad shape, huge sections of the fairway roped off. It’s a fun course though - tree lines and course layout can get you !

Terrible course and management. Played 14 holes in four hours. Quit at that point. At one time, the beer cart lady told us to speed up play. There were three groups ahead of us. Yikes

Did not feel welcome in the pro shop. Guy took a phone call after acknowledging me and then was rude

I booked with golfnow, however when I got to the course I had to pay again for the round cause they told me I made the reservation but never paid. Don’t know how that was possible cause I thought you had to pay from golfnow when making the reservations. As a result I paid again lol.

Walking only. A lot of standing water which was the least of the issues.

When the fairways were mowed they did not pick up any of the grass clippings. So even if you hit it in the fairway it was hard to find your ball because of that. Never played a course before where that was an issue.

The course due to 9 inches of rain in past 2 weeks had a few extra water holes. Made it fun, you had to rethink some shots. Had a great time

I wished they didn’t allow us to play. Every whole there’s water from the rain a day ago . Nice layout but the experience of walking 18 with your feet wet is not pleasant.

The team at Brae Loch was great. They meet you in the parking lot to complete payment/check in. As always they were courtesy. On the course the rough was thick, for their standards. Greens were in great condition.

You didn't feel like you had to be within a few feet of anyone for more than 5 minutes, and the course kept moving.

With these stressful and insular times, the opportunity to play golf on a well manicured and beautiful course bolstered my spirits. Staff was amazing and the course was so well taken care of. Ideal day and solid round :).

Ok, I have played here many times. I do not play because it is a challenging or beautiful. It is close and relatively inexpensive. I will often play here with people who need a little more forgiveness in a course. The rough was ridiculously long. So deep, we could not find golf balls. I know what you are going to say, "hit it in the fairway". Well we all know that just does not happen as often as we want especially with golfers who do not play very often. Based on how many golf balls we found that were not ours, we were not the only ones with this issue.

I really wish courses would go back to dress codes. Tank tops and cut off should not be allowed. This course has none.

Pace of play was very slow. Majority of the players were pretty poor golfers who did not understand how to play at a decent rate. Holes are close together so you end up playing with the groups on adjacent holes. Loud! Greens are fantastic though. A decent place to take kids and/or new players. Will not go back unless it's my only alternative.

I love this course. As many times that I have been at this course it's never been over crowed. You get there and you get right on. The pace of play is prefect and just a great time out there with very nice golfers.