The Preserve at Oak Meadows

They’ve renovated this course, I was looking forward to play it, and yet it feels at the same old course, but the green fees are ridiculous, for that price you can play so many great courses,, not this municipal course.

They’re way over their head, only reason they get two stars is because they’re staff is very friendly.

Ps: i don’t mind paying but has to be worth it, this is not it.

Been playing for 14 years, 7 hdcp, i play all over the greater Chicagoland area and I play 3-4 rounds a week.

I thoroughly enjoyed the new layout at Oak Meadows. The course architects did a great job fitting in the new holes with some older holes. The course has been made much more difficult and once everything grows in this place will command your A game. The once mediocre Par 3s are now visually stunning and challenging. Can't wait to play next year!

Read my previous reviews of the course. Really enjoy this place however note above. The greens are still in really good shape but there was a light dusting of sand pebbles on greens....still very acceptable. The course chipping areas and fairways with the lack of rain, lack of divot mix on the carts and lack of golfer attention to replacing divots or putting rather than chipping are getting a tad torn up at this point......I hope they close the course early so they can allow this very young track to recover and rest prior to the grand opening next year.

The course had a soft opening 6 weeks ago after the complete renovation. The new Oak Meadows layout is very different, a combination of Parkland style (mature trees) and links with plenty of water and trouble with forced carries. It's a shot makers course with challenging holes, but playable. In two years the course will be fabulous after it has time to fully grow in the grasses. If you're an avid golfer, put it on your must play Public course list for the Chicago area!

3rd time playing and introduced two newbies to the redesign. Both loved it but remarked that the greens fees were at tad high even though we played at 1pm when there was a $20 reduction. 12 minute tee times. Tee sheet was very light due to the Bears game and we had perfect weather. Greens and traps are in excellent shape the rest of the course unfortunately is already getting pretty torn up and conditions tee to green can be sketchy as it opened too early. Refer to my previous reviews for more info.....I really like this course but the cost to play it next year will likely prohibit me and many others from considering it for regular play unless there is a hot deal. Predicting that the Forest Preserve may be surprised mid season next year that their revenues may not meet their expectations and they may have to reduce or rethink their greens fees pricing. Should be around $50 and $35-$40 for the afternoons. Even with the Bears game the course should have been packed....but heard several grousing in the parking lot or just stopping by to check it out about the cost to play The Preserve. There are plenty of other courses you can play for far less have a couple of orange whips and still have money in your pocket. I do love the redesign and the course is a really fun challenging play....and not set up for high handicappers. Recommending you play the course now while the rates are lower during preview because next year rates will increase and you will be able to enjoy better conditions as several of the chipping areas/collection around greens are already getting divot laced and torn up. So play it now rather than later.....and please take care of it.

Good redo for an old, familiar course. A bit of the old still apparent, lots of new. good layout, must hit good tee shots for a chance. Nice to hit out of excellent sand finally! Very appealing to the eye. GPS in carts really helps on a brand new layout.

First of all I do agree with others saying it will take time for this golf course to mature and I am sure it will be excellent place to play in 2-3 years but at this point it is hardly worth $50.00. I played better courses for less money. With all of the money invested into renovation our biggest surprise was how wet fairways ware even day after moderate rain. I do not believe we will be coming back any time soon.

I've never reviewed a brand new- still not officially open- golf course and what a great course it's going to be! I've not seen anything quite like it in the area. A great mixture of old school, oak-lined fairways, and open prairie all supported by what appears to be the latest golf course technology and I'm looking forward to seeing the final product.

Every great course starts with great staff and I feel they've got that.. Everyone was exceptionally kind and helpful and I mean EVERY ONE! Thank you!

As for the course, the greens, in my opinion, are the most important part of any golf course and these greens are OUTSTANDING! Very firm, true, and extremely fast...slippery even. Felt like be 12+ on the Stimpmeter. How firm and fast is that? So firm that the day we played the green would barely take a ball mark. Of course for the same reason, it was a challenge to hold the green on approach. You need to come in high and do your best to land softly, or if coming in low, land short or risk running right off the back or into one of the many collection areas surrounding the well-bunkered, elevated greens. You know those shots we see on the tour and when the best pros just miss the green and the ball slides 20+ yards back to the flat of the fairway or if a touch long maybe bound off the back into the deep rough or tall grass or other areas where you have an almost blind pitch back up to the green. You'll get all of that here along with some areas of brutally thick and sticky rough surrounding the bunkers and though it can be frustrating, I'll be the first to admit that these challenges make any game of golf more interesting and fun.

Speaking of fun, the bunkers are beautiful, white sand, 'PGA style' bunkers that come into play off of nearly every tee and around nearly every green. You will pay for your misses. I have no idea how they are going to handle the issue with tree trash (dead leaves, sticks, and acorns around some of the greens around wooded areas). They're going to need a quality system in place for sifting that stuff out and I'm sure they have a plan.

I was a bit surprised to see how short the course was from the whites at 5700 yds but I wouldn't call any hole a pushover. The risk/reward factors are considerable even on the shortest par 4s. and I counted seven at the 280-320 yard range. There are some forced carries that might appear intimidating but if you make clean contact from your appropriate tee you'll clear with room to spare.

Interestingly, the run-up areas leading to the greens I found to be exceptionally firm, tight, and often puttable from a long way off of the green. A few times I found myself choosing to putt from a great distance (20+ yards) from the fairway below. On the high-side, above the hole and a few inches into the rough, you might even consider toeing the putter instead of chipping. These aren't things I would normally do, but the conditions made it possible to do so with confidence and I hope the course remains this way.

Given that this course is so new and will continue to require intense care, I was very surprised that there was not a quality sand/seed mixture available on the carts. The need was apparent after seeing many replaced divots that- although well placed- turned into lifeless brown rectangles. Now, I don't know if this is because of the watering schedule or because this new turf has not yet developed a suitable grown in root and soil structure to withstand that harsh transplant process, or what, but the bottom line is that some of us golfers really do like to leave the course in the best possible condition for future play and without the tools available, we're left with the unfortunate alternative. Fairways, rough, and fringes and even practice areas are peppered with grounds under repair, patchy bare spots, tufts of inconsistently growing grass, and signs of work on drainage and irrigation. That said, it doesn't need to affect your enjoyment of this course as It's appropriate to take relief from all of these things as 1)They don't need to be hacked up any further and 2) It's clearly not the intended surface condition for play. It will be, but let's wait until somebody cuts a ribbon at the grand opening.

I know that with the proper plan and crew...and time, The Preserve at Oak Meadows will exceed my expectations and that fifth star in my review awaits. Keep up the great work DuPage Golf!

"Soft Opening" getting more play than necessary. Just opened a few weeks ago to a mega-reconstruction. Took area from old Oak Meadows and 9 holes from Maple Meadows and reconfigured a future tournament quality layout.

Humongous greens. Wide fairways. Some treelined holes, but mostly open layout affected by wind. Will play to 7,000 and down to 4,900. Too many brown areas to recommend to paying more than $45 now. Let's see how they work the bald spots this Fall and next Spring.

Played the old course many time and enjoyed it. The renovation kept some of the old look. It also opened up many new sight lines. The course now has some of its old charm with a new course feel. The fairways will grow in. The greens were perfect. Firm, fast and challenging. The landing areas off the tees were generous but there is plenty of trouble for the poorly struck shot. With a new clubhouse and the existing practice areas, The Preserve will be a must play for the serious golfer and a great experience for the average player trying to improve.

Lost 8 golf balls in 12 holes. Course conditions were absolutely terrible. A brand new golf course that opened 2 weeks ago should not have multiple areas of dead grass and large patches of dry dirt surrounding the greens. The tee boxes were completely full of divots, again this course opened 2 weeks ago from a complete renovation, how does that make sense? Almost every hole has water of both sides and if you don't hit a perfect shot in the fairway/green your ball is gone. I don't see how anyone would enjoy playing this course for anything over $30. DO NOT waste your money and time playing here. The only positive was the staff at the golf course was incredibly nice.

The Preserve at Oak Meadows remodel is absolutely beautiful. The course is extremely challenging with lots of holes that you must think about where you are placing your ball. Also the greens are fast so be careful how hard you hit your putter!! The personnel are very friendly & are very willing to explain about the remodel. The wetlands are still growing in so it will take another year or two but it is amazing what has been done in two years. If you have the opportunity, play The Preserve. You're in for a treat!!

I played the re-designed Oak Meadows course last week and was impressed with some of the holes, but think it's a golf course that is not worth paying $75 to play. I play to a 5 handicap, so I usually play the back tees. This course was somewhat challenging from the tips and some tees weren't even open yet, so it will play even more difficult when all of the tee boxes are grown in. However, I do have a few critiques of this course. There are a few holes where the tee box is located right next to the previous hole and stray shots could easily hit you, especially if you're playing the tips. Also, there are a bit too many easy par 4's and 5's that are very short and can be birdied. I like that the designers made some holes where you can make lower scores, but they almost went overboard in that regard. There are 4 or 5 extremely difficult holes on this course (a few of the par 3's from the tips are quite tough), but 6 or 7 fairly easy holes as well. Overall, I don't mean this as a swipe at the course design, but it's simply not as an appealing or challenging of a course as Prairie Landing, Bowes Creek or Highlands of Elgin. And all of those courses charge less $ for greens fees.

To get a better feel of the first new public course in DuPage County in over two decades (Prairie Landing 1994) we enjoyed a different set of tees and sight lines at The Preserve. The course is very young and has some sketchy conditions in certain areas but the green sites are generally in top notch shape running smooth and extremely fast. With the course only being open a couple of weeks with a soft open and limited play it was concerning to see far too many divot holes in some of the fairways and even collection areas around greens since my last play (refer to that review below for more information).

Selfishly I wish the forest preserve would have just waited until next spring to open the course. Ready for play but several patrons negative comments (when pressed) don't seem to understand that new greens won't hold shots until they mature and are anticipating (or even demanding) perfection in the course conditions. They probably have never played a brand new golf course.

I highly recommend playing the course even in it's infancy prior to hackers destroying some of the wonderful roll out putting/chip and run areas around the greens. Noticed that several young bucks were attempting to hit impossible Phil Mickelson full swing lob wedges from these closely mown areas around the greens resulting in huge divots...the more appropriate play considering the hard/fast conditions is just to bump run or better yet just putt the ball onto these greens. So I'm imploring that all golfers treat this place with a lot of TLC and pay attention when driving your cart - avoid the several wet areas in the fairways and go back to the cart paths directly as possible - far too many won't unfortunately.

My playing partner (a first timer) noted that the real strength of course course were the Par 5's and Par 3's....you have to play these 8 holes well to protect your score. The Preserve at Oak Meadows is a really challenging track and one that I'll always enjoy playing. We had a wonderful day as the first group off (first tee time is 9am during the soft open) and will return to enjoy fall colors and to see how well the course is holding up. 4.5 stars and worth the $60.....greens fee will be even higher next year.

I had the pleasure of getting to play The Preserve for the first time this Sunday. I've never written a review on golfadvisor/golfnow, but because this is essentially a brand-new, county-owned municipal facility I felt compelled to write one.

For starters, this is a championship-caliber golf course that happens to be in it's very early stages of maturation and growth after a full renovation.. It can typically take 1-3 years for a golf course to fully mature, sometimes more, so the conditions are not at their full potential yet. The greens on the other hand, are almost perfect. When we played they were running at a quick and consistent speed (Excellent), but a bit more firm than you may be accustomed to (you can expect this with any course that has been fully renovated). That being said, none of this significantly deterred from the overall experience of the round. The design of the new course is incredibly unique and offers a great amount of variety, traversing through various landscapes from oak-lined fairways to open meadows. It has a large variety of tee boxes and possible pin locations, making it a very fun and enjoyable golfing experience.

The one thing that caught me off guard personally was the sheer amount of wetland/retention area - The main goal of the renovation was to address the drainage and flooding of the golf course - They succeeded in doing this. The fairways aren't overly narrow, and the landing areas are generous if you are playing the correct tee for your skill level. However, if you significantly hit it offline you will be penalized more so that your typical parkland course. Keeping the ball in play off the tee is at an absolute premium.

Overall, I found the course to be fantastic and can't wait to play it again.

Played The Preserve at Oak Meadows which has just opened with a mid season soft opening with the Grand Opening next Spring.

That being said the new layout is great and challenging with many options of tee boxes. Conditions exceeded my expectations for conditions of a new course. Greens rolled fast and true and are in excellent shape they are new so are very firm and will be more shot receptive as they mature. Pace of play was great with tee times @ every 12 min.

Great layout fun to play. Highly recommend you give it a try

I really enjoyed the renovated layout. It was a lot of fun and playable from different tees. The greens were quick, but rolled really smoothly.