ThunderHawk Golf Club

Kind of underwhelming. Definitely a solid public course but not worth more than $50 in my opinion.

This is my new favorite course in the Chicagoland area. Felt as if I was in northern Wisconsin. This course is extremely demanding, I strongly advise first timers to use GPS or do a drive up from the tee before hitting. Lots of challenging tee shots, some forced carries, and fairway bunkers. Course is in excellent shape, greens are fair. I kept driver in the bag all but 3 holes and came out on top of my group in the end. With cart it was $79, which is steep, but this course is a gem and you could save a few bucks golfing off peak hours. Course doesn't have GPS carts, which is the only downside, because if there ever was a course you needed them it would be this one. Definite bucket list course in the area.

Scenic course, no houses, lots of natural vegetation. Can be very challenging, corridors are wide but hazards line both sides of almost every hole. Several tee shots require forced carries, and determining the right line to take can be difficult.

Course is over watered, greens slow and sticky and fairways/tees spongy. Would be a much better course if it played firm and fast.

The lighting and the thunder... one bird all day, I'll be back.

I used to live in Zion but moved a little further away.

Every chance I get, I come back and play ThunderHawk. It is a true measuring stick for my game. A friend on mine joined me and he also had to drive from Tinley Park to play, but didn't hesitate saying he would join me.

The course was in great shape, as usual.

Thanks again for a great day!

I decided to take advantage of a discount to walk this course. Played as a single as there was nobody on the course, maybe 4 people on the entire course. I was shocked at the amount of water that was still on the golf course, standing water in every fairway and I mean standing. It’s the wettest fairways I have ever experienced. To the course credit it was still very playable. No way you could have played the back tees, it would have played to 8000 yards as there was no roll on any shots. The course has only been open for 4 days. The biggest surprise was the amount of divots and ball marks that were visible on all of the tees, greens and fairways. It appeared that there had been no maintenance done this season as some of these were from last fall.:I was hoping to see near perfect conditions except for the water of course, since they have had virtuallY no play and no carts on the course this season. I suspect maybe there have been cutbacks due to our health crisis. There were also a few washed out bunkers. It was great to play this layout as it’s one of the best in Illinois. However they are also one of the most expensive and with our current economy this place better be perfect for the price and it was not. It appeared that the tee markers had been in the same place for 4 days ....in wet conditions this is not a good idea.

I might try it agin in the fall when conditions are back to normal.:

The Good: Imaginative RTJ Jr. design just south of the Wisconsin border feels more like a Northwoods Michigan track. Great course conditions and excellent, fair greens that hold well and putt true. Was particularly impressive how well the course recovered from significant rains the past few days. Beautiful layout with nice variety of holes that weave through trees and Audubon preserves. Great mixture of short Par 4's and challenging doglegs. One of the best collections of Par 5's in the state, if not the entire Midwest. The closing stretch of 16-18 is one of my favorites in the greater Chicago area. Good practice facility with nice range and short game area. Good clubhouse and on-course restroom stations. Well-priced around $90 w/ cart during high season.

The Bad: Greens can put a little slow compared to similar caliber courses. No GPS is a negative. Course can be extremely difficult, especially when the wind blows.

The Verdict: Thunderhawk is one of the best municipal courses in the country. A course that will play different every day you tee up and is very fun to play. One of the best public facilities in Illinois.

Best Hole(s): You could pick each of the Par 5's to be the signature, but the 18th is the best. The Par 4 9th requires a long drive into a dog leg left with an approach that must navigate large overhanging trees and a creek. Tough!

Heard great things about Thunderhawk and it surely didnt disappoint. We got a great $49 rate (not sure if I would pay rack rate to play here).

The Good: The back nine is awesome. It is a little more cut through the woods with style a links style feel. Love the rolling fairways you hit the right spot and the ball just goes. Love the back with 3 par 3s and 3 par 5s. #16 and #18 may be 2 of the best par 5s out there anywhere. Par 3s were great I am a big fan of courses with multiple tee boxes at different angles.

The ok: Course was in great condition but I was surprised green speed wasnt a bit faster but maybe the rain we had got slowed them down.

Overall: Thunderhawk is a cool track more of a Wisconsin style then Illinois but awesome all the way around. Definitely a place to come back too. And those par 5s WOW.

First time playing the course yesterday. Our group teed off a 2, which qualified for the "twilight" rate which was 49 to ride. We played from the tips, or black tees. It played at about 7100 yards that day. We played in four hours exactly, and never waited for a shot. The course lay out is very beautiful and tough, as a first time player I had trouble with what to hit off the tee, and there are many blind shots off the tee, for example I hit a great drive that ran through the fairway on 2 and was out of bounds. My lesson all day was don't hit driver. The course is tight with lots of weird angles off the tees, fairway bunkers, water, cat tails, and out of bounds in all the wrong places. Oh ya, the first 3 pat 3's are all 180-200 forced carries. Needless to say I got pretty beat up on my first loop. They have 3-4 other tees I think like 6300-6600, with a very short option as well. With whatever tee you choose, you will be tested on almost every swing. The course is fantastic, can't wait to play it again.

This course is easily ranked each year in the top 10 public in Illinois. Most "experts" rank this in the top 5, and I can't argue with that. The drive from the southwest suburbs just plain ol sucks. However, this track has an awesome layout, fantstic conditioning, and above average pace of play. Tough track, played Thunderhawk approximately 10 times and shot only two good rounds here. That being said the score doesn't deter me from driving all the way north past Great America pretty much a 9 iron away from the border of Wisconsin. Thunderhawk could hold a PGA tour event here, maybe a web.com event, which would be awesome. Championship caliber golf course from every aspect. Well done Thunderhawk, well done.

Well worth the hike from downtown. Course is in fantastic condition and has one of the better layouts around. It will help to play this track a second time around, but you can tell when to play smart...just listen to yourself. I will definitely be back here again. Can't wait!!!

Played on a an unseasonably warm fall day, so course was crowded, but Rangers need to enforce pace of play still. Saw the ranger multiple times and still played just under 5 hours! People who drive the ball 220 and not accurate should not play from the tees at 6600 yards, especially on this track.

This course is a real gem. Terrific mix of long "bomber" holes and short "target" holes. We had to drive an hour to get there but it was worth the trip. The weather didn't cooperate very well - cloudy, cool & BREEZY - but at least we stayed dry. We've had several days of rain so the course was pretty wet. Even so, the conditions were top-notch. Don't know when I'll get another chance to play here - but I'm sure I'll be back.