Port at Harborside International Golf Center

I’ve been coming to Harborside for a very, very long time. Thankfully, I booked this through Golf now and my total fees, including taxes and convenience fee was $100. I also happen to be an Anchor Club member which reduces the cost of each round I play.

Had I not booked it through GolfNow the fee including taxes for the round of golf would have been $147. This is not a $150 course. The car paths are absolutely atrocious. The sand traps are absolutely atrocious - there are large pebbles in the sand which will destroy the face of your club. Luckily, I was only in one sand trap, but the people that I was playing with were in the sand traps a lot. Some of the traps are like hitting out of dirt.

We were playing the port course and on the back nine the blue tea boxes are in just horrible condition. The only reason why this place gets as much play as it does is because of the proximity to downtown Chicago where a lot of people have moved over the past 5 to 7 years, it is a very convenient place to play golf relative to going out to the suburbs.

So having said all of this, in my opinion, the fees for this golf club should be no more than $75 Monday through Thursday and $100 max Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Pros:

- Great layout

- Fast but not glass fast greens

- Great bunkers

- Decent pace of play (4 hours and 20 minutes)

- Awesome hot dogs

- Friendly staff (minus what is listed in the cons below

- Free small bucket of range balls

Cons:

- No marshalls on the course at all (minus the starter)

- 80% of the cart paths are completely wrecked. They need to just bust up the remaining paths and lay down gravel.

- Fairways were really brown (lack of watering is noticable)

- No drinking water on the course. It was 95F today this should be illegal.

- There were used cigarette buds in my cart.

- They really push you for tips at the halfway house and watch if you tip via the iPad.

- I witnessed 2 employees leave a restroom in the clubhouse without them washing their hands.

I would come back here for the price I paid (65 USD) but not for more than that.

Decent course. Great condition. Nice practice facility.

Beverage cart was fairly prevalent. A good half-way house as well.

A bit disappointing that an exorbitant green fee did not include a few range balls.

Fairways, greens and layout are all amazing. Waste bunkers, fescue rough and cart paths are shot. Everything bounced out of my cart including rangefinder. Fescue completely overgrown and out of control. Just play it all as a red hazard I guess. Good balls on the range and practice area is top notch!

Like many other reviewers, it’s worth repeating that the cart paths need to be repaved. They are brutal. But that’s the only shortcoming of Harborside IMO. The course is beautiful and very well-maintained. Everything from the tee boxes and fairways to the sand traps and greens is pristine. The course is scenic and challenging. What more could you want?!?! It's links style with zero trees and lots of elevation changes, which means the wind is constantly changing directions and can be very strong. This wind dynamic is the biggest challenge, IMO. One minute you can hit a wind-aided 9-iron 190 yards, while the next a stiff wind will hold it to 90 yards. On a windy day, it definitely requires thought and strategy, which makes it a standout among most Chicagoland courses.

Many holes were cart path only, which is understandable at this time of the year, but the cart paths were in horrendous condition particularly near to the tee boxes. It is the middle of April & there has been more than enough suitable weather to fix them. They could not be driven on without spilling drinks & losing stuff out of the cart.

Come on guys $110 a round, you could do better.

Love this course and in good shape for Fenruary!!

When prepping for the season I hope they work on sand levels, manicure bunkers and lips, maintain tee boxes and have plans to resurface cart paths.

A great asset for the southside and Chicago metro in general!!

Harborside used to be a really great destination. Course condition has steadily declined over the last 15 to 20 years. It’s time to call this place what it is. Harborside has now hit dog track status. Greens and paths beat up badly. Don’t get me wrong they’re still a place for such courses in golf. The problem is not for the money they charge or the lack of care for the customers. Yesterday we booked a foursome on GolfNow. It was stated that it was with carts on the app. we show up for our round and not only are they not letting carts out but they don’t have enough pull carts. They tell us that it’s because they’re trying to keep the paths nice. 😂 What a joke. The paths are beat to crap already . Truth be told they just didn’t want to pull carts out but tried to hide behind being responsible. This place needs to change their mindset about how to deal with customers and needs to put some money into upkeep.

Loved the course layout and it was much fun to playing following ups and downs in the course. Course well managed considering it was mid-November. Willing to play more next year!