Port at Harborside International Golf Center

I play this course 2-3x per year. It is without question one of the more challenging public courses in the Chicagoland area and is generally very well maintained. A few notes:

1. Tee boxes, fairways and greens are overall in very good condition. This has been consistent for years.

2. A few of the sand traps, namely on 17 and maybe 18 are in bad shape. They are very hard with little sand, loaded with rocks and in some cases, bricks. The other sand traps are in good shape.

3. More signage is needed between holes. For someone that doesn't play here regularly, some of the hole locations can be difficult to find. The lack of signage has been an issue for years.

4. The cart paths have become particularly bad, many with big, deep potholes, trenches and cut outs. This should be fixed.

5. The staff here is excellent. Professional and very helpful.

We were teamed up with Andrew and Mark and had a great time out. We rented clubs and practiced at the facility before heading out. Had a nice breakfast sandwich and drinks also. The course was challenging…especially the 11th tee but it was fun!

This is one of the best public courses in the Chicago area. When I have family coming to town and they say they will want to play while in town this is one of the first courses I try and take them to. People complaining about the cart paths? Be serious...

Pros: easiest course to get to from downtown Chicago other than a few of the CPD tracks; very good practice facility; well maintained greens and fairways; friendly staff; outstanding brats at grill

Cons: not good value. Greens fees have gone up 50% in past ~10 years and I'm not sure what you're getting for it. Bunkers are very inconsistent; cart paths are borderline dangerous they are in such bad shape.

Great condition. Close to city center. Fair but challenging

Course was in very good condition, coming from FL I would recommend this challenging but not to difficult to keep the ball in play. Fun layout with some scoring holes. Cart paths a little bumpy but nothing to bad. Staff was awesome I rented clubs, it was a very easy experience. Beautiful will play again if back in Chicago.

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.