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Bittersweet Golf Club
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About
Bittersweet Golf Club in Gurnee, Ill. is ideally situated for a scenic round of golf. The diverse landscape flows seamlessly from lush wetlands to native prairies covered with colorful wildflowers. The layout also winds across a 100-year-old sage meadow and through forests of mature hardwoods, which serve as a home to an abundance of wildlife. Beyond the beautiful scenery, the terrain presents many challenges. The undulating fairways demand accuracy as you hit from multi-tiered tee boxes. Water also comes into play on almost every hole and there's an array of strategically placed bunkers you'll have to avoid. The eighth is the toughest hole on the front nine, a par-4 dogleg right with a lightning fast green. Bittersweet Golf Club's back nine is known for its scenery, which is best displayed on the signature par-5 11th hole, which offers not only a challenge but also a spectacular view from the tee.
| Tee | Par | Length | Rating | Slope |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black | 72 | 6751 yards | 73.3 | 135 |
| Blue | 72 | 6345 yards | 71.4 | 131 |
| White | 72 | 5559 yards | 67.8 | 122 |
| White (W) | 72 | 5559 yards | 72.8 | 128 |
| Red (W) | 72 | 4952 yards | 70.0 | 121 |
| Hole | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Out | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | In | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gold M: 73.3/137 W: 79.5/143 | 338 | 565 | 196 | 344 | 371 | 148 | 346 | 422 | 516 | 3246 | 369 | 546 | 403 | 200 | 506 | 420 | 421 | 203 | 437 | 3505 | 6751 |
| Green M: 71.4/133 W: 77.3/138 | 319 | 531 | 169 | 334 | 361 | 126 | 326 | 404 | 485 | 3055 | 340 | 530 | 363 | 183 | 496 | 376 | 409 | 190 | 403 | 3290 | 6345 |
| Green/White M: 69.7/126 W: 75.1/133 | 319 | 531 | 127 | 334 | 234 | 126 | 326 | 328 | 485 | 2810 | 340 | 507 | 363 | 145 | 496 | 376 | 360 | 133 | 403 | 3123 | 5933 |
| White M: 68.0/120 W: 73.0/129 | 298 | 490 | 127 | 323 | 234 | 106 | 309 | 328 | 410 | 2625 | 329 | 507 | 319 | 145 | 445 | 341 | 360 | 133 | 355 | 2934 | 5559 |
| Orange M: 65.2/113 W: 69.8/122 | 283 | 469 | 93 | 279 | 234 | 76 | 288 | 323 | 402 | 2447 | 241 | 424 | 289 | 115 | 371 | 290 | 327 | 126 | 322 | 2505 | 4952 |
| Handicap | 17 | 1 | 9 | 11 | 7 | 13 | 15 | 3 | 5 | 12 | 2 | 18 | 16 | 10 | 6 | 8 | 14 | 4 | |||
| Par | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 36 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 36 | 72 |
| Handicap (W) | 9 | 1 | 17 | 7 | 13 | 15 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 14 | 2 | 12 | 18 | 8 | 10 | 6 | 16 | 4 |
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Golf Advisor: Top Courses in Illinois (2016 #12)
Reviews
Reviewer Photos
Bittersweet, More sweet than bitter
Absolutely beautiful golf course with a nice layout and well priced.
Tough course but very nice
I enjoyed it. It kicked my backside but I'll definitely be back to get my revenge
Beautiful fun course
Holes are interesting and challenging but fun, tough greens. Tee boxes are a little chopped, sometimes hard to find level footing but overall a great round of golf.
I think they improved the course
Great day! Course including greens in great condition. Great pace, and friendly staff. I think Bittersweet has stepped it up.
Toughest course
One of the toughest courses I’ve ever played.
Hazards everywhere. They call it a target course….. you better be right on target if you expect a decent round. Narrow fairways add to the many challenges.
Water, water and more water
Challenging course with water on every hole. Need to play each hole as smart as possible. Will be back
Worth the drive.
Just a real nice course. Fair and challenging.
Just fun to play!
Travel 42 miles to play this course and its worth it.
Golfer
Course I’m pretty good shape! Greens super fast. Very fun challenges
Another course just a shadow of itself.
You can see what a nice course this was and could be again. The management company is well known for stripping courses of their personality and beauty. They focus on the number of rounds rather than the course itself. There are tough holes here and lots of long carries to make the fairways. There were several bald spots on the fairways. The cart paths are beat up. The pro shop staff was cold and inattentive. The greens were in pretty good condition and rolled nicely.
Challenging course!
Definitely placement golf. Lots of water hazards and marsh area. Beautiful scenery and tons of wildlife!!
Problems
I was really excited to play Bittersweet for the first time in over a decade. Overall I enjoyed the day. However, my partner and I were disappointed by many things. First, no ball washers? What? C'mon now. Second, they are letting this course go with things like yardage markers and signage. I don't think they even had a marker telling us where the 12th tee box was. You need to label your holes with a basic 300 yard, par 4, and here's the layout stuff. The black tees weren't even in the ground, yet many times the blue tees were where the black tees should have been. What? So what yardage did we actually play out there? No GPS on the carts, plus no yardage markers out on the course left us with mostly blind shots. I mean, c'mon man! This course was hard enough as is without them screwing us over on yardage. Why can't they at least put a red, blue, and white stake for 100, 150, and 200 yards away from center of the green? Just very disappointing. It's sad because they have an interesting, fun, challenging course layout but they have let it go.
Tough course
A very nice challenge.....unfortunately,wayward shots leave you with double bogeys on many holes but if you hit them straight,you’ll find this course a worthy challenge
Destination Kohler - Champions' Trail Golf Package
Destination Kohler - To Dye Four Golf Package
