Oak Grove Golf Course

Played here with two buddies in early November on a Hot Deal. I know the course, but it is usually a little pricey, so it was great to find a good deal.

For the first weekend in November, the course was in great shape. No one was out there so we played relatively quickly.

I loved the location, no houses on the course. The course has a ton of sand but not a lot of water. If you have trouble getting off the tee, you should bring extra balls, because a lot of the tees require you to carry some sort of hazard. I found the back nine less forgiving than the front, but still manageable for a middle of the road golfer.

The carts were nice but did not have windshields or gps. The range was closed but the practice green was open and in nice shape.

I was not expecting a lot when going to the course as it is in a small town but man was I wrong. This place is tough! For the most part it was in very good shape as well. You better be ready to bring your game, if you are spraying it off the tee you will being taking penalties.

Course was in great condition and played well. The pace was less than desired though on the last nine holes. A build up of 4 groups began on 10. Not sure if groups went out on 10 our not but the pace should be policed better by the staff.

The greens were in poor condition. Ball marks were everywhere no matter what the par was. Looks like most people don't repair them. Other than the greens, the course was a pleasure to play.

Course was in good shape, not too crowded. Carts could use GPS as yardage markings weren’t the easiest to find. Nice course

Enjoyed a wonderful round on the holiday with an empty golf course in 4 hours. See my review 7/23/17 for other tips/comments. Oak Grove was in great shape except for the bunkers which need a lot of work. Greens were holding and had proper speed to them. Rest of the course the ball was bounding and bounding. We virtually had the course to ourselves teeing off at a 11am so we were able to enjoy this track properly...usually not the norm on weekends/holidays where pace can be huge issue. Our own private Idaho this day....and thankful for that because it was a really hot steamy day. Good warm up range and very nice facilities overall. Showers and locker room. Clubhouse has an awesome outdoor deck with a great view of the 18th green for post round libations. Well worth the trek to Harvard. Except for the stupid hole (#11) the rest of the course is really well designed fun routing. Do yourself a favor....just tell everyone in your group the most you can take on the 11th is a double bogey 7.....that way you'll be more relaxed when you play it and probably score better than a double....

The bunkers do need some TLC/attention and the only other detraction was the drinking water. It's well water and quite off putting so bottled water is the way to go (no water jugs out on the course for good reason). I never pass up an opportunity to play here. 4 plus stars trending to 4.5 stars. Highly recommended.

Very good layout, course in great shape. Wasn’t too impressed with clubhouse, but fair. Back nine is awesome. Had a good time. Have to play if live in stateline area. Will be back.

Course was in great shape! Nice layout and challenge. Definitely recommend

I've played Oak Grove for 20 years. It keeps getting better. Never tire of the course or making the hour drive to get there. 7:30 AM tee time and we had the course to ourselves. Finally caught the 4some in front of us at the turn - they promptly let us play through. Super course in great shape.

Cons: carts don't have windshields or satellite. You'll need a range finder to get proper distances quickly.

One one staffer - nice enough guy - but it was kind of weird only having one staffer on site.

Made the trek to the middle of nowhere to play what has previously been well worth the venture.

Understaffed facility proved to be only a minor inconvenience. Pace of play for a Saturday/Holiday was great but.......

The greens for this time of the year were the worst I have seen recently.

This was a shame and when asked the staff, they apologized and agreed that Golf Visions management has left them hanging. Very limited maintenance support proves to result in greens that are still full of last fall aerations, soft, slow and inconsistently bad!

A spoiler to a good day at a usually good track.

Very nice course, good price and value, large par 3's moderately challenging. Only complaint was that it is mid May and the greens were still heavy aerated and the sand had pulled out of most of them making puts jump all over the place. Once the greens are healed up it will be a hidden gem in Harvard.

A couple holes were arerated and still sandy. Others had such holes that looked like left overs from last year. Customers should be advised of the maintenance being conducted on the greens. Overall, have played this course many time and it is a good one. But maybe not for another few weeks!

great course, only disappointment was that several greens had been aerated, and were very sandy.

I usually get to Oak Grove once or twice a year. For the past 3 or 4 years, the course has stayed in great shape. Its on many people's lists for best courses in the Chicago suburbs (but its really no where near Chicago). The course can be great but its not there yet and might never get there. Let's dive into this.

Pros: The course design is very good. There is a good balance between straight forward holes and "quirky" holes. While a large tree in the center of every fairway would be annoying, having one in a downhill par 5 is kind of fun (it makes for a good target off the tee as well because how many people actually hit a straight tee shot). The par 5, 11th hole used to annoy me. Its a double dog leg with a creek that runs through it. It took me 4 or 5 times playing the course to actually figure out how to play it and see some of the thought behind the design.

The remoteness of the course makes for a very picturesque setting. The only building you will see during your round will be the clubhouse. When you are out on the course, you feel like you are at a resort somewhere where golf is the sole focus.

Cons: You can tell the golf management company GolfVisions is running this place on a shoe string budget. There is usually only one person working in the clubhouse at a time. When you walk into the clubhouse, most of the lights are turned off. The pro shop is sparsely stocked with anything. The driving range is in rough shape. The range balls are terrible. Half of the balls in my bucket were sliced up, very old, or various colors. The course conditions were good for the most part except for the bunkers. There was absolutely no consistency to the sand in the bunkers. There were rocks in the bunkers the size of golf balls. Should you hit one of those, be ready to purchase a new wedge.

While there are some picturesque holes, there are also some very bland holes. I'm also not a fan of two of the toughest holes on the course being the first two right out of the gate. I believe the first couple of holes should ease you into your round. On this course, the first couple of holes slap you right in the face.

Verdict: The foundation is there for this course to really be something special. Besides the bunkers, I'm a fan of the course in all aspects from tee to green. If some money was spent on increasing the playability for golfers of all levels, I think the number of golfers making the trip to this course would increase. In my opinion, some trees need to be removed and the rough needs to be thinned out. Waste areas where you can actually find your ball and advance it are good. Super thick rough just paces off the fairway where you automatically lose your ball are bad. That very thick rough is found throughout the course and is what makes this course so tough. Bring a couple of extra sleeves of balls when coming to play here.

My hope is that someone else or a group of people will see the potential here and try to save this course. Plum Grove GC was another very nice course outside of Harvard that closed several years ago, My hope and prayer is that the same fate does not happen to Oak Grove. Make the drive to play it. Definitely one of my recommended courses in McHenry County.

This is a fun course to play. Definitely has some challenging holes. Greens need to be read from both sides unless you know them from playing there. Price was right. In fact, it was so right it was easy to leave after 14 when it was 90 degrees and we were waiting 20 minutes every shot/hole. We were a 2 some buried in a bunch of 4's so it wasn't necessarily their fault, but I could see where pace is an issue out there. Also only had 1 guy working the entire joint so we could not get food at the turn, he was buried in the kitchen trying to cook, clean, answer phones, do dishes and who knows what else. I do enjoy playing the course though, it is a fun round of golf.

Large outing was booked and the last group teed off just before my tee time. Play was extremely slow because group was playing in some fivesomes so participants could play with friends etc. Group had few experienced golfers so course management was poor - people waiting on the tee for the green to clear, on a Par 5

etc. Course had almost no help - bartender had to double as cook so the wait at the turn was at least 20-25 minutes. Wait at No. 11 tee was over 20 minutes. Many, many lost balls by group and elongated search time. As the round went on, players became more inebriated extending time. After 4.5 hours with four more hole to go, we left. Pro shop attendant said we should know better than to book a tee time on a holiday week-end and expect good service and fast play. Never patronize this course again as this is the second time this has occurred.

I arranged for a 10:48 a.m. tee time on Sunday, September 3. I discovered that a large outing was teeing off its last foursome just before my tee time. this outing had fivesomes playing, drunken participants, and no respect for the rules or other players. It took three hours to complete the front nine and management told me directly that there was nothing they could do. They had so little staff available that the bartender also had to double as the cook. Wait times at the turn were about 20-25 minutes. We waited for 20 minutes on the 11th tee as the outing participants cavorted around the fairway, This is the second time that I have experienced such slovenly management here and the representative at the pro shop told me that I should have known not to play on a holiday week-end. They offered no apology or restitution. We left the course on the twelfth tee after 4 hours and 20 minutes of play. I would not encourage anyone to play this course unless they have infinite patience! Needless to say, maintenance, especially the condition of the greens, was poor.