Ravisloe Country Club

Played Ravisloe GC for the first time in a couple seasons. Why so much time away? Simply put: cost. Distance not a factor for me - in the past I have been more than willing to drive 45 mins from the near north suburbs to play this Donald Ross gem with small greens, generous fairways and beautiful clubhouse and range. Fall course conditions were great, especially the greens. But for the last couple years, even after noon or 1pm, weekend rates with a cart are just not competitive ($60+); I don’t even bother looking in the morning ($76+). Who actually pays that and can play there every week?

We got a “fall deal” for $52 riding starting at 1pm. Practically a steal at Ravisloe, but north shore muni courses that stack up well charge $35-$40 including cart this time of year.

Love everything about this course including the routing, greens, staff, food and amenities. They’d see us more if the prices were slightly more down to earth.

16 players, no real hiccups. Marshall's were cool. Winter rates make this course a great value.

Ravisloe is a great private course that has been opened to the public. The course is worth a play or two. It has a great deal of character with small some small greens that can be difficult to putt depending on pin placement. Most holes are guarded by somewhat deep bunkers that require soft hands and skill to come out of and save a stroke. The price was more reasonable in October. In the summer the fee can be as high as $80. If affordable to you I would say a must play depending on your budget. Watching GolfNow helps with getting a better rate.

Great course, only missing 5 star due to wetness (recent weather) and slow pace.

Was discouraged about hitting ofF mats at the practice range, but it’s a fine, older course.

This course appears to have money problems. The greens were terrible. For the price, you would expect much better conditions. When this was a $40 golf course we played there once a week for years and loved it. Apparently we were not the only senior guys who feel the same way. Now that they raised their senior rates significantly the course is empty on weekdays and the conditions are poor.

I love this course!! Please put divot repair containers on the carts, this will save your staff to do other things.

Thank you.

Tom

Great layout

Course was very wet

Rained Sunday and played Tuesday morning and there was standing water on a few holes

Poor drainage

Other than that great value and good test

Must play

This course is an embarrassment to Donald Ross. The condition is no better than an underfunded municipal course. This course use to be immaculate but it's unrecognizable from its better days. The fairways, greens, and rough are all under attended, with the greens almost unplayable. Areas that use to be beautifully landscaped are overrun with weeds. I wish I could get my money back.

Great course to play for $34.99. Not worth the $50 plus dollars that they sometimes ask for. overall great course.

A perfect day to play golf was equaled by the service by the pro shop attendant and first tee starter (Spencer) who were both very accommodating to me and all of the other golfers. Ravisloe Country Club's layout is a wonderful mix of short, long, straight and dogleg holes with bunkers and mounds strategically placed requiring strategy on all shots. The key for scoring well on this course is to keep the ball in the fairways and out of the green side steep-faced bunkers that are very deep. The golf course superintendent, who I met between holes 7 and 8, and his very small crew (5 guys) have the course in excellent condition with the exception of the par three tee boxes. The divot repair containers on each tee box were empty of divot replacement sand and seed mix. Additional water coolers would be a great addition to this course also - as previously stated in my earlier review. I look forward to returning and playing Ravisloe Country Club again!

I played my first round at Ravisloe today - booked three weeks ago with friends I hadn't seen in years and was very excited to check this course out. I have been an avid golfer for 25 years and respect the game across the board and left this course knowing I will never go back AND will never recommend to others. First off, the conditions were perfect - we teed off on a beautiful morning. Secondly, the started was AWESOME - great job explaining the background of the track. But, he did not say once "we are cart paths only on par 3's"...Fast forward to our first par 3 and we tee off and head up the fairway in our carts. A ranger drives up next to me around the green and looks at me if I am stupid - "Do you read signs?" he says to me...I asked him to explain and he said "You need to be cart paths only on all par 3's here. Read the signs" and stares me down....This guy obviously has a stick in his rear-end. (**Caveat: I am a grown man and a simple "hey buddy, try to use the cart paths" would have worked.) I was not obviously trying to ignore signs and be a jerk.

Fast forward to the next par 3...We drive up the cart paths the entire way (even though the cart paths are completely useless on most holes...IE, dirt paths) and park alongside the green....my partners behind needed to get around my cart which was on the path, so I moved literally 2 FEET off the path onto some dirt ground....The RANGER (IE Stalin),was obviously waiting to reprimand me (once again, a grown man, who plays golf at nice clubs all the time) and drives up alongside of me, staring me down AGAIN and says "Didn't I just talk to you? what don't you understand about the cart paths? Why don't you respect our course? (I had also spent about 10 holes fixing divots and ball marks that were not from our group) and then stared me down again as he drove away.....

So, in a nutshell, we had a wonderful day tolerating this old guy who, instead of going to a course to relax and enjoy golf, decided he was going to die on the cart-path hill and yell at grown men who were all but respectful for the entire day.

And this, folks, is why golf memberships/youth members are declining...."GET OFF MY LAWN, YOU LOWSY KIDS!" R-E-L-A-X

-Sincerely, last time Ravisloe golfer, long time golfer.