Old Orchard Country Club

Course conditions were good, staff was friendly, but round took 5 1/2 hours.

Had not ventured to the Orchard in over 25 years. Frankly I was pleasantly surprised. Despite heavy rains in Chicago area the course was pretty playable yesterday (cart path only). Nice maintenance - greens were decent and while some of the sand traps had water they did have a decent amount of sand in them when raked. Back in the day this track was pretty "doggy" - but now the fairways have wonderful grass and overall 4 stars plus for super/grounds crew. Has a range (irons only) and the modernistic glass walled clubhouse has held up well over the years. Water jugs on course/actual bathrooms mid point of each nine/practice chipping area and an old school dark locker room with showers post round.

From the white tees a fairly burly 130 slope for a course under 6000. Course defense are huge trees which protect you from harming the condos which are in play for the less proficient floggers in your group. Overall a pleasant design and routing however there are several holes which are way too exacting because of tree encroachment or smallish target areas. 9th hole is a pace killer to get to the turn. 12th hole was turned in a dog left (you can see the original greensite in the corner of the property with street traffic in play directly behind it). 12th needs some extreme tree trimming or just cut them down for christsakes on the left side - was in middle of fairway 110 out with almost no shot. Most dog legs you're generally forced to go the extreme outside of the leg because of the tree encroachment - a tad too many of these shots are demanded unfortunately. 16th hole requires a way too exacting drive blindly over a ridge to the right side of the fairway. 2.5 stars course design/4 stars otherwise averaging 3.25. A course I didn't mind playing but perhaps an every other year round for me. Course doesn't beckon me back quickly - but I won't wait another two and half decades to play it.

This course might be short on yardage, but don’t underestimate. The rough is generally grown very long, and especially thick in the Springtime. The 9th hole is a bear. You don’t need to be superlong off the Teebox here, but do need a sharp long iron game. The greens are honest. Keep it out of the rough!

This course has always been a well-kept secret as one of the best value Inn Chicagoland.

Very well maintained course with lots of fun, challenging holes. Enough water and sand traps to keep things interesting but wide enough fairways to keep the score down. Pace was great because I got out very early but getting out that early has its down sides like no cart girl. Overall great experience! I will be back very soon.

Playing on a Sunday which is oc course crowded and they let a 5 some out. Inexcusable!

This course was terribly maintained. The rough was about 4 inches tall. It was nearly impossible to find any balls If you hit it in to the rough. Tee boxes were more spongy than Spongebob Squarepants. And to top it all off on the 18th fairway we had to run for cover like it was Europe in WWII with the amount of practice balls from the driving range. I wouldn't even pay $10 to golf here.

Not real long but a challenge always. Greens in great shape but sand needs a little work. Played from the tips. Could use more distance markers. Tough to find on course, maybe some on cart paths. Overall good experience.

Course was in great shape, Greens fast and true. When we showed up a Fivesome of older women were teeing off, so the staff suggested we start on ten. Great call because we moved right along and finished in 4 hrs.

There was an outing that teed off before our round. The head pro asked us to wait till our tee time prior to teeing off . We were 30 minuets early and he didn't want us to catch up and wait on the course. We happily complied and played a 4:15 minuet round on a Sunday afternoon. Nice! Great communication from the head pro.

Booked on golf now and when we showed up there was a High School Scramble in progress and they put us on hole #6 and we agreed but when we approached hole 11 we had caught up to some in the scramble and the ranger put us on 14. Ok we overall have an understanding nature and both have kids about this age and albeit they were all well behaved it was very frustrating to zig zag and try and play a complete round. Staff and facilties were great overall but the scamble put a damper on the day? If your going to book tee times and have events then please find a way to communicate this somehow prior to accepting bookings please? thats all.

Respectfully

It was a first time ever playing the course and I have always wanted to play it. It was a really nice course. very tight fairways and shot shaping is premium.