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Rating Index Rating
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3.7
372 Reviews (372)
5 Stars
86
4 Stars
159
3 Stars
65
2 Stars
30
1 Stars
32
Conditions
3.7
Value
4.0
Layout
4.1
Friendliness
4.1
Pace
3.6
Amenities
2.8
78.7%
Recommend this course
285 out of 372 reviews
Read Reviews
Average Rating
Avg Rating
3.4
24 Reviews (24)
5 Stars
5
4 Stars
9
3 Stars
4
2 Stars
2
1 Stars
4
Conditions
3.6
Value
3.5
Layout
3.9
Pace
3.5
Amenities
2.5
StaffFriendliness
4.0
62.5%
Recommend this course
15 out of 24 reviews
Read Reviews
Average Rating
Avg Rating
3.7
57 Reviews (57)
5 Stars
15
4 Stars
24
3 Stars
9
2 Stars
3
1 Stars
6
Conditions
3.8
Value
4.0
Layout
4.1
Pace
3.6
Amenities
2.8
StaffFriendliness
4.2
75.4%
Recommend this course
43 out of 57 reviews
Read Reviews
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AI summaries based on real golfer reviews
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Course Highlights
This well-maintained forest preserve course delivers outstanding value, with clean fairways, fast greens, and a layout that rewards precise shot placement. Friendly staff and solid overall conditions make it a compelling choice for golfers seeking quality at an affordable price.

About

Holes 18
Type Public
Par 72
Length 6742 yards
Slope 124
Rating 71.4
Book a Tee Time at
Joe Louis - The Champ Golf Course
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Course Details

Year Built 1918
Golf Season Open: 4/01 Closed: 11/01
Architect Dick Nugent (1987)

Rentals/Services

Carts Yes
Pull-carts Yes
Caddies No
Clubs Yes

Practice/Instruction

Driving Range No
Bunker Yes
Pitching/Chipping Area Yes
Putting Green Yes

Policies

Credit Cards Accepted VISA, MasterCard Welcomed
Metal Spikes Allowed No
Walking Allowed Yes
Dress code Proper golf attire required.

Available Facilities

Clubhouse
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Reviews

3.7
372 Reviews (372)

What Golfers Are Saying

This course/club is great for:
Locals 6
This Course's Location is:
Convenient to the City 7

Numbers based on reviews tagged with attribute.

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Overall Rating
Recommended
Handicap
Age
Type of Golfer
Gender
Played On
Reviews 26
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing

Fun course to try

I had a fun time playing this course. Condition was better than average! Course layout was a little suspect, holes were stacked on top of each other and the bunkers were rock pits. Other than that it was a fun round of golf.

Conditions Good
Value Good
Layout Average
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Good
e47081be-0680-56f0-9a9a-e3883606dd96
Commented on 08/17/2021

Thank you so much for your review! We are happy to see you enjoyed our course. We value your feedback, and hope to see you back in the future.

Played On
Reviews 14
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Previously Played

Great Place

Always a good day at The Champ . Mr. Chess and his team are first rate. Loving the new carts.

Conditions Average
Value Excellent
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Average
Amenities Average
e47081be-0680-56f0-9a9a-e3883606dd96
Commented on 08/18/2021

Thank you so much for your review! We are so glad to hear you enjoy our course and wonderful staff. We look forward to having you back in the future.

Played On
Reviews 14
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Previously Played

The Champ

Great course great staff . Friendly and helpful staff. Shout out to JImmie Chase Scooter and Ernie for a great time

Conditions Good
Value Excellent
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
e47081be-0680-56f0-9a9a-e3883606dd96
Commented on 08/18/2021

Thank you so much for your review! We are so glad to hear you enjoy our course and wonderful staff. We look forward to having you back in the future.

Played On
Reviews 7
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played

Waldo pepper

Great course! Players need to fix their ball marks on the greens!

Conditions Good
Value Excellent
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
e47081be-0680-56f0-9a9a-e3883606dd96
Commented on 08/18/2021

Thank you so much for your review! We are happy to see you enjoyed our course. We value your feedback, and hope to see you back in the future.

Played On
Reviews 15
Handicap 15-19
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
1.0
Verified Purchaser

Needs work

Although the area took a lot of rain but still the course was terrible. Fairways needs a lot of work. Tee boxes were equally bad. Greens were in good shape.

Conditions Poor
Value Fair
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Good
Pace Fair
e47081be-0680-56f0-9a9a-e3883606dd96
Commented on 08/18/2021

Thank you for your review. We take customer feedback seriously and are constantly working to improve. Please reach out to us directly if you would like to discuss your experience further.

Played On
Reviews 20
Handicap 20-24
Skill Beginner
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
3.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Perfect weather
Used cart

OK public course. Will return

Starter was disorganized and let a two slow groups of 8 people out without a tee time just before my group.

Course overall was in ok condition given the large rainstorms the night before. Almost all the bunkers were unplayable due to standing water. Greens were great although the pin positions were a bit goofy. No terrible dry brown spots or torn up areas. The trainyard is loud as heck, but oh well.

Overall I like this course and will come back cause you can't beat the price, closeness to the city, and the fact that it was set up easy enough to allow me to shoot into the 80s for the first time. Also I only lost one ball because there aren't many OB areas which is nice for my game as well.

Conditions Fair
Value Good
Layout Average
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Average
Amenities Fair
Difficulty Fairly Easy
e47081be-0680-56f0-9a9a-e3883606dd96
Commented on 08/18/2021

Thank you so much for your review! We value your feedback, and hope to see you back in the future.

Played On
Reviews 7
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Previously Played

Great course

Hidden gem. Nice course, friendly staff. Gas carts no GPS. Nice pace not overcrowded.

Conditions Good
Value Excellent
Layout Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Average
e47081be-0680-56f0-9a9a-e3883606dd96
Commented on 08/18/2021

Thank you so much for your review! We are happy to see you enjoyed our course. We value your feedback, and hope to see you back in the future.

Played On
Reviews 21
Handicap 10-14
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Hot weather
Used cart
Conditions Average
Value Average
Layout Good
Friendliness Good
Pace Fair
Amenities Good
Difficulty Moderate
Played On
Reviews 5
Skill Intermediate
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Conditions Good
Value Excellent
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Good
Amenities Excellent
Played On
Reviews 2
Skill Intermediate
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Previously Played

Londidy

This course has a great layout with some degree of difficulty. I would recommend to all my friends. If they invested in a couple of marshals to keep the pace moving, I could say that Joe Louis is one of Chicago's best kept secrets...for realz!

Conditions Excellent
Value Excellent
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Good
Amenities Fair
Played On
Reviews 9
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
First Time Playing

Quick 9 on early weekday morning

Enjoyed the course. Typical cook county course with some long holes and plenty of trees. Greens in good shape but have experienced less un-repaired divots on other CC courses like Meadowlark. Great value for the money and I got in 9 holes in 9 minutes. Staff very friendly.

Conditions Good
Value Good
Layout Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Good
Amenities Good
Default User Avatar
Commented on 06/18/2021

See you next time

Jimmie

Default User Avatar
Commented on 06/18/2021

Thanks for your feedback

Jimmie

Played On
Reviews 2
Skill Beginner
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing
Conditions Good
Value Good
Layout Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Poor
Amenities Average
Default User Avatar
Commented on 06/18/2021

We will continue to work on pace of play

Jimmie

Played On
Reviews 28
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Previously Played

Great course!

Really enjoyed our round of golf today. The course is in great shape

Conditions Excellent
Value Excellent
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Played On
Reviews 5
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
First Time Playing
Conditions Excellent
Value Excellent
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Played On
Reviews 1
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Previously Played

Hidden Gem

The course is in great shape! Went out @8:45am - finished @ 11:45am. I have been playing this since last year. I had played it years ago but forgot about it , now I call this my home course

Conditions Excellent
Value Excellent
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Default User Avatar
Commented on 06/18/2021

Great Feedback

Jimmie

Default User Avatar
Commented on 06/18/2021

Thanks for your feedback

Jimmie

Played On
Reviews 2
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Previously Played

Slippery Greens, So Much Fun

This place is a ball! Reaching the hole can be easy due to fair length and wide fairways. But around and on the greens the fun really starts. Hole placements range from dead middle on flat spots to feet from the fringe on a steep patch of grass. Bring your best short game if you want to score well. The greens reward a nice touch and punish the heavy handed with the wedges and putter. Aside from the actually game, the staff is friendly, the brats are grilled to order, and the place is just a short drive from both Indiana and Chicago. The pace can get slow as public courses do, but I’m sure my personal experience is due to a great day of weather and everyone deciding, like I did, that “The Champ” course was worth a visit. And I can assure you, it was.

Conditions Good
Value Excellent
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Average
Amenities Good
e47081be-0680-56f0-9a9a-e3883606dd96
Commented on 08/18/2021

Thank you so much for your review! We are happy to see you enjoyed our course. We value your feedback, and hope to see you back in the future.

Played On
Reviews 2
2.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played

Pass

Paid $45 for 18 and it’s not worth the money. Left after 9 because the rate of play was so bad. Had a foursome rushing us from behind all day and that’s after we let a guy walking play through. Literally the guy walking tee’d off on a par 3 as me and my buddy were putting, so that was fun.

Conditions Fair
Value Poor
Layout Average
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Poor
Amenities Fair
e47081be-0680-56f0-9a9a-e3883606dd96
Commented on 08/18/2021

Thank you for your review. We take customer feedback seriously and are constantly working to improve. Please reach out to us directly if you would like to discuss your experience further.

Default User Avatar
Commented on 06/18/2021

I invite you back to play as my guest!

Jimmie

Played On
Reviews 2
2.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played

Not worth the price tag

Played there today and I would expect more for the $50 price tag. Course is not in great condition. Only a few traps have playable sand and the yardage markers are tough to locate.

The staff was nice and pace of play was decent but the 33 for the round and 17 for a cart was a bit too much for me.

Conditions Poor
Value Poor
Layout Average
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Good
e47081be-0680-56f0-9a9a-e3883606dd96
Commented on 08/18/2021

Thank you for your review. We take customer feedback seriously and are constantly working to improve.

Played On
Reviews 17
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Conditions Good
Value Good
Layout Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Average
Amenities Average
Played On
Reviews 2
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a month
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Previously Played
Conditions Good
Value Excellent
Layout Good
Friendliness Good
Pace Excellent
Amenities Average
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Golf Packages

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KOHLER, WI | Enjoy 2 nights’ accommodations at The American Club or the Inn at Woodlake and 3 rounds of golf at Blackwolf Run (River or Meadow Valleys Course) and Whistling Straits (Straits or Irish Course)

Destination Kohler - To Dye Four Golf Package

FROM $557 (USD)
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Shanty Creek Stay & Play Package

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BELLAIRE | Enjoy lodging accommodations at Shanty Creek's Lakeview Hotel or Lodge of Cedar River and golf at Shanty Creek - Cedar River, Hawk's Eye, Legend, Schuss, or Summit Courses.
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