The Course at Aberdeen

The course is set in a beautiful natural area. Few fairways are in bad shape. All the tee boxes are in bad shape. They are working to fix one tee box as I could tell on a hole where the green is almost submerged in standing water. In the times of the Covid-19 pandemic, one of the very few courses allowing ride carts. We played it for under $28 with a cart, which made it somewhat more acceptable, specially when all the courses in Illinois are closed. Would I drive 90 miles to play it again? Not if they don't fix the tee boxes and the greens that have issues. Staff was very friendly and efficient.

The Good: This Hurdzan/Fry design opened to much acclaim in 1997 and has been considered one of the true hidden gems of Indiana public golf. A fun, interesting design with a prairieland outward nine that winds mostly through residential areas, while the inward half is picturesque with many holes bordering water & woodlands. Par 5's are very beautiful, mostly downhill and cut into trees. Really good Par-4’s & Par-3’s coming down the stretch. Nice, modest clubhouse. Staff is friendly and accommodating. Expansive driving range and decent putting green just adjacent to the first tee. One of the better values in Indiana public golf when conditions are good.

The Bad: Granted it was late March, but Aberdeen struggled with standing water and poor fairway conditions. Two greens were unplayable so the course set up two temporary greens that were annoying, but understandable considering the conditions. The greens that were playable rolled fairly well. The first several Par-4’s & on the front are forgettable. A very challenging walk on the back-nine.

The Verdict: The Course at Aberdeen has the bones & potential to be a premier public course in Indiana again. With new ownership (the home association of the subdivision that surrounds the course), hopefully the promise will reach its potential of being a Top 10-15 public course in the state. Another very fun, playable Hurdzan design.

Best Hole: The 5th is a beautiful, tough downhill Par-5 that must navigate trees all over the place. You can try to go for two, but trees creep in front of the green about 100-yards out that can make it difficult.

With all the rains this season Aberdeen really suffered. They were still charging $42 yesterday with their greens sanded and micro aerated. Several fairways basically unplayable as they were large core aerated. All fairway grass was cut so short you had to be incredibly precise strike good golf shots. Tee boxes are a complete disaster....and they should just start a program of completely leveling them (several green tees are not close to level) and tearing up reseeding all of them and playing temporary tees until the new tees completely grow in. Was fortunate I had a groupon that cost me $27.50pp that included a hot dog and orange whip otherwise I would have been pretty disappointed. It was also surprising how dry and fast the course was playing given the extreme rains recently. I really enjoy this track it has a fun routing and is challenging. Really nice folks work there....all of them to a "t" are really pleasant and want you to have a great experience. For what might be one of my last rounds this Chicagoland season it was a really nice day and I enjoyed my time at Aberdeen. Over the last couple of years they have made progress to improve conditions and it's going to take some time. I hope they do it right because when this course was younger it was impressive. Range practice area and clubhouse with great service. 3 to 3.5 stars....could get to 4 plus next year depending on how the fairways and greens grow in. Just need to pay attention to the tee boxes and renovate several key sand traps (or eliminate them). Recommend. I allways look forward to a round at Aberdeen.

Pace was slow. 3.5 hours through 14 holes. Had to leave early. Was a single. Got paired up with a threesome. Fairways were moist of course with all the rain. Bunkers were actually in decent shape. But the tee boxes resembled bunkers.

payed the course last year and it was in very bad shape, i was very impressed with the course now, the greens were in great shape. tee boxes needed more grass but did not change the rest of the course condition.

Great course.

We love it AR Aberdeen.

God bless you.

Great course a lot of water there but it's still early

See my review of 4/29/18 noting improvements. Aberdeen overall is in good shape and vastly improved from the last few seasons. Green sites and fairways are excellent. Even the sand traps are okay except the ones they are eliminating or just letting grass over. The tee boxes.....horrible....were not designed large enough so the green tees (which almost everyone except low handicappers should play to enjoy yourself) are complete mine fields.

They have senior league on Monday mornings. Was told our 5 hour round was the result of a group in front of them. BS - the group we played behind was at least a hole behind their league and were complete turtles. In fact their groups were all spaced out so perfectly they never had to wait to hit a golf shot.....and it was patently obvious they were doing it on purpose.....on Par 4's and 5's the leading group would be on the green already and Par 3's they never waited to play.....I'd kill myself if I had to play with them...never a thought of ready golf carts doing circles 5 minute ball snipe hunts on almost every hole. One guy paced off every putt regardless of length and then stood over his putt for 1/2 a minute. If these guys ever got around any course in less than 4 1/2 hours it would be a complete miracle.

The folks at Aberdeen are very friendly and welcoming they want to make sure you have a great experience. They were really nice apologized and offered to make it up to us. Unfortunately their "members" don't care about that.

Close to 4 star conditions nice flow and routing to the track.....downgrading to 3.25 stars due to pace/tees/turtles. $30 value.

This was a lovely course. It was fun to play, a bit challenging, and well maintained. The biggest issue was that we saw the drink cart 3 times and the ranger only once. Pace of play was extremely slow and when the ranger came by they didn’t seem to be concerned that there were three groups on a par 4. The issue was one group going very slow. Our group met the group in front of us on literally every hole from hole 6 on.

Layed out in a housing area of Valparaiso, this course is a challenge for all golfers. There is wetland hazards that make you think about how you want to plan your next shot. There was only one hole that had some standing water around the green, and I don't think it was planned. Other than that, it was a fun, challenging course. Will definitely play there again.

This was my first time experiencing this level of difficulty in a course and I was pleasantly surprised. It was somewhat of a reality check for me because I had never lost so many balls since I was a beginner! Overall a great course!

The sands traps lacked sand and drainage, 4 days after a 1.50” rainfall a majority of traps were still filled with water. Even the traps with no water didn’t have sand throughout, more like ground rock. Some tee boxes need to be leveled and the ball wash and garbage cans should be at least next to the back tees for the day. Finished the front nine in two hours to find a twosome jumped in front of us, told the ranger (Andy) to find out why they let them out. Never got a straight answer, added 20 minutes to back nine. The general manager (Jim) needs to get a handle on the operations and put some time and money in getting the traps up to a acceptable standard. I would encourage Jim to have the ranger to watch players who fail to fix their ball marks on the green, my son and I fixed at least 50 ball marks on the green besides our own. The cart paths were not bad at as stated in other reviews and I did see they did work on them throughout the course. With all this being said Aberdeen is still better than most courses in NWI.

First time played course, but played with father-son that played it before. That helped. Staff very friendly. Went out of their way to accommodate. I understand recent change of ownership is working "to bring it back.". Progressing from what I saw. Trying it again tomorrow.

The bunkers are not really bunkers anymore but the greens are true and hold iron shots. Cart paths have had work which was needed so slowly but surely it’s getting trying to get back to what it used to be

You gotta hit your fairways. A couple of yards separates a great shot from a lost ball..greens are nice and true without being super fast..staff and facilities are great!!

Course was very wet due to heavy rains in the morning, but the course played wonderfully. Staff and amenities were outstanding, like they always are.

Great value at 35.00

The course is under new ownership & management. A welcome change considering it was in decline over the past few years. The clubhouse staff and PGA professional were extremely friendly - made you feel welcome and that they were genuinely glad to have you play their course. Course conditioning was very good considering it was early in the season. The greens, despite being recently aerated, were rolling at a good speed and true. Will definitely return as the season progresses and the course continues to improve.