Windy City Public Golfers Guide: Village Links of Glen Ellyn

The Village Links of Glen Ellyn (www.villagelinksgolf.com) is a 27 hole complex located just south of Roosevelt Road off Park Avenue. There is a championship 18 hole layout, plus a full length 9 hole course, but it’s the 18 holes that gets the vast majority of the attention, and with good reason, as it is one of the finest courses in the Chicagoland area. This is Midwest golf at its best, a beautiful layout with mature trees, great greens, plenty of sand and water, and areas of prairie grass that all work together to provide one great looking course.

The Village Links offers 5 sets of tees from 5,400 to a pro length 7,200 (a number of professional qualifying tournaments have been held here), so it’s important to pick the right set of tees to avoid being overwhelmed (I recommend the White tees at 6,400 for 20 handicaps like myself). And this course can overwhelm you, as there is water in play to varying degrees on 14 holes, and by my count 119 sand traps (yes, 119!) scattered everywhere, so if bunker play is a shortcoming in your game, this may not be the place to play.

The front 9 starts off rather benign with a short, straight away par 4, then follows with a long par 5 that gives a glimpse of what’s to follow, as 3 fairway bunkers protect the right side of the fairway and prairie and trees on the left that lead to a huge undulating green with a 4 bunker complex left interspersed with thick grasses. The 4th hole is the #1 handicap, a long (465 yds from the tips) par 4 with 3 bunkers left and a pond right in play off the tee, but my favorite hole of the 1st nine is the 5th, a short par 4 dogleg left that requires a well placed tee shot between water hazards, and an approach to a wide, shallow green surrounded by 6 bunkers. The 6th is a par 5 with huge trees tight to the fairway, water in play off the tee right, then uphill to a green guarded by 8 traps. The front finishes with a tough par 4 dogleg right with 7 fairway bunkers, plus 4 more green side surrounded by the prairie grasses.

The back side starts with a short, uphill par 4 with water in front of the tee and a 2nd pond left that sneaks about halfway across the fairway, plus woods right that will impair your view of the green. The 11th is my favorite par 3 here, a near 200 yarder to an elevated green with huge evergreens framing the back. After a short par 4, the course gets serious with what I consider the hardest hole, the par 4 13th. Avoiding the trees left and the 3 bunkers set in the side of a hill on the right with your drive will leave you with a long iron or fairway wood to a narrow green, it might take your 2 best shots of the day to get there in regulation. The 14th is a visually stunning dogleg right par 4 which curls around a lake and climbs up to a long narrow putting surface. After back to back par 5’s with water, wetlands and a combined 14 sand traps to navigate past, the round ends with a par 3 tucked back in the woods with a slick, sloped green and a unique par 4 finisher that features a pond that splits the

fairway in 2 about halfway to the hole.
The Village Links green fees top out at $77, and while the frugal side of me says that’s expensive, when you consider the quality of the course, that’s a very fair price. I booked the 1st tee time at twilight (4 pm), when the rates drop to a super bargain $34 walk/$44 ride. Every hole is it's own here, there is only a few spots were you might end up in another fairway, and the distance from green to tee is close so, except for a few hills on the back nine, this course is imminently walkable. There really isn’t anything not to like about the Village Links, but if I had one suggestion, it would be to get rid of the old, noisy, slow gas carts and invest in new electric ones with GPS. But overall this is a grade “A” layout that I consider a must play for serious Windy City golfers.