The first of its kind in the Chicagoland area, Ruffled Feathers Golf Club in Lemont has gone all-inclusive.
This means the player gets range balls, greens fee, cart fee and all the food and drinks they want (outside of alcohol) for one price.
So, for $95 on a weekday afternoon you can have full access to just about everything on the course. If you’re a golfer who likes to enjoy food and drinks on the course and before or after your round, this course might be for you.
Ruffled Feathers is a Pete Dye designed golf course. Dye has also designed several well-known golf courses such as TPC Sawgrass (home of The Players Championship), Crooked Stick (Site of 1991 PGA Championship), Harbour Town Golf Links (host of the Verizon Heritage PGA Tournament) and Whistling Straits (site of this year’s PGA Championship).
While Ruffled Feathers isn’t on par with those incredible courses, it does fit a similar mold. Dye’s designs are known for their numerous bunkers and tight fairways. The greens are also difficult. Some have huge breaks, while others seem to have a small break and end up being relatively straight.
A typical all-inclusive day at Ruffled Feathers begins with a drive up to the bag drop to drop off your clubs. Once you check in, it’s off to the range with your cart, which comes with a bag of range balls already in it.
Play begins with two short par 4 holes. No. 1 is a pretty straight-forward hole, while No. 2 is more difficult with water up the right-hand side of the fairway and a bunker guarding the green. If you hit the hill left of the green, it’s going in the bunker.
Next comes the beautiful and challenging par 3 third hole. Water is guarding the front right of the green, not more than three paces from the green. The flag during the round was tucked in the upper right corner of the green, making the 175-yard tee shot dangerous.
No. 4 is a par five that features a long, narrow green, while No. 5 is the toughest hole on the course. It doesn’t seem so hard from the tee, but its length, a narrow fairway and elevated green make it a hard hole to say the least.
No. 6 is a beautiful strategic hole. You can go right or left on your tee shot to the par five. Going left can help you reach the green in two, but there’s plenty of water and bunkers to navigate past. The green is sloped heavily in the front, making a two-putt tough when the hole’s in the front.
No. 8 is a long par three. It’s ranked the second easiest hole, but from where the tees were on this day, that’s hard to imagine. A 220-yard shot is hard to come by for most players and a huge green puts a three or four-putt into play.
On the back side, the par three 11th is similar to the island green at Sawgrass. No. 14 is a tricky par four because it takes a 180-yard shot to reach the narrow dogleg fairway on the 300-yard hole. Driver is a tough play, but a lay-up could result in nearly as much trouble.
No. 15 is perhaps too short for a par five. It was playing just 380 from the middle tees and about 410 from the back. Going downwind left a wedge into the green in two. However, if you miss the fairway to the right, you’re almost forced to lay-up to the left in front of a stream guarding the green. That’s because there are two large trees blocking the green. It’s perhaps the best hole on the golf course, but can make you mad afterwards if you walk away with a par.
The 16th is a short hole where you need distance off the tee to beat the swamp and accuracy to keep it in play.
No. 17 is another long par 3 which played from the back tees on the day was 221 yards over water (unless you have a great hook). No. 18 is a great hole if you get to see it from the fairway).
After the round there’s more great food at your fingertips from friendly personnel. All in all, it’s a great course and a good deal if you are looking to eat lunch or dinner while you are there. The course is tough, especially with many of the pin placements near the edge of the green.
The biggest complaint would probably be having two 220-yard par threes, at least on this given day.