Chalet Hills Country Club: Part of Nature's Majestic Beauty

Cary, IL - A naturally awesome course, Chalet Hills Country Club allows you to soar with the hawks as you play. The course's logo is a hawk which suits this river valley course well. The views from above the high towering oaks, forests, lakes, streams, wetlands, and hills must be beautiful. One soars quickly back to nature at Chalet Hills.

Chalet Hills was built on valley farmland in Cary, Illinois a northwest suburb of Chicago. Initially, the owner built a nine hole course and later expanded to thirteen holes, for unique and unusual reasons. When he passed away, five people with a dream got together and purchased the property from his estate. A farm turned into a golf course is typical for Illinois. However, the landscape for Chalet Hills is no farm! According to golf course architect, Ken Killian, Chalet Hills Country Club had been "a Sleeping Beauty...all I had to do was wake her. The result is the greatest course I have ever designed." (www.chaletgolf.com architects comments).

Two golf magazines agree with Ken's work. Chalet Hills Country Club is ranked 6th in Chicagoland Golf's Top Courses and has a four star rating by Golf Digest. This is not just another farm course, this is a work of art within nature's majestic beauty.

Chalet Hills offers a challenge for all golfers. Four sets of tees allows each player to select how much of a challenge they need. Choose wisely. The course is a par 73 with five par five's. Total yardage's range from 6,877 to 4,934. All tees have slopes and ratings for men and the two shortest, at 4,934 and 5,983 yards, have female ratings. As a female golfer, I highly value a course that ranks at least two sets of tees for women. Chalet Hills is one of the few upscale public facilites that gives ladies a challenging choice.

The club house is one year new. The check in area once was an old round white barn, but times have changed--the club house looks like another behemoth mansion that dots the landscape of this pristine course. Inside is very airy and open. The club house is an ideal location for business meetings or a wedding reception. Lots of great views of the rolling hills and the lake keeps you out in nature even when you are inside.

The golf carts at Chalet Hills Country Club are equipped with helpful laminated descriptions which gives you hole by hole instructions. You are informed exactly where to and where not to hit the ball. Just follow the directions and you will fly high with lots of birdies, providing your putter is hot.

Off to the course: Walking would be a great source of exercise, there are plenty of rolling hills that are quite steep and the distance between some of the holes is a hike. The number one tee faces the rising sun in the East. An early morning tee time heads you into a dew covered valley.

Have your partners keep a careful eye on your drive so you can find your second shot. The left side of the fairway is lined with large trees and the right side has a nasty rough and some smaller saplings which will be hampering in the future. The number two fairway is far off to the right to bale off towards if you haven't hit warm-up shots.

The second hole's raised green is very narrow, an extra club is a must into this hole, and according to the card's directions the green will hold. (My partner and I were both short.) Number five is the number one handicap hole, a long picturesque par four. You shoot between a marshy area on the left which has tall grasses, cattails, beautiful wild flowers, and on the right a forest with towering oaks. I recommend taking the cart up and actually seeing this hole because it is deceptive. The tee shot is tight, keep your drive to the right side.

A driver can go too far and end up on a downslope hampering your approach. A mother deer and twin fawns often make an appearance on this fairway near the pond. This green is located in a hot spot, a fan has been installed to keep it cool and the grass growing. The fifth green is tucked into a corner with a sharp rising ridge to the left and behind forming a bowl. A large oak tree is off to the right and a well tended pond in front for a tight approach.

Number nine is a par four, ranging from 268 yards, up to 388 yards, with a terrific view of the hole's layout and the club house set behind the green about 150 yards away on a gentle hillside. The lake that is front of you and to the right challenges you to cut off some of it.

A safe landing can bounce right into the lake or even roll to far forward into a small inlet of tall conservation area grasses, or if you muscle the drive too far you're in the bunker - it is a tough situation to be in. The green is shared with number eighteen.

Standing on the ninth tee is breathtaking. Breath deeply and swing slow and steady. Around the turn the tenth hole is waiting with pine trees right in front of the longer tees. Line drives are grabbed from the air and stopped abruptly by these towering trees. Cutting this dog leg left is possible, keep your head down so your drive goes high and soars with the hawks. A safe drive is aiming toward the right fairway bunkers leaving a clear second shot into the green.

A beautiful hole from a raised tee is number twelve, a short par four between 262 and 361 yards. Large oaks shade the teeing area. From an elevated tee you drive out to a narrow fairway. To the left are two ponds, tall wild grasses and out of bounds. The first pond swallows pop up drives and topped shots, the farther left pond grabs the drives that are bombed - unfair! To the right, past the teeing area is another pond with weeping willows along the banks which are also reachable. To stay dry, hit an easy, mid iron accurately off the tee!

Fourteen is another beauty. A mid length par four ranging from 246 to 393 yards. This straight away hole requires an iron to be hit off this tee to keep your ball in play. Your approach is where the beauty lies here. The green is on an island, almost. Behind the green are cattails. Check out the web site and see this hole's mist rising behind the green.

The par three, seventeenth tee gives you a high perch to view this partial island green. Seventeen's green is directly in front of you over an inlet from the lake. As your drive soars toward this green, you fly high with the hawks and can look ahead. The layout of holes number nine and eighteen are the backdrop to number seventeen.

Number nine bends in from the left side of the lake and number eighteen follows the lake around from the left meeting in a huge undulating twin green. Seventeen's view will bring you soaring back for more.

Chalet Hills Country Club
943 Rawson Bridge Road
Cary, IL 60013
Phone: (847) 639-0666
Fax (847) 639-1259
www.chaletgolf.com

Any opinions expressed above are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of the management.