The Golf Nomad #4 - Four State Smorgasbord May 2025
This past May was a good golf month for me. I played twenty rounds of golf including eight new courses in four different states. If you feel like the first few Golf Nomad entries haven’t shown you how crazy my travels can become this should help give you an idea!
In July 2023 I played 36 holes at North Shore Country Club in Chicago with two caddies I will remember for the rest of my life. They worked hard and were a riot to be around, but both agreed that there were nicer courses on the North side of Chicago. The eldest of them kept mentioning Skokie & how it was his favorite course in the city, which left me wanting to play it ever since. Thankfully, I was recently able to line up a visit. However, about 2-3 weeks beforehand I realized the tee time I made was the day before Mother’s Day. Obviously I could no longer make plans to play on Sunday, but I felt the choice was clear for Saturday; a day trip to Chicago and back! I left home around 6:00AM & made it back around 11:00PM, so it was definitely a full day.
Saturday, May 10th 2025 - Round 1
Sydney R. Marovitz Golf Course (9)
Chicago, Illinois
Amongst all the hustle & bustle of Chicago is a 9 hole golf course you can walk for $33 on weekends. Sydney Marovitz is a course I’ve wanted to play for a while now, mostly due to its location on Chicago’s Lakeshore, but the golf itself was solid as well. I’ve talked to a few people since who had played it & they immediately remarked that it’s the “slowest round of golf in North America” & they’re probably not wrong. It took just shy of three hours to play nine holes, but thankfully I packed a peanut butter sandwich & left plenty of time between rounds to make it to Skokie with a half hour to spare.
Built in 1932 by Edward B. Dearie, Sydney Marovitz originally opened as Waveland Golf Course, but was renamed in 1991 to honor Sydney Marovitz serving as a lawyer for over 50 years and as commissioner emeritus of the Chicago Park District. The course was pretty mundane, nothing that would make me tell anyone they need to visit, but nothing that would make me tell anyone not to either (other than pace of play). I received the true Chicago experience as the temp dropped 10 degrees & the wind kicked up to 25+ mph gusts on hole 2, but thankfully it’s a short par 5 so I could still make a birdie before it got too rough. Hole 6 was a neat par 3 & hole 8 was a borderline drivable par 4 with the city in the background. The backdrop of the city is really cool & you probably see 2500 people on the walking paths over the course of the round. This is an awesome location for golf & I was really happy to see a lot of women playing + they had a youth clinic going on as well. This isn’t a place to take yourself overly serious, but provides an easy opportunity to golf in a city where you wouldn’t expect it. I’d play here again someday, but there’s a lot of courses to hit in the Chicago area so who knows if or when I will. 4
Saturday, May 10th 2025 - Round 2
Skokie Country Club
Glencoe, Illinois
Skokie is one of the many historic clubs in the Chicago metro area, hosting the 1920 U.S. Open, which saw a young Gene Sarazen win his first of seven majors. The club opened in 1897, but the course you see today is largely a 1914 Donald Ross design which was tinkered with by William Langford & Theodore Moreau in 1938. Langford & Moreau mostly improved the bunkering, leaving a classic Ross layout & greens with thrilling Langford & Moreau bunker styling. Considering these are architects whose courses I chase, I was thrilled to learn of the rare combination.
Simply put, Skokie was delightful. I had pretty high expectations going in & they were fully met. If you’ve played in Chicago you’ll know the land is not overly inspiring, so while no holes truly blew me away, it was nothing but good holes on repeat. The routing was also great & it made for an extremely pleasant walk. Holes 1 & 10 share a fairway & were two of my favorite holes. While I normally focus more on the par 3’s than par 5’s, I really liked the long holes on this course. Many of them allowed for you to go for the green in two shots, but left you in a gnarly position if you didn’t hit two great shots. With five par 3’s and five par 5’s the course only has holes with repeating pars one time, being the par 4 holes 14 and 15. It’s pretty rare for such an old course to have par bounce around that much, but it makes for an exciting round. The plaque giving nod to Sarazen’s driver off the deck on 18 to seal the U.S. Open by one shot makes you think how crazy it is he walked the same fairways over 100 years ago. What can I say, listen to your caddies! 8
Saturday, May 17th 2025
Ottawa Park Golf Course
Toledo, Ohio
I’m in the Toledo area quite often & had been meaning to play Ottawa Park for years, but finally made some time this year. Ottawa Park is the product of S.P. Germain, the first club president of Inverness Club, dating all the way back to 1899. I don’t typically get into the “oldest course” discussions, but they put on the scorecard that Ottawa Park has the distinction of being the oldest public course west of New York City. For such an old golf course the routing seemed a little clunky, so it was no surprise to me when I saw Arthur Hills’ name noted as working on the course in 1977. It was noted he worked on greens, tees, bunkers, and irrigation, but I’ll assume the longer walks between some holes are his fault as well. I was pleasantly surprised to find the sand in the bunkers was well-kept, but I learned that was because it had just been replaced within the last week. For a course that I paid $20 to walk, it was really cool to see that they were investing back into the course & not charging a fortune for it.
The course itself was perfectly fine, not one to complain about, nor one to proclaim to your friends they need to see. What more can you ask for from a $20 course? Holes 12 and 15 were fun par 3’s on the back nine & holes 2 and 3 make for a fun start on the front. Hole 2 is shorter with a lions mouth bunker & hole 3 has a massively uphill green. There are many shorter, drivable holes on the course, but enough trees to where you can’t overpower it too easily. Holes 17 and 6 were the major downfalls, with 17 being a par 4 where you’re asked to hit a dead straight 200 yard shot off the tee & nothing else. I thought I hit the perfect shot, but it clipped a branch to never be found again. Hole 6 is absurdly tight & leaves you one place to hit the ball & I imagine many people will be punching out into the massive bunker in front of the green. Although not extremely interesting, the greens rolled well & the course was in good shape overall. I wouldn’t tell anyone to make a trip for OP, but this is a solid municipal golf course for those around Toledo. 4
I work for a company that is largely involved in motorsports & the Indy 500 is our biggest week of the year. I spent Memorial Day Weekend in Indianapolis going to the race & had planned to play two courses while down there, but timing & pricing of hotels during race week trimmed it down to one. It all ended up working out as I was able to throw The Polo Fields in on Memorial Day, however.
Saturday, May 24th 2025
The Pfau Course at Indiana University
Bloomington, Indiana
For a conference that is frozen over for a decent portion of the college golf season, the Big Ten has some awesome college golf courses. Before 2020, Indiana’s course would not have been included in that list, but today Pfau is towards the top of “best college courses” lists. A recent $12 million dollar Steve Smyers/Fuzzy Zoeller (I was told mostly just Smyers) re-design transformed the course from an outdated 27 hole facility from the 1950s into a top-caliber championship venue. I seek to play any collegiate golf course, but this is one I was extra excited to put eyes on. I was on the road by 5:15AM to make the 10:48AM tee time & had plenty of time to spare.
You can tell this course was built to host tournaments as it tips out at just shy of 8000 yards, but I still found it a lot of fun to play. The bunkers kind of sit in the rough which stops balls from rolling into them, but they definitely have a style you’ll remember. You’re faced with the hardest hole on the course early in hole 2, but it doesn’t feel like it gets that much easier from there. I’m not complaining, I thought the course was awesome, but you can get yourself into trouble on every hole. Hole 3 was my favorite par 3 & hole 5 may have been my favorite hole despite making a triple bogey. I didn’t realize how short it was when I teed off & I overswung and blew my ball into the hay. After hacking at it two or three times I finally got up to the awesome green, which is basically a thumbprint into the front right section. With a proper tee shot & short grass all around it, this could be a really fun & scorable hole. 18 sends you home with a wow of an approach shot, but I do wish I was hitting less than long/mid iron into that green after a good drive. Truthfully there aren’t a ton of “wow” holes, but there’s no true bad holes either. $150 was a little more than it needs to be, but the course is very good & you can see why it’s shot up the collegiate golf & Indiana state rankings. 8
Monday, May 26th 2025
The Polo Fields Golf & Country Club
Ann Arbor, Michigan
I was originally planning to play another course in the Indy area, but hotel prices in and around Indy were insane so I decided to change course and play around home on Memorial Day. I hadn’t decided where I was going to go when the opportunity to play The Polo Fields in Ann Arbor popped up. It was nice to see a new course & only have to travel 15-20 minutes for a change!
The Polo Fields is a 1995 Bill Newcomb design & for a course built in the 90s it was fairly walkable. The course was perfectly fine, but most of what stuck out to me was man-made. You play along power lines on holes 7 & 8 on the front as well as 15 & 16 on the back & there are clearly unnatural mounds all over the course. I guess some could say they add a strategic element, but it was a bit odd & repetitive to see random mounds on the edges of most holes. The par 3’s were solid, with hole 9 being my favorite of the bunch. The par 4’s and 5’s kind of blended together in my head & the holes that stick out are unfortunately ones I didn’t care for. Hole 2 gives concern that you’re in for a target golf fest (which thankfully isn’t the case) and requires a 175-225 yard shot to a peninsula where you’re left with somewhere from 125-200 yards in to an island green. While a double forced carry was something I had seen before, a mini-forest separating a fairway was new. Hole 18’s fairway is separated by a clump of trees that requires you to either play left or right of them. Left worked out fine for me, but it’s still an odd choice for any hole let alone your closer. The course was well-kept and the greens rolled well, but a lot of the golf is fairly mundane & the man-made elements are what will stick out in my mind. It’s a fine place to play & with how close it is to me I wouldn’t be surprised if I play it again. 4
Finally, on the last day of the month I took a trip with some friends to see some public golf in Cleveland that I’ve been wanting to check out for a while now. I always want to see local municipal facilities & the Cleveland Metroparks may be doing it the best in the country. When I saw Aiken Golf Club & The Charleston Muni earlier this year I thought they were for sure the best deals in golf, but you could make an argument for Cleveland. I walked Manakiki for $40 & Sleepy Hollow for $35 (admittedly used a locals 10% discount, but it’s only $30 for a yearly pass) and while The Muni still beats them at $20 for locals, Cleveland takes the cake for travelers as it’s $50 for out-of-towners in Charleston + they have nine courses to choose from in Cleveland. Cleveland is a hotbed for golden age golf designs & thankfully a few are available to the public.
I woke up at 4:30AM to meet friends in Toledo by 5:15AM and head to Cleveland for our 8:20AM tee time at Manakiki. We didn’t tee off at Sleepy Hollow until 3:10PM & after a five hour round I wasn’t home until just after 11PM. Talk about a full day!
Saturday, May 31st - Round 1
Manakiki Golf Course
Willoughby, Ohio
The calendar may have said May 31st, but it felt a hell of a lot like early March when we got out of the car. As we played through 30+ mph gusts & 3 layers of clothing, Manakiki revealed itself as a special golf course course. Although I’ve shared a border with Ohio nearly my entire life, I’ve never really ventured into the state due to the lack of high quality public golf (compared to Michigan), but after playing Manakiki I wish I had visited sooner. Built by Donald Ross in 1928, I bet this version of Manakiki is a lot like what he built except there’s now cart path eyesores on every hole. I know I’m in the minority of people who prefer to walk golf courses & this may not bother some, but it was a bit egregious having the cart path jaunt across the fairway on so many holes. The worst of it was holes 6 & 9 where they the cutoff the fairway to add rough & cart path. On hole 9 if everything was mowed & there was no cart path it would be an awesome speed slot reward for hitting a long drive down the fairway, but instead I was hacking it out of rough because we have to have a cart path, how else would people know where to go??
Once I put my cart path complaints aside, Manakiki was an awesome golf course & the gnarly conditions didn’t stop me from enjoying the round. There was a lot of land movement throughout the course, but I felt like the best holes came late in 15-18. My favorite spot on the course was 16 tee as you have a view looking down on 15 & 18 greens, plus the 16th is a fun tee shot where you could cut the corner for a potential eagle putt if you can avoid the tree. Hole 17 was a par 4 with a ton of land movement & incredible green complex which was probably my favorite on the course. There wasn’t an extremely memorable par 3, but all of them were solid golf holes. I still don’t know how to feel about hole 3, a shorter par 5 with a fairway that jaunts towards the water hazard. You’re clearly meant to lay back or risk bringing on the water, but the fact that the reward area slopes towards the water kind of ruins the fun of trying to go for it. You can tell they’re Donald Ross greens as there’s nothing mind-blowing going on, but just enough going on to keep you second-guessing yourself. There are a lot of golf courses I hope to play in the Cleveland area, but if I ever have extra time to throw in a game somewhere, I wouldn’t hesitate to play Manakiki again. 7
Saturday, May 31st - Round 2
Sleepy Hollow Golf Course
Brecksville, Ohio
After we got done at Manakiki we grabbed some lunch & headed over to Sleepy Hollow, around 40 minutes Southwest. Designed by the godfather of Canadian golf, Stanley Thompson, Sleepy Hollow provides a rare look at an American design by Thompson. As someone who goes to Canada once per year to golf, I am no stranger to his work, but many Americans probably are. My favorite aspect of Stanley Thompson courses is the way he incorporates par 3’s, typically having five of them on a course & building courses around them. He is known for his green complexes & fantastic bunker work, plus he was kind & typically starts you with a handshake hole with few bunkers. Luckily for us, the weather started to improve & we could shed a layer, but it was still hard to believe it would be June in eight hours.
As a Stanley Thompson fan I was going to Ohio expecting to like Sleepy Hollow more than Manakiki, but that wasn’t quite how things shook out. To be frank, the course was enjoyable, but some of the greens were not. For a $35 course the greens were in phenomenal shape, but when the course was built in 1924 I highly doubt the greens ran anywhere near the speeds they do today. Hole 9 is a back to front sloping green that you either make the putt or watch the ball roll 40 feet back to the front of the green. This happened on multiple occasions & there were multiple times nobody in our group holed a putt before we just went to the next tee. Had this been a greenskeepers revenge tournament I would have laughed, however that was not the case & it really took a lot of the enjoyment out of the round for me. Hole 2 is a brutal long par 3, but thankfully they all get shorter from there. While I mentioned Stanley typically having five par 3’s, Sleepy only has four of them, however three come in the front nine and after hole 12 you’ve played all of them. While it’s definitely atypical, it goes to show how Stanley would build a par 3 wherever he saw a great green site. Hole 1 was the typical handshake opener that I wasted a scoring opportunity on, being a downhill par 5 with no bunkers until the green. Hole 16 was my favorite with its natural land movement in the fairway & interesting green. There were fewer holes that wowed me here than Manakiki & while the greens annoyed me, I will still admit this is a good golf course. The locals are lucky to have these for the price they do & I’d be playing them both all the time if I lived nearby. Cleveland actually has another 18 hole Stanley Thompson course in Big Met & 9 hole course in Little Met so I look forward to seeing which I prefer someday. 5
This is just the start of what is sure to be many more crazy months ahead! I hope I can make time to write about the courses I play between rounds!
As always, appreciate your time reading this. Play fast & don’t be a dick!