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Chicago Highlands Club

Westchester, IL • Private

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Chicago Highlands Club

2 Bluebird Trl

Westchester, IL 60154-5051

United States

Overview

A dozen years ago, Joe Hills, a son of architect Arthur Hills, had a desire to follow his dad into the business, so he was given responsibility for Chicago Highlands, a private club built on a garbage dump across the interstate from Butler National. Joe did the routing and grading plans, supervised its construction and even shaped some holes on a dozer. Because the entire landfill had to be covered with soil, Joe had some of it piled into a dome 40 feet high on which he would carve out the ninth, a hole brilliant in its simplicity and named by Golf Digest one of the 18 best holes built in the U.S. since 2000. A reachable par-4 from all six tee boxes, it’s basically a volcano with a flag at the top. The slopes surrounding the small hilltop green drop off in every direction and are mowed tight, so errant shots will often roll to the base of the slope some 50 yards or more away. From there, recoveries can be like ping-pong if one gets sloppy. A few years back, the slope beyond the green was filled in a bit, in an act of mercy for shots swept long by prevailing winds, but the other slopes, particularly the left one, are still long and steep.

About

Holes 18
Length 7489
Slope 145
Facility Type Private
Designer Arthur Hills, ASGCA/Steve Forrest, ASGCA

Awards

Best Courses in Every State

ranking history:

Best in State: Ranked 15th, 2025-'26. Ranked 18th, 2023-'24. Ranked 25th, 2019-'20. Ranked 26th, 2021-'22.
Previous ranking: 18th.
2025-'26 ranking: 15th.

Golf Digest Logo Panelists

Ratings from our panel of 1,900 course-ranking panelists

3.9

100 GREATEST/BEST IN STATE SCORES

Shot Options
6.9776
Character
6.8687
Challenge
6.9874
Layout Variety
6.8901
Fun
7.0132
Aesthetics
6.8641
Conditioning
7.1385

Reviews