Lake Zurich Golf Club is a Private, 9 hole golf course located in Lake Zurich , Illinois, about 50 miles northwest of Chicago. This is both a very exclusive but delightfully, a very casual course were golf and most other things are not taken too seriously. The course has the ambiance of a 1920's hunting lodge.
Most of the time there are about 30 to 35 members. If a member passes or resigns, a relative or friend of a member might fill the vacancy.
Lake Zurich Golf Club first opened for play in 1895. The course was designed by James B. Fowlas who came from St. Andrews, Scotland.
The course is heavily wooded. A water hazard that comes into play on one hole. Ladies tee off from the same set of tees as the men. This club is listed by the USGA as one of the first 100 Golf Clubs established in the U.S.
The course plays to a 9-hole par or 35 and a maximum 9-hole distance of 2,651 yards.
Indicative of the friendly nature of the club is their unofficial rules list:
- Don`t take the game too seriously.
- ``There shall be no such thing as a lost ball. The missing ball will eventually be found and pocketed by some other player, in which case it becomes a stolen ball. There is no penalty for a stolen ball.``
- ``If a putt stops close enough to the cup to inspire such comments as,
`You could blow it in,` you may blow it in. The rule does not apply if the ball is more than three inches from the hole. We have no wish to make a travesty of the game.``
- ``A ball sliced or hooked into the rough shall be lifted and placed at a point equal to the distance it carried into the rough. It is hardly fair to penalize a player for the erratic flight of the ball.``
- ``A ball hitting a tree shall be deemed not to have hit a tree. Hitting a tree is incontrovertibly bad luck, a phenomenon which obviously has no place in a scientific game. The player should estimate the distance the ball would have traveled under reasonable circumstances, and play the ball from that point, preferably from a nice firm tuft of grass.``