Pine Hills

About Pine Hills

You're looking at one of the better-kept secrets in the Illinois Valley, and that 4.5-star rating from nearly 300 reviews tells you everything about the local loyalty this place commands. Pine Hills sits in classic prairie country southwest of Chicago, where the terrain gives the routing enough natural movement to keep things interesting without beating you up. The course walks beautifully – a huge plus since it's one of the few publics in the area that actually encourages it – and the conditioning punches well above what you'd expect for the modest green fees. What really sets Pine Hills apart is the value proposition and the unpretentious vibe. You won't find cart-path-only nonsense or stuffy dress codes here, just honest golf that rewards good shots and penalizes bad ones without any architectural gimmicks. The locals treat it like their home course because many of them essentially adopted it as such, and that kind of grassroots support usually means management takes care of the fundamentals. For Ottawa, this is about as good as public golf gets in the region.

Key Facts