Makray Memorial Golf Club
Makray Memorial Golf Club is an 18-hole layout in Barrington, Illinois. It re-opened a few years ago after being renovated from the old Thunderbird Golf Club.
It plays 7,000+ yards from the tips. It features bent grass tees, fairways and greens and blue grass rough.
I’ve played this course twice now and it offers quite a challenge. Each hole is unique and requires some thought on the tee as to which club you’re going to pull from your bag. It’s definitely target golf!
Most of the greens are elevated making the approach shots very challenging. The putting surfaces are a little bumpy but roll pretty quick.
The bunkers at this course are filled with a nice white sand and most of the lies were pretty consistent. However, they didn’t rake the bunkers the day I was there and some of them were clumpy from the rainfall the night before.
Overall the course conditions are excellent. The rough is thick but fair and the fairways are nice and tight.
My favorite holes were three, nine and eighteen. Nine and Eighteen are great finishing holes leading up to the club house. And number three is unlike any hole I’ve seen in the area (see below).
The courses GPS system could use an upgrade. It simply shows you the distance to the center of the green. It would be nice to have distances to hazards and pins. And with many blind shots a full GPS system would be very useful.
Pace-of-play was pretty decent, although the course wasn’t very busy either time I played it. The rangers make frequent appearances and it seems like they do attempt to keep things moving. I played round #1 in just under four hours and round #2 in about 4:15.
I’d give the course an 8.5/10 rating. I really enjoyed Makray Memorial and I’ll probably play it a few more times this year.