Overall Grade: C
Teacher’s Comments: There’s just enough here to make me go back.
Built in 1978 by the Fielek family, Rolling Meadows is a friendly course: friendly to the pocketbook and friendly to the player. It has just enough variety and interesting holes, to get me to go back, in spite of some relatively poor course conditions.
The front nine begins with a short dogleg par four, a short straightaway par four and a relatively easy par three. But don’t give way to disappointment, because from there the holes become much more interesting.
I liked the fifth, a slight dogleg par four that slopes down to the 150 marker and from there left back uphill to the green. Treelines will catch a slice or hook, but a good straight blast will give you a chance to hit a lofted iron that will stick to the sloping green.
The eighth is a 145 yard par three over a depression at an elevated green. The treeline on the left will play on your mind and make you think about staying right. But a large solitary tree there hides sand trap trouble. If you’re not confident in your target golf, aim for the wider area in front of the green and then pitch up and on.
On the back nine, the par five 11th is a lot of fun. Rip a driver off the tee to corner of the dogleg left. Then hit a wood and a wedge straight at the flag.
The 14th probably could be called the course’s signature hole, as it calls for a couple of strategic decisions. It’s a dogleg right par four with a pond guarding the front of the green and light woods on the inside of the bend.
From the tee, you need to decide how close to the right you want to cut your shot. If you can keep it close without going into the woods, you can probably take a direct shot over the pond at the green for your second shot. If you swing it left to the far corner of the bend, though, you may find the approach shot too far for comfort. Laying up short of the pond may be a better decision. I like holes with this sort of risk-reward.
The 14th is rated as the course’s toughest, but I’d actually vote for the 231 yard par three seventeenth. It’s a downhill shot that needs to be threaded between trees over a pond, while keeping it to the left of a bunker. Madness.
Fom the back tees, the course measures 6474 with a slope of 119. The whites are 6048 with a slope of 119.
Course conditions on the day I visited were not so good. Tee boxes were in poor shape , and there were bare spots in the fairways. The greens were all in good condition, though.
Another complaint I had was a lack of yardage markers.
Be sure to bring mosquito spray, especially if you are playing in the morning or evening.
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Sadly, they lost the large oak tree that guarded the bend on the 14th during the winter of 2008. Attempting a drive over the top of that tree seemed like folly. However, when successful, you had an approach shot from 150 yards or less.
The Ianni family purchased the course from the Fielek family in 2015. They have slowly instituted some changes and improvements. The lack of an inground sprinkling system makes the course conditions vary with the weather.
It is a nice course when the weather cooperates (not too much or too little rain).