Foss Park Golf Course

Lake County's stretch of Illinois shoreline has always offered a different kind of Chicago-area golf — less manicured than the private clubs to the south, more rooted in the everyday game. Foss Park Golf Course sits within the Foss Park District in North Chicago, a blue-collar lakeside city that sits between Waukegan to the north and the affluent communities of Lake Forest and Lake Bluff to the south. It's a part of Chicagoland that doesn't get much golf press, which tends to mean the tee times are easier to come by and the atmosphere stays unpretentious.

As a park district course, Foss Park exists to serve its community — the kind of place where beginners find their footing and regulars build the habits of a lifetime. At par 72 over 18 holes, it offers a complete round without the price point or exclusivity of the region's more celebrated venues.

North Chicago sits just inland from Lake Michigan, and the broader landscape here is flat glacial terrain with the lake moderating temperatures into the season's edges — useful for a public layout trying to maximize its calendar.