Carriage Greens Country Club, Darien, IL

While we are in a very dry spell, the course in serious disrepair. The fairways are hard, and the ball bounces almost like hitting the cart path. This is a nice feature if you like chasing a well hit ball that travels thirty yards farther than any other course. The grass is dying and weeds are sprouting on the fairways. The greens are very soft and incredibly slow. For someone that has a bad short game, this is your place. The service....

My foursome was kicked off the course this morning because we couldn't complete a 4.5 hour course in 3 hours. A group outing was scheduled for later in the morning and we were not told about it. The course kept adding bodies to the group outing and we got pushed out of time. The club said that this sometimes happens and there was nothing that they could do about it. Really??? I paid full price for 18 holes, played nine, and had to pack up and leave. I will never go back here unless I have no other choice. My group packed up, a little upset, and went to play a par 3 course down the road. That was a lovely time and way more fun that Carriage Greens. The grass was dry out there but the greens were good, the fairways were well kept, and we enjoyed ourselves after a painful morning. Don;y play there unless you want a crappy score and mediocre experience.

Conditions: Hard to say. The course had just encountered lots of rain the night before. Slow greens and sloppy fairways were the norm.
Difficulty: Every hole seemed to have skinny fairways and small greens. There were also some intimidating tee shots from the Blues as well (i.e. 12 & 18).
Staff: Overall friendly.
Pace: Great, though it was after a rain and overall gloomy day. I finished in about 3 hours (walking) as a single during twilight.
Value: A great practice course, especially for twilight ($19 walking after 3pm weekends), but I definitely wouldn't pay to play on a weekend morning ($57 w/cart I believe).
Other:
1) Course lacks yardages on the tees and fairways (other than the sticks). Found myself guessing a lot.
2) Some houses were a little too close for my comfort level, but mature trees block most of them.

This has been a very wet year and with so many low lying areas it has proven to be difficult for the maintenance staff to keep up with the mowing. Most people think of this as an outing course and when there are no outings, this is a bargain of a course, difficult par 70 at 6400 + yards. Most important, what a great staff of people that work here, from the pro shop, bar, restaurant, and heck even the cart man was exceptional. I always look forward to coming here and playing again.