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One town that won't let you down - 03 US open: travel File

CHICAGO IS MADE FROM A DIFFERENT mold than most big American cities. It's both walkable and drivable (OK, "parkable" might be a better description of the Dan Ryan Expressway at rush hour). It has neighborhoods with energy and vitality rivaling any in New York, Boston or Philadelphia, but with open space that is, well, Midwestern. And perhaps most unusual of all, it is surprisingly golf-friendly. (Even its nicknames, the Windy City and the City of Broad Shoulders, are vaguely golf-centric.)

This summer golf fans will be focused on one of Chicago's prominent private clubs, Olympia Fields, for the U.S. Open, but the area's collection of public-access courses is equally worthy. More than 200 public courses dot Chicago's city limits and the closely surrounding suburban counties known as "Chicagoland." There's something for every palate and wallet, from Cog Hill's Dubsdread Course (home of the PGA Tour's Western Open) to Harborside International, a spectacular 36-hole phoenix that rose fully-formed from a 500-acre garbage pit on the city's South Side. You can feel as close to the city or as far away from it as you please. Harborside has skyline views (as does the Sydney R. Marovitz municipal course in Lincoln Park), while gems like The Glen Club seem to be suspended among the old-growth oak trees, hidden in plain suburban sight.

Quintessential Chicago

Cog Hill G.C.

*** Course No. 1

*** 1/2 Course No. 2

*** Course No. 3

**** 1/2 Dubsdread

Lemont (630-257-5872, $35-$127). The Jemseks have been Chicagoland's first family of golf since the 1960s, and Cog Hill is the jewel of the three fine facilities they own. Situated in a southwestern suburb, Cog Hill is a sprawling paean to the game, much like the state-owned Bethpage State Park collection of courses on Long Island. The sporty No. 1 and No. 2 courses are fast, cheap and fun. No. 3, designed by Dick Wilson and David McIntosh, is a tighter, more interesting test.

Like Bethpage's Black, Cog Hill's Dubsdread is a completely different beast. Even from the middle of the fairway it feels as if your backswing will be restricted by the towering oaks that crowd this course. Television (and Tiger Woods' skyscraper approach shots) don't do justice to the treacherous Dubsdread green complexes, with their kettle-drum undulations and more than 100 bunkers. Wilson and co-designer Joe Lee have made sure you'll be able to find your ball among the trees, even if sometimes you might prefer not to.

Modern marvels

The Glen Club (not yet rated), Glenview (847-724-7272, $105-$150). With a long enough lever and a firm place to stand, Archimedes declared, he could move the world. Tom Fazio needed only $27 million and a fleet of dump trucks. In 1993, the site that would become the Glen Club was runway flat, literally. Kemper Sports Management purchased the decommissioned Glenview Naval Air Station, turned more than 200 nondescript, barren acres over to Fazio and opened the checkbook. The transformation was almost shocking.

Fazio dug two lakes, then used the dirt to mold hills and valleys that look as if they've been cloned from the rolling Allegheny foothills. Nearly 5,000 trees were imported, Shadow Creek-style (although the climate and soil here are much more accommodating than in Las Vegas). A $10 million clubhouse and banquet center (which has a 3,500-square-foot ballroom and accommodations for overnight guests) and a sterling practice area completed the picture. Locals blanch at the $135 weekend fee (even though they get a 25 percent discount), but the $250 stay-and-play package is one of Chicagoland's best bargains.

Harborside International

**** Port Course

**** 1/2 Starboard Course Chicago

(312-782-7837, $76-$87). At least Fazio had some pavement to work with at the Glen Club. In recent years Chicago's South Side was mainly known for bad White Sox teams and the massive garbage dump right next to the Dan Ryan Expressway. Dick Nugent couldn't do anything about the Sox, but he laid three feet of clay over the landfill to make the property fit for the 36 holes he wanted to build.

The two courses, which sit adjacent to Lake Calumet about 15 miles from The Loop in downtown Chicago, are a blast to play. Trees can't take root in the clay base, so Nugent designed both courses in links style. (I know, I know, there's no ocean around ...) You can blast away from the tee on both courses, but rugged fairway bunkering and giant greens make scoring a challenge.

Classics

**** Kemper Lakes G.C., Long Grove

(847-320-3450, $135). Parkland and links might have a timeless quality about them, but Kemper Lakes has an unapologetically 1980s feel. It's all angles and hazards and dare-you-to-hit-it-here bravado. Anyone who watched Payne Stewart come from six strokes back to beat Mike Reid at the 1989 PGA Championship will remember the last two holes. The 17th can play 225 yards over water, and the fairway on the last hole feels like it must be negotiated in single file because of the lakes on both sides. Suspend your disbelief--and bring plenty of balls.

**** 1/2 Pine Meadow G.C., Mundelein

(847-566-4653, $77). Built at the same wonderful parkland course factory that produced Dubsdread, Pine Meadow has many of the qualities that make its more prominent sibling such a treat. Joe Lee had even more room to stretch, and he filled it with sweeping, muscular par 4s and tourcaliber rough that will bend your hosel if you aren't careful.

Off the course

For those with an adventurous streak (and a cast-iron stomach), the annual Taste of Chicago food fair is worth a trip all by itself. From June 27 to July 6, hundreds of Chicago's most celebrated restaurants and bars turn a giant patch of downtown lakefront into a tented food bazaar. A roll of carnival-style tickets will get you anything from classic Chicago-style deep-dish pizza to an overflowing plate of Cuban caldo gallego. And beer? It's flowing.

You could spend a year in Chicago and not run out of things to do, but The Loop downtown is a great place to start. The Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum of Natural History rank among the best of their kind in the nation, and with two professional baseball teams, somebody's always on a homestand.

Slightly off the beaten path are some of the neighborhoods. Lincoln Park is filled with brownstones, shops and the best steak sandwich on garlic bread you'll ever taste, at O'Fame (773-929-5111). Wicker Park used to be on the ragged edge of a tough part of Chicago. Now, it's gentrified and filled with cutting-edge restaurants, bars and clubs. Think Greenwich Village with more parking. The Soul Kitchen (773-342-9742) is a local favorite for food with a little heat. The ultimate Chicago sports bar has to be the Cubby Bear (773-327-1662). Wrigley Field is right across the street, so even if you can't get Cubs tickets, you can still watch--and hear--the game. Keep your head up as you walk down Waveland Avenue. That's where Sammy Sosa's home-run balls usually land.

TRAVEL ADVISORY

Getting to Chicago is never a problem. O'Hare International is the world's busiest airport--and if you've sprinted five miles to your connecting gate there, you know I'm not lying. O'Hare is a major hub for United, American and Northwest. Many travelers prefer Midway Airport, which is smaller and closer to downtown. Chicago is about a four-hour drive from Detroit and a two-hour drive from Milwaukee.

KEY

Course ratings are derived from the exclusive 5-star Golf Digest Places to Play scale. A single star represents "basic golf"; five stars indicate "golf at its absolute best." Golf Digest's Places to Play guide, based upon the ratings of 20,000 readers, is available for $25 (phone 800-793-2665).