Hole #1: GolfScout's Take
Hopefully you arrived early and had time to work on your game at the Wilmette practice facilities. Now it’s time to tee off. There’s 5 tee boxes to choose from, maxing out at almost 6400 yards. Choose wisely and don't overdo it. There's 5 tee boxes for a reason.
A quick word on golf ball choice for the first (and third) hole. Don’t play a yellow ball here. I’ve made that mistake before. Holes 1 and 3 run adjacent to the driving range, which uses yellow range balls. If you hit it anywhere near the fence, it’s hard to differentiate your ball at a glance from the 20 others lying there.
Depending on your tee box and length, if you hit a solid drive, the fairway bunker is in play on the left. It’s about 115 yards from the centers of the bunker and green. Additionally, two bunkers buttress the first green on the left and right. Thankfully, Wilmette’s first green is relatively flat and welcoming to golf shots, which serves as a nice onramp to the course.
It looks like they added a new cart path to the right of the fairway in early 2022, when I took these photos.
