business jet TRAVELER • April/May 2006 The Best Classic Golf Courses in the North Central U.S. Our series on America’s best golf courses continues with a look at the three best classic N I E L courses in the north central U.S., as deter- K . S Y E L mined by Golfweek magazine’s handpicked D Prairie Dunes Hole No. 1 A R panel of 385 course raters. The raters, who are B students of architecture, attend national workshops and each evaluate 15 Prairie Dunes Country Club, Hutchinson, Kan. to 20 courses per year. Offering links-style golf in the middle of the American heartland, Prairie Dunes ranked 13th Here’s what distinguishes the north central re- on Golfweek’s classic-course list. At this pri- gion’s top classic courses, according to Golfweek vate facility, a simple clubhouse is all that’s needed for famously crumpled fairways that architecture editor Bradley S. Klein. We’ve also in- wend their way through waist-high prairie grass roughs. Perry and Pres Maxwell de- Airport cluded information on the most convenient places to Hutchinson Municipal (HUT), signed and built the course in two stages, in land your business jet near each course. 7,001-ft runway; 3.5-mile drive. 1935 and 1957, with the famed uphill, 430- FBO: Wells Aircraft, (620) 663-1546. Look for a report on the best modern courses in yard, par-4 eighth hole the best known feature of what is simply an architectural masterpiece. the northeastern U.S. in our next issue. S I B R O C / N I S T E L R K E . B S O Y R E Y L N D Crystal Downs Hole No. 1 Chicago Golf Club Hole No. 10 O A T R © B Crystal Downs Country Club, Frankfort, Mich. Chicago Golf Club, Wheaton, Ill. This is easily the most obscure of the coun- The museum-piece of a layout here stems from try’s great courses. Designers Alister MacKen- an 1894 Charles Blair Macdonald design, which zie and Perry Maxwell combined efforts here in was updated by Seth Raynor in 1923. Superinten- the sandy heathlands of northwest Michigan in dent Jon Jennings has done an amazing job restor- 1931 to create wildly undulating greens and ing the native fescues and roughs. Chicago Golf visually baffling bunkers. The par-70 layout is Airport Club, ranked 14th on Golfweek’s classic-course list, Airport only 6,518 yards from the back tees (73.6 Frankfort Dow Memorial (FKS), showed up well at the 2005 Walker Cup. How ex- DuPage Airport (ORD), rating/138 slope), but the wind howls, the ball 4,050-ft runway, six-mile drive. clusive is this private club, which has only 150 7,570-ft runway, 11-mile drive. rolls forever and people quickly find out why FBO: Frankfort City/County Airport members and registers a paltry 8,000 rounds a year? FBO: DuPage Flight Center, Authority, (231) 352-9118. (800) 208-5690. Crystal Downs ranked ninth on Golfweek’s list It’s so concerned that it is said to have initiated a of the country’s best classic courses. membership drive–to get rid of about 25 members. 40.