Lombard, IL Outdoor Activities

Golfer’s Paradise’s friendly golfing confines foster year-round golfing within the indoor hitting stalls of their AboutGolf simulators. Using real clubs, players pulverize orbs into an immense screen that utilizes 3-D graphics to vividly emulate the immaculate greenery, calculated topography, and yellow-brick cart paths of some of the world’s most famous courses. Golfers can trace powerful drives into the windswept, simulated stratosphere of St. Andrews Old Course or evade the treacherous water hazards at Michigan’s Robert Trent Jones–designed course, The Heather. Along with technology that ensures each shot travels in a realistic manner, the simulators boast advanced swing-tracking sensors that collect data and even offer advice to correct unsound swings.

A staff of PGA-certified instructors oversees Golfer's Paradise's two executive-style lounges, offering expert advice to help transform swing imbalances into trustworthy motions. Pupils benefit from the instructors' hard-won wisdom combined with the computer-generated feedback of the simulators, which reveals detailed results of the position of one's clubface at impact and the effects of sweaty-palm syndrome.

Anyone can take on a new persona at Halloween, but very few people earn the right to keep theirs throughout the year. Rich Oltmann is one of those people. To game manufacturers and arcade owners around the world, he’s known simply as the "Guru of Games," a nickname earned through years of designing and manufacturing whiz-bang games of skill. While his creations grace game rooms across the world, many can be found only among hundreds of other ticket-spewing consoles in the Haunted Trails Amusement Park arcade.

In addition to Oltmann's games, Haunted Trails Amusement Park hosts entertainments including two 18-hole miniature-golf courses, three go-kart tracks, batting cages, and rides. In the Frightmare Haunted House, visitors tour a two-story maze populated by terrifying clowns, reapers, and creatures that scare teenagers by making them choose a college major. An onsite restaurant helps guests refuel after putt-putt challenges, and a party room hosts gatherings ranging from birthdays to holiday bashes.

On tours from Haunted Hometowns, each traveler clutches an EMF meter, nervously waiting for a flash that detects electromagnetic fields, thus signaling the presence of paranormal activity. Meanwhile, a seasoned storyteller imparts gripping tales of murder, local legends, and ghostly encounters. Based on the books of ghost historian and storyteller Diane Ladley, Haunted Hometowns tours build on her four decades of research, as well as her intimate knowledge of the area and its rumored spectral inhabitants. Guides encourage participants to tote along their cameras so that they’re prepared to preserve the spooky sights along the way and catch photo-bombing ghosts in the act.

Paranormal investigator Kevin Frantz, author of Naperville, Chicago's Haunted Neighbor, has led visitors through spooky Naperville settings while dispensing historically accurate yarns for six years. As they make their way through these eerie locales, Kevin invites guests to snap their own photographs in the pursuit of a keepsake paranormal portrait.

Lombard Park District's Western Acres Golf Course features nine holes that unfurl across an expansive blanket of bluegrass characterized by mature trees, numerous sand traps, and three ponds that come into play on multiple holes. Each day from sunrise to sunset, the 3,051-yard course demands a repertoire of hazard-avoiding strokes, such as bending shots around imposing tree trunks or giving golf balls arm floaties to avoid sinking in the intersecting waterways.

Course at a Glance:

• 9-hole, par 35 course

• Total length of 3,051 yards from the back tees

• Course rating of 69.2 from the back tees

• Course slope of 111 from the back tees

Metro Dash pits athletes against their own limitations as they sprint through a 600-meter course dotted with 20 obstacles that test endurance and strength. High hurdles, balance beams, rope swings, and cargo nets impede the path as contestants—guts wrenching and muscles pounding—sprint to awaken their inner warriors. The Metro Dash staff stands by to control the flow of runners and penalize those who refuse to do an obstacle for fear of soiling their powdered wig.

Metro Dash staff members divide the race into waves, sending runners through the course to climb and crawl in their race T-shirts as spectators cheer on in support. They require runners in the Elite division to run the course a second time, totaling the scores for competition. After the race, awards for the top three cumulative male and female finish times will be announced. A portion of proceeds goes to benefit the Navy SEAL Foundation