Tinley Park, IL Outdoor Activities

Cleaved through 66 acres of emerald forest, the course at Alsip Park District's Fountain Hills Golf Club challenges players to control their shots down narrow fairways and avoid the bounty of sand traps strewn throughout. Golfers navigate the Bob Lohmann–designed course aboard carts equipped with GPS navigation systems, which help determine a lie's distance to the green or how many strokes it would take to make par into a moon crater. On the first hole, golfers must split a narrow fairway from the tee and keep their golf balls away from the out-of-bounds regions that run alongside, where errant golf balls flaunt hedonistic lifestyles with lethargic naps in the rough.

The practice center at Fountain Hills encompasses a lighted driving range with 30 hitting stations and a short-game practice area with a putting and chipping green. On the range, swingers have the option of hitting off a synthetic mat or real grass.

Course at a Glance:

• 9-hole, par 36 course
• Total length of 3,233 yards from the back tees
• Course rating of 35.1 from the back tees
• Course slope of 112 from the back tees
• Four sets of tees per hole

The Village of Park Forest lays claim to being one of the first postwar planned communities. In 1948, as World War II veterans were looking to make peacetime lives, the village’s pioneers built affordable housing and an accessible road system for a diverse, welcoming community dotted with green parks and tail-finned trees. Today those trees have grown into a mature canopy, and the village has taken steps to maintain its legacy while seeking to reinvent itself for the modern era. In 2000, the Metropolitan Planning Council awarded the village a Burnham Award for its downtown redevelopment. The revitalized downtown area features a variety of spaces where community members can come together, including its Dining on the Green meeting and banquet facility, which overlooks the village green's verdant pasture decorated with ornamental flowers, a gazebo, and sculptures that do not animate and roam the streets with each full moon.