Wheaton, IL Outdoor Activities

LPGA Class A member Rachel Teresi chips away at learning blocks and corrects crooked swings during private lessons and group classes at four Chicagoland golf facilities. Rachel's swing tutorials emphasizes sound fundamentals designed to enhance all areas of one’s game, including driving, pitching, chipping, and shouting at opponents during critical shots. When they aren’t honing the focus and discipline necessary to excel at the mental aspects of golf, students learn important techniques for fitting clubs and maximizing the efficiency of their training. In addition to her work with students, Rachel has contributed to the overall advancement of the game by developing the downloadable iPhone app GolfPro911, which assists with shot selection and offers advice on wooing feral golf carts into sand traps.

Marengo Ridge Golf Club, which began as a modest nine-hole course, endured a 25-year gap before taking full advantage of the surrounding landscape’s diverse terrain and expanding into a sprawling 18-hole course. Course architect William James Spear broke ground on the front nine in 1963, designating a large, renovated cow barn as the first clubhouse and cleaving nine holes through densely wooded hills. This layout proved sufficient until a late ‘80s spike in the local caddy population—and business boom—made the addition of a back nine desirable. Construction began in 1988 and, two years later, a new nine-hole track opened for play, presenting golfers with a profound shift in scenery, as this layout was built on an expanse of open farmland. The old clubhouse lasted for three more years, but the awkward location and argyle-wearing cattle called for the construction of a new clubhouse to match the new 18-hole golf club.

Today, golfers enjoy the diverse layout of the 18-hole course from the first hole, the longest par 4 on the course, to the last, a par 5 severe dogleg right. Water enters play on nine holes, including on the first six, creating the potential for an extending water break for thirsty golf carts.

Course at a Glance:

• 18-hole, par 72 course
• Total length of 6,654 yards from the back tees
• Course rating of 72.5 from the back tees
• Course slope of 129 from the back tees
• Four sets of tees per hole
• Scorecard

Elmhurst Park District's Courts Plus gathers exercisers of all ages to its facility that boasts 60 fitness classes per week, an indoor climbing wall, and experienced personal trainers. From aquatics to martial arts, Courts Plus's troupe of trainers help their members and guests hone lean physiques, and a large gym boasts 70 pieces of cardio equipment, 38 strength-training machines, and impressively accurate mirrors. Youth programs abound as well, including summer camps, junior tennis lessons, and a strength-training program customized for ages 6–15.

Breezes drift east off the Fox River and through the tree lines of Pottawatomie Golf Course, a spectacular layout recognized by Golf World as the No. 15 nine-hole course in America in 2010. The course traces its roots back to 1939, when legendary course architect Robert Trent Jones Sr. capitalized on the area's natural splendor to design a course that originally charged golfers a quarter to play and was best conquered by clubs made from stale baguettes.

Recently, the par 35 course has been the subject of a vigorous renovation, including efforts to reshape greens and preserve native habitats for the deer, foxes, and egrets that populate the grounds. These conservation efforts were rewarded in 1997, when Pottawatomie Golf Course became the first nine-hole course recognized as a fully certified sanctuary by Audubon International.

The course's picturesque conditions are on full display at the par-four third hole, where a curving fairway vanishes into the river and golfers must launch approach shots onto a water-surrounded green. After a day of fore-hollering fun, golfers can peruse the pro shop for the latest gear and clubs to replace irons that ran away to chase dreams of one day growing into a cell-phone tower.

Course at a Glance:

• Designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr.
• Nine-hole, par 35 course
• Length of 3,007 yards from the farthest tees
• Course rating of 34.9 from the farthest tees
• Slope rating of 122 from the farthest tees
• Bent-grass greens, blue-grass fairways
• Scorecard

Evil Intentions Haunted House evokes the details of its site’s checkered past to conjure the stuff of nightmares. The area the haunted house now occupies has been plagued with creepy occurrences for more than a century. Since the 1890s the expanse has been used as the premises of a coffin company, a stomping ground for escapees from a nearby mental institution, and a gathering place for the occult’s summer softball league.

Starting in 2005, the Evil Intentions Haunted House team slowly transformed this troubled spot into a haunted house that comes alive with shrieks once night falls. Visitors can leave their cars in the free parking lot and gather in the indoor waiting area before exploring more than 20,000 square feet of tortuous halls filled with dark decor and costumed frights. Demonic clowns, faceless butchers, and cleaver-wielding lunatics creep around corners and leap out of hidden alcoves, scaring both passing patrons and the actual ghosts who occupy the building.