Robert A. Black Golf Course

The course is in decent condition, but a few bunkers are still more dirt/​rocks instead of sand. This is a nice little manageable course for beginners. For experienced golfers, it’s a good challenge to try to play under par. However, the hackers who play here have no idea what golf etiquette is. No one understands the concept of letting faster groups play through (2:20 for 9 holes at ~2,400yds is ridiculous). If you’re a 20+ handicap, spending Jordan Spieth levels of time over your putts isn’t going to help! No one seems to fix their ball marks on the greens. Golf balls were flying everywhere onto opposite holes. This place needs an on-​course marshal in the worst way (and you’d think they could afford one for the prices they charge).
Very little value for the money here. $ 24 for nine holes at this goat track is outrageous. At $ 15 or with a good twilight rate, it would be more reasonable.

Big fan of this little track. It’s far superior than several other CPDGolf course — Sydney (fine if you tee off at 6am or else it’s a 3 hour round), South Shore and Columbia P.
Great variety here — reachable par 5, some challenging short par 4’s and good par 3’s.
There is usually little traffic on the course, which is great. Course is maintained well. Bunkers are spotty, but… ha, like, just don’t hit it in the trap, man. Greens are smooth. I rolled in a bender and it was beautiful. Left to right. You all should have seen it. It was for bogey, but still. Sick save and it was all because the greens were smooth.
There is a three tiered green on the 8^th that’s fun to putt around on if nobody is behind you. I putted around on there for fun for upwards of 20 minutes until a group got to the tee. At that point, I picked up my ball and jetted to the 9^th tee and hooked my driver onto Pratt Ave. It was a majestic hook. You all should have seen it. I took an illegal drop next to the fence because I didn’t want to hit another Mojo onto Pratt and bladed my «second» shot over the green. After chunking one onto the green, I hit a long putt for a «par». As I said… smooth greens made the «par» possible.
All in all, had a great time! Good course.

came here a few weeks ago to get the kinks out for the 2016 Golf Season! it’s always been a fun & challenging course to play. They finally were re-​doing the bunkers so there was lots of construction going on out on the course. it will look great when it was done, but due to the wet course, we had to walk with a pull cart. hoping to come back in mid may when hopefully everything is complete.

I’ve tried to give this course so many chances. But when there are people jumping holes in front of you, 4somes playing at a 3 hour pace for 9 holes, who do not let you through, no marshal or employee to monitor pace of play… It’s too much. I do not expect others to be 3 – 4 handicaps, but there is no organization here. I did play here once a week due to it being close, but I’ll just drive further and play 18 in the same amount of time. It’s a shame, it’s a good course to work your short irons.

The course has been in great condition this year and the price is right. The staff members are really friendly and it’s pretty easy to get a tee time.

This is a nice little course, kept in quite good condition. I’m rating it based on the value and convenience for people living in Chicago, not its overall stature relative to all other golf courses in the US.
On a weekend, I wouldn’t even bother with Marovitz — it’s always a traffic jam. Robert Black is a much more relaxed, less crowded alternative.
It’s a fairly short course (2361 yards from the blue tees), but it does have a Par 5 and four Par 4’s. It has four Par 3’s, so this is a good course to work on your short game.
The greens are a highlight. They’re in very good shape, and some of them are quite large. A few of the greens have stepped levels, which is fun. There are some decent slopes on some greens, so you have to be strategic if you want to give yourself an uphill putt (and use a light touch on those downhill putts).
As mentioned in other reviews, the bunkers are the worst aspect of this course. Lot of gravel and rocks. I’m sure they have limited financial resources, so maybe bunkers are on the bottom of their «things to fix» list. It isn’t a deal breaker though. You can always take a drop if you don’t want to scratch your clubs.
Staff is very friendly. I played a couple Saturdays back, and the course marshal was actively keeping the pace moving — wonderful to see.
Overall, Robert Black is a great place to spend a few hours and get in a fairly quick 9.

I’m surprised, even shocked by the critical reviews. This course is amazing… and it’s cheap… and it’s close to me. I’ve played Syd Mack and this blows that out of the water. I had the place to myself. The course is immaculate. I’ll be back… bright and early.

Decent little course for what it is. It’s not a tough course as far as length goes, but you can definitely walk it and work on your short and iron game! Check it out, challenging and fun little course.

Played on a Thursday evening as a single. Zipped through two holes and then joined the twosome ahead of me on hole three. Played through in about 2 hours.
Practice green is large and allows chipping, however there were only 3 or 4 holes cut, all of which were occupied by a person or two. Sand has rocks in it. Par 4s and the par 5 have dog legs and are laid out well with trees and sand since they are so short.
My biggest gripe is the clientele, in that the greens have many ball marks that were not repaired and raking sand traps is not the norm. The greens were nicer than I expected them to be and people should be taking better care of them.
All in all, it was a fun course and I’ll be playing in the future.

this course is the remnant of the very old edgewater country club course. in its day it was a nationally known course. the 9^th is the only surviving hole.
I started playing the course as a kid in the early 80s. with a junior card it cost $ 1.75, it wasn’t in great shape. in the 90s the city contracted kemper golf to manage all city courses. all fees tripled and slightly improved shape of course.
The last time I played was about 5 yrs ago and had the worst experience. course employees were outright liars about course conditions and course traffic. they took green fees for myself and young son and told us we were all set to tee off at 6p (no sweat for me) at the 3^rd tee they told us we were done and had to leave the course (they want to punch out at 7). i stayed until dark with an employee following me the whole round. he barked at my son to pick up and leave but didn’t sway me.
I will NEVER play this course again. although it is where I learned to play the game and may feel nostalgic about the course, I will never give the staff another chance at my business

One of my favorite local courses! I have played here about 3 times and every time I have been more than satisfied. (With the course anyway)
There are several challenging holes, especially hole number, a par 5 over 500 yards, but still a lot of fun and playable for a novice golfer.
I usually come early, between 9:00 — 10:00 with a group and most of the time it feels like we have the place to ourselves and plays quickly. Even when it’s crowded, its nothing compared to Sydney Marovitz. Oy.
One thing that’s sort of funny is the bunkers are filled with what seems like dirt, rather than sand. They are still a pain to get out of dirt or not.
The staff is also very friendly and helpful.
No food available aside for chips and candy, but pop, gatorade and water are available. There are also water dispensers on a few holes and a port-​o-​potty after hole 4.
Got to love the price as well. Just about $ 25 with a riding cart.
Great place to golf in the city.

A best kept secret of Rogers Park. Friendly, helpful staff and well kept course. Play can be a bit slow on the weekends, but that’s to be expected. My favorite city course so far.

This place is a hidden Gem. Like Ram J. stated in his previous review, I’m tempted to give this place a shitty review just to keep the hackers away. But that wouldn’t be fair.
The day I played Robert Black was the start of a day when my wife almost left me. See my list for more information. We teed off about 9 a.m. on a stunningly beautiful, Friday morning. Yes, the round was slow, but my buddy and I were paired up with the coolest guys you could play a round with. The park district has done an amazing job fixing this place up. When I played here in the 80’s, it was a worthless shithole. The fairways were chopped to hell and the greens were so slow that you needed a hip turn on any putt over 10 ft. Boy have times changed. This place is impressive. The course is in immaculate shape and the staff couldn’t be nicer.
Here’s the bottom line: R.A. Black is a hidden gem is West Rogers park. You’re round might be slow, but take the time and enjoy this beautiful Golf Course. You will be happy you did.

If you live on the north side, skip the lakefront course and head to Roberta Flack, I mean Robert A. Black.

I played Robert Black a week or so ago on a day that dreary expecting it to be pretty empty. I was right with the exception of the staff nearly making me suffer through the slowest round of golf ever. When I purchased my tee time they said it was wide open, I thought perfect. Then I get to the tee box on #1 and there was no starter, but a group of 10 – 12 kids all teeing off together with one adult. Must have been a golf camp or something. I’m very happy all those kids are golfing but the starter wasn’t anywhere and the person at the front desk didn’t mention anything about waiting behind 12 kids learning how to golf. I’m no golf snob, but me and the person I was with can play at a pretty steady pace, and with no one in front of the kids why shouldn’t we jump ahead to hole #2 and start there.
Well just when we were about to jump to hole #2 the starter appears and gives us a hard time and big attitude, basically to the point where I had to ask for refund and to speak with the manager before they let us out ahead of the kids and just played out of order. That starter and the person behind the desk are the reason for the poor review.
The course is OK, your typical shorter open to the public course, probably a 3 star course. But the staff should have either communicated to me ahead of time that I’d have a golf camp in front of me, or were quick enough thinkers to just make the call to have us start on #2 without having to get into a verbal altercation with me. Either way I’ll stick to the other courses in the area that aren’t run so poorly.

Attractive course. Annoying group of people zig-​zagging through the greens and replaying holes.

Played there this past week for the first time. Complete goat/​dog/​pick your animal track. I booked through EZLinks, thanks to Mark W.‘s recommendation. No need to ever pay full price here. EZLinks has tee times at 9:30 and 1:30 everyday for ~50% off.
So what was wrong with the place? Completely baked fairways. Maybe they were 50% grass. Greens were SLOW, ball marks everywhere, and on one green, the mower completely missed ¹⁄₃ of the green… FOR DAYS!
So why 2 and not 1 star? A couple of reasons. The staff was nice to me, beyond what I’d expect at a muni course. And I played a pretty quick round. After 2 holes though, I understood why no one was out there on a picture perfect day.
Oh…AND…AND…I wondered how Mark W. and others could say such great things about this place. Took me about 2 seconds to figure it out… MARK W. WORKS THERE! He’s is a senior guy for Billy Casper Golf, which manages all the Chicago area muni courses. Way to Go Mark. You got some free advertising. Thanks for being so transparent with your audience.

First, I’m almost tempted to give this place a bad review so I can have it more to myself.
I am definitely not a good golfer. I wouldn’t even call myself a golfer. I’d consider myself an asshole who has golf clubs and wastes people’s time at golf courses.
That being said, I’m pretty insecure. Not only did I somehow botch my tee time and think it was 3 hours later than it was, but this place looked WAY too nice for a horrible time-​wasting beginner like myself. But they actually accommodated me and gave me a new tee time without double charging, and more importantly, the course manager (and players) were absolutely above and beyond patient with our lack of experience.
But the course, wow! The last time I golfed on a city course was the early 90’s as a teenager, and I remember them being laughable even to a beginner. This course played great and I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that it had just been bought from a country club.
The prices are jaw droopingly low. $ 14 for 9 holes. A few more bucks for a cart rental (which was brand new and ran silently). The pro shop is well stocked and I believe they rent clubs as well.
All in all, even for a timid, don’t-know-wtf-I’m-doing golfer, this place made for a great day of horrible playing. The staff was incredibly friendly and the prices are unbelievable.

Currently my favorite Chicago Park District golf course. Excellent 9-​hole course with a good mix of par 3’s and 4’s and a massive (at least for me) par 5 on the first hole that will give you good reason to bust out your driver. Difficulty is reasonable for the average player while beginners might find things a bit too tough at certain holes. No water on any of the holes but the sand traps were pretty daunting.
The upkeep is pretty decent for a Chicago Park District course — much better than the divots-​filled mess at Marovitz. Greens fees are roughly $ 18 on the weekends, including that annoying $ 1 reservation charge for booking a tee time online. Pull carts can be rented for $ 3 — definitely worth it in my opinion.