The Directory · Lake County
Lake County golf —
The Merit Club and Kemper Lakes.
North and west of the North Shore, Lake County mixes championship private clubs, among them The Merit Club (2000 U.S. Women's Open) and Kemper Lakes (1989 PGA Championship), with public golf at ThunderHawk, Stonewall Orchard and Shepherd's Crook.
7 courses · sorted by access & tier
The Region
Lake County golf courses, end to end.
Lake County sits north and west of the North Shore, and its best-known golf is private. Kemper Lakes in Kildeer, a 1979 Ken Killian and Dick Nugent course, hosted the 1989 PGA Championship before becoming a private club; The Merit Club, a golf-only club in Libertyville, held the 2000 U.S. Women's Open; Jack Nicklaus built Wynstone on the former W. Clement Stone estate; and Arthur Hills laid out Ivanhoe's three nines. The public courses are younger and well regarded. Hills's Stonewall Orchard in Grayslake, his first Illinois design and 30th in Golf Digest's 2025-26 state list, Robert Trent Jones Jr.'s ThunderHawk in Beach Park and Keith Foster's Shepherd's Crook, a Zion Park District course, all opened in 1999.
The Directory
The best golf courses in Lake County.
Ken Killian and Dick Nugent · Kildeer
Kemper Lakes Golf Club
Killian and Nugent's 1979 Kildeer course, host of the 1989 PGA Championship, now private.
Arthur Hills · Ivanhoe
Ivanhoe Club
Three Arthur Hills nines, Forest, Prairie and Marsh, at a private Lake County club.
Jack Nicklaus · North Barrington
The Club at Wynstone
Jack Nicklaus's private course on the former W. Clement Stone estate in North Barrington.
Bob Lohmann · Libertyville
The Merit Club
A golf-only private club in Libertyville that hosted the 2000 U.S. Women's Open.
Arthur Hills · Grayslake
Stonewall Orchard Golf Club
Arthur Hills' first Illinois design, a public course among mature pines, oaks and wetlands in Grayslake.
Keith Foster · Zion
Shepherd's Crook Golf Course
A Zion Park District links-style course by Keith Foster, drawn from golden-age design.
Robert Trent Jones Jr. · Beach Park
ThunderHawk Golf Club
Robert Trent Jones Jr.'s 1999 public course for the Lake County Forest Preserves in Beach Park.