Best Golf Courses in Lake Geneva & Kenosha

Lake Geneva is the short Wisconsin golf trip. Geneva National puts O'Hare 76 miles from town, close enough for a long day but better as an overnight. Two resorts hold five full-length courses between them, two at Grand Geneva and three at Geneva National, and Kenosha County adds a 45-hole public complex and a private Donald Ross course. This guide is for Chicago golfers who want a Wisconsin weekend without the longer drive to Kohler, sorted by who can actually get on. The lake resorts sit in the Golf Trips from Chicago region; the Kenosha courses have their own hub at Kenosha.

Grand Geneva

Grand Geneva Resort runs two championship courses, both public, plus Wee Nip, an 11-hole short course by Dusenberry Design. Tee times are taken online only, and both 18s are played from a cart. The resort's past is part of its golf: Hugh Hefner chose the property in 1968 for a Playboy Club hotel, Playboy sold it in 1981, and after two foreclosures the Marcus Corporation took over in 1993 and revived it with golf at the center of the plan.

The Brute

Robert Bruce Harris built the Brute in the Playboy years, and Dave Hallenbeck, the resort's longtime director of golf, said in 2017 that Playboy wanted big greens, big bunkers and length. It got all three: 7,029 yards from the Blue tees (74.3 rating, 141 slope), 68 bunkers, and greens that average more than 8,000 square feet. Most of those greens are raised and many are crowned, which is where the name is earned: the resort itself warns about downhill putts and hard two-putts. Elevated tees, sloping tree-lined fairways and the White River, which crosses several holes, add the rest. Carts are mandatory.

The Highlands

The Highlands began as the Briar Patch, a Pete Dye and Jack Nicklaus design, before Bob Cupp transformed it in 1996. Golf Channel has reported later work by Bob Lohmann, and the 2nd hole, Forgotten Briar, nods to the old name. The resort bills it as Scottish-inspired and links-style, though the ground is hilly and glacier-formed, with creeks, ravines and tree-lined corners. It is the shorter card, a par 71 of 6,625 yards from the Blue tees (72.0 rating, 131 slope). Its short par 4s can call for anything from driver to hybrid, long hitters may need to leave the driver in the bag to stay short of bunkers, and the greens do most of the defending, with false fronts on the 5th, 12th, 16th and 18th and tiers on the 5th, 10th and 15th. GPS carts are required.

The Brute rewards power and the Highlands rewards position. A two-day stay should include both.

Geneva National

Geneva National is semi-private. Its three courses, by Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Lee Trevino, share a 1,600-acre site at the west end of Lake Como, but one of them is reserved for members six days a week, and the member course rotates through all three. Golfers who are not staying at the resort can book by phone or online up to 60 days before the date of play, so check which course is open on your date before planning around one. Walking is allowed: riding is optional on the Palmer, and GPS carts come included but are not required on the Player and the Trevino.

Palmer Course

The Palmer was Arnold Palmer's first Wisconsin design and opened with the Trevino in 1991. It is the upland course, routed through woods, streams and ravines on ground that rises some 300 feet above the Lake Como shore. The closing stretch runs down to the lake, and the resort says Palmer put the par-5 17th, played along the shoreline, in his personal Dream 18. It measures 7,083 yards with a 74.5 rating and 134 slope. It is also the only Geneva National course on Golfweek's 2026 Best Courses You Can Play list for Wisconsin, at No. 15. With one round here, make it this one.

Player Course

The Player is the only Gary Player course in Wisconsin, the club says. Nine holes opened in 1995, and Player returned in 2000 to finish the 18. It runs through woodland and wetland, with water in play on only five holes and Lake Como in view on many, and the card is unusual: five par 5s and five par 3s inside a par of 72. Its 143 slope from the Black tees is the steepest of the three, and Quintessential Golf rates it the most challenging, noting that the tee shots usually find room and the test comes on the approach. It plays 6,859 yards.

Trevino Course

The Trevino is built around its designer's fade, with subtle dogleg-rights on nearly every par 4 and par 5. A 2024 renovation led by Craig Haltom of Oliphant Golf Management widened a pinched landing area on the 14th and improved the view into the 11th green, with more room to run the ball in. It hosted the 2019 Wisconsin State Open, and the WIAA state boys championship is scheduled there for June 2027. From the Black tees it is 6,996 yards with a 132 slope, the gentlest of the three on paper. Golfers who curve it left to right will feel at home.

Kenosha County: Brighton Dale Links

Kenosha County runs Brighton Dale Links in Kansasville as a 45-hole public complex beside the Richard Bong State Recreation Area: two 18s plus Red Pines, a nine, all bookable online. This is county golf rather than a resort, and the two 18s are worth the stop. Soft spikes are required and denim is allowed.

White Birch

White Birch is Ed Ault's original 18 from 1972 and the longest course at Brighton Dale, 7,012 yards from the Blue tees with a 73.3 rating and 132 slope. The length turns up in odd places: none of its par 4s runs longer than 424 yards from the Blues, while the 12th is a 279-yard par 3. Todd Quitno and Golf Creations renovated its bunkers and drainage in 2018. Only county carts may be used.

Blue Spruce

Blue Spruce, Steven Halberg's 18 from the early 1990s, is the only course at Brighton Dale not designed by Ault. It plays 6,687 yards from the Blue tees (72.1 rating, 130 slope) with four par 5s and four par 3s, and the par 5s carry the difficulty: the 574-yard 5th and the 604-yard 15th are the two hardest holes by handicap. Golf Course Architecture reported in May 2026 that Quitno and Golf Creations hoped to renovate its bunkers, tees and drainage, subject to a public bid.

The private club

Kenosha Country Club is private, for members and their guests only, with no public tee times. Its course is a 1922 Donald Ross design along the Pike River, one of only two Ross courses in Wisconsin according to Drew Rogers, the architect who has guided its restoration since the mid-2010s. Golf Digest ranks it No. 22 in Wisconsin (2025-26).

When to go

The Wisconsin resort season runs roughly May through October. Check each course's own dates before a spring or late-fall trip, and see When to Golf in Chicago for the wider calendar.

How to book

• Grand Geneva: online only, through the resort.
• Geneva National: by phone or online, up to 60 days ahead if you are not a resort guest. Check which course is on the member rotation for your date.
• Brighton Dale Links: online, through the county complex's own site.
• Kenosha Country Club: members and their guests only.

Each course page here links to its own booking. We don't sell tee times. For a bigger Wisconsin trip, see Kohler Golf: Whistling Straits & Blackwolf Run and the comparison in Wisconsin Golf Trips from Chicago.