Greater Joliet Golf Hole of the Month: No. 15 at Woodruff

A six-foot climb from the front of the green to the back keeps people talking about the 15th hole at Woodruff Golf Course, one of three Joliet Park District layouts.

And keeps them coming back for more—from one generation to the next.

“Oh, yeah, it’s a definite severe slope,” said Woodruff Golf Course Manager Kirk Blakney. “There are times—especially when it’s the summertime and the ground is a little harder—when it’s virtually impossible to stop a ball from above the hole.

“You see guys come out and play—and when they play the hole, they actually have to hit extra putts, extra chips and things like that, just to have fun and see if it’s possible to stop a ball. And, undoubtedly, they figure out they can’t.”

The 15th hole at Woodruff is a par-4 that plays to 371 yards from the back tee box. There is a narrow landing space in the fairway, which is guarded by trees on both sides, and then it’s over a creek and uphill all the way to the green.

Fifteen is rated as the No. 7 handicap hole at Woodruff, a blast-from-the-past type of course that calls more for accuracy than big hits. The front nine often is viewed as a warmup for the real action—which comes on the back side of the tight layout.

“The back nine—there’s nothing else like it around,” Blakney said. “The front nine is tree-lined and it’s definitely a challenge. But guys make the turn to the back and sometimes, if they haven’t played the course, they really don’t know what’s hit them.

“Right from 10, where you’ve got a fairly tight fairway to hit on a relatively short hole, and then you go to 11, which is one of the most demanding holes you can imagine. And it just doesn’t let up. You get to 12 and you’re teeing off a cliff through a shoot of trees and you’ve got doglegs and then you get to 15 and you’ve got a green with six-feet of slope, at least, from front-to-back.

Previously Featured

JUNE: No. 2 at Inwood