Harborside International

Harborside International Golf Center is one of golf's great reclamation stories, built on the Lake Calumet lakefront south of downtown Chicago atop a former landfill and slag site that architect Dick Nugent bluntly called the pits. Capped with clay and reshaped into sweeping dunes, the property opened its Port Course in 1995 and the companion Starboard Course in 1996. Both are treeless, links-inspired layouts where manmade mounding, deep bunkers, and prairie grasses channel the wind off the nearby waterways. A massive practice range and clubhouse anchor the 36-hole public facility. Regularly ranked among the area's top daily-fee experiences, Harborside proves that vision and engineering can turn an environmental liability into rugged, windswept golf with genuine seaside character far from any ocean.