Golf in Lakewood

Lakewood is a village in McHenry County, set near Crystal Lake in Chicago's northwest exurbs. The wooded, water-laced terrain of the Fox River valley defines the surrounding country, where former farmland has shifted toward low-density residential use. Lakewood developed as a quiet, spacious community that has kept a measure of its rural character even as neighboring towns grew busier. Its setting amid woodland and small waterways gives it a leafy, open feel distinct from the denser suburbs to the east. Golf is a notable presence here, with more than one course occupying the gently shaped ground of the Fox River valley. For golfers, Lakewood offers rounds within a part of McHenry County that has balanced residential growth with the woods and water that shaped its setting, in one of the greener corners of the northwest exurbs.