Hole #12 East Nine

Getting To Know: Arrowhead Golf Club

An Insightful Interview With Andrew Ogata, PGA, Head Golf Professional

By Brian Weis

Whether you have played a course 20+ times a year or looking to play the course for the first time, insights from an insider can help enhance your golf experience. Below is an interview with Andrew Ogata, PGA who shares some valuable tidbits about the course, memorable holes and must eats and treats at the 19th.

Give Our Readers An Overview of the Golf Course/Property
People should choose to spend their day with us for many reasons. Arrowhead provides the golfer with the feel of a private country club without the cost of expensive monthly or annual dues.

We are blessed to have a property without houses, surrounded by lush, full-grown trees. This gives the golfer a sense of being out in the countryside. Our greens are well kept. The golf staff works tirelessly each day to ensure that customers feel welcome, and that Arrowhead is a place they can call their home.

If Someone Was Looking To Golf In The Area, Why Should They Play Your Course?
Since it's historic opening in 1926, Arrowhead Golf Club continues to offer a superb golf experience. The challenging Ken Killian design (Greg Martin redesign) is composed of three nine-hole courses that can be combined to form three separate par 72 18-hole layouts. Arrowhead treats golfers and guests as if they are members of a private club and is known to be one of the finest municipal courses in the Chicago area.

The course is meticulously manicured and surrounded by forest preserve with no houses in play. Tees, greens and fairways are bentgrass. Water comes into play on 17 of the 27 holes and 77 bunkers dot the landscape. The practice area consists of a lighted driving range, putting green, chipping green and bunkers.

What Tips or Local Knowledge Would You Provide To Help Them Score Better At Your Course?
Each hole is designed to be fair when playing from the proper tee box. Greens are among the best greens you can play in the Midwest. I make sure to tell anyone who has not played Arrowhead before to be sure to stay below the pin when possible. The last thing you want to do is to be putting down hill and potentially cost yourself a shot or two when that could be avoided. Any of our regular customers would agree with that advice.

Any recent changes to the golf course? Or any upcoming changes?
Other than the normal routine maintenance, we do not anticipate any big changes to Arrowhead.

What Is The Signature, Most Talked About, or Most Photographed Hole?
Hole #7 on the West nine is an amazing par three over water.

Must Have Dish or Drink after the round at the 19th Hole?
It hard to pick one thing that you must try once your round is complete, but if I venture down to the restaurant and enjoy one of many items on offer. I would choose the Harvester Chop Salad. Arrowhead's bar and grill is filled with endless items that will leave you wishing you had more room to try something else. Arrowhead Restaurant and Bar specializes in offering guests only the finest, seasonal ingredients in its cuisine. Everything is prepared from scratch and our main entrees offer only the freshest fish, steak, chops and salads. In order to take advantage of using only the best quality and in-season fruits, vegetables and fish, Main Menu items change twice a year and a Features Menu is offered twice a month including appetizers, entrees and desserts.

More Information
Arrowhead Golf Club
26W151 Butterfield Road
Wheaton, IL, 60189
630-653-5800
http://arrowheadgolfclub.org/

More Information »

Revised: 03/15/2022 - Article Viewed 3,186 Times - View Course Profile

About: Brian Weis

Brian Weis is the mastermind behind GolfTrips.com, a vast network of golf travel and directory sites covering everything from the rolling fairways of Wisconsin to the sunbaked desert layouts of Arizona. If there’s a golf destination worth visiting, chances are, Brian has written about it, played it, or at the very least, found a way to justify a "business trip" there.

As a card-carrying member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA), International Network of Golf (ING), Golf Travel Writers of America (GTWA), International Golf Travel Writers Association (IGTWA), and The Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG), Brian has the credentials to prove that talking about golf is his full-time job. In 2016, his peers even handed him The Shaheen Cup, a prestigious award in golf travel writing—essentially the Masters green jacket for guys who don’t hit the range but still know where the best 19th holes are.

Brian’s love for golf goes way back. As a kid, he competed in junior and high school golf, only to realize that his dreams of a college golf scholarship had about the same odds as a 30-handicap making a hole-in-one. Instead, he took the more practical route—working on the West Bend Country Club grounds crew to fund his University of Wisconsin education. Little did he know that mowing greens and fixing divots would one day lead to a career writing about the best courses on the planet.

In 2004, Brian turned his golf passion into a business, launching GolfWisconsin.com. Three years later, he expanded his vision, and GolfTrips.com was born—a one-stop shop for golf travel junkies looking for their next tee time. Today, his empire spans all 50 states, and 20+ international destinations.

On the course, Brian is a weekend warrior who oscillates between a 5 and 9 handicap, depending on how much he's been traveling (or how generous he’s feeling with his scorecard). His signature move" A high, soft fade that his playing partners affectionately (or not-so-affectionately) call "The Weis Slice." But when he catches one clean, his 300+ yard drives remind everyone that while he may write about golf for a living, he can still send a ball into the next zip code with the best of them.

Whether he’s hunting down the best public courses, digging up hidden gems, or simply outdriving his buddies, Brian Weis is living proof that golf is more than a game—it’s a way of life.