At Bunker Hill Farms, your all-inclusive keep means your group is the one one on property, and the itinerary is totally as much as you.
Courtesy images (3)/Backside left: Josh Berhow
It was the dreaded stroll of disgrace. You’ve been there; all of us have. You waltz as much as the inexperienced with a wedge and a putter — your penalty for lacking the placing floor from the green — and return to the cart a couple of minutes later solely to understand you forgot that wedge on the perimeter.
Irritated, I muttered to myself, then did that little golf jog again as much as the inexperienced, making it seem like I used to be hustling however actually solely transferring at a fast-walk tempo. I scooped up my 54 and regarded again down the green, hoping to not delay the following group. However then I remembered: No group was behind us. On any gap. The course was ours for the day.
Come to consider it, we had run of the entire property — the homes, the ATVs, the lake, the fishing, the jacuzzi, the skeet taking pictures, the health middle and the bar cart. Heck, even the chef was right here just for us.
Certain, perhaps you’ve heard of lavish resorts which have golf plus an extended listing of actions to maintain you busy, however have you ever ever been to at least one that’s all-inclusive and the place your group is the solely one on-site? Yep, your personal personal resort.
Welcome to Bunker Hill Farms, the place luxurious retreats meet blissful seclusion — and the itinerary is totally as much as you.
A day earlier than we teed it up, we pulled into the gated driveway at Bunker Hill Farms in Woodstock, Unwell., about 60 miles northwest of downtown Chicago. An hour later, we had been rumbling down distant ATV trails, kicking up leaves and questioning if this was already one of the vital enjoyable golf journeys we had ever been on (with out even having performed golf but).
The ATV rides are how many of the stays right here start. It’s the proper option to see the 450-acre property and find out about its buildings and historical past. Plus, have you ever ever pushed model new ATVs earlier than? They. Are. A. Blast.
Our first cease on the path was on prime of a artifical hill. We hopped off and climbed stairs to achieve the best level of the property. Right here, we discovered extra about Bunker Hill Farms and the way proprietor Mike Domek and his spouse, Amy, purchased the land in 2005 to show it right into a trip spot for his or her household. It’s continued to evolve since.
Domek acquired a nursery — about 40,000 timber — to replant on the land and dug lakes, which are actually stocked with perch, walleye, trout and bass. The golf course was constructed and opened in 2010, and the 7,300-square-foot lodge was accomplished in 2012. Three years later, the homeowners purchased an extra 250 acres and based non-profit Bunker Hill Charities. In 2017, they expanded throughout the highway and constructed the spa silo, spa backyard and an occasion venue with visitor lofts. In 2018 they added the taking pictures pavilion and a 12 months later the six-bedroom cottage. What initially began as 150 acres is now thrice that dimension.
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For years, Bunker Hill Farms was hardly publicized, accessed by way of invite-only and largely utilized by celebrities or the well-connected. Even individuals within the small neighboring cities barely comprehend it exists. However when the Covid 19 pandemic hit, organizers determined to pivot and open the property to the general public. Enterprise boomed. It’s now used for buddies’ journeys, company outings, {couples}’ getaways, household retreats and weddings. For something, actually — a gaggle lately rented it out to play Dungeons & Dragons.
All proceeds go to Bunker Hill Charities, which has granted greater than $2 million to 70-plus companies in the local people. A lot of that cash is generated by two of their annual fund-raisers, their Rockin’ the Hill and Songwriters’ Live performance. Steven Tyler, Tyler Hubbard and Styx are just some of the musical acts who’ve stayed and performed right here. The partitions of the 2 properties are plastered with signed guitars and images of different musicians who’ve additionally hung out on property.
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It’s an eight-person minimal in your keep, and the property has 13 visitor rooms. The harm is roughly $1,150 an individual per day, and that will get you every little thing — limitless meals and drinks, a private chef, your personal golf course, ATVs, skeet taking pictures, luxurious lodging and principally anything you wish to do. The most effective half? Your solely different firm is a few staffers who’re round through the day and devoted to creating positive your keep is as straightforward and memorable as potential, doing every little thing from operating out to purchase one thing you could have forgotten or repair you a drink. That makes it a really distinctive, customizable, all-inclusive luxurious expertise.
The cottage has six bedrooms, a health middle, leisure space, an expansive out of doors seating space (and fireside) in addition to a screened-in porch larger than most New York Metropolis flats. The lodge throughout the road has 4 bedrooms, a jacuzzi, lakes, seashores and the golf course. Neither house skimped on the wonderful particulars.
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Our first day we rode ATVs after which munched on appetizers and sipped on drinks within the outdated open-air Binz Dairy Farm barn subsequent to the cottage. That house has been reworked right into a serene out of doors oasis, with operating water, vegetation, flowers and music of your selection (we went with Chris Stapleton) pumping by the hidden audio system.
The barn was additionally the location of our first dinner, which was a heavenly four-course meal ready by the resort’s chef, Mario Scordato.
Scordato began his personal pasta firm and teaches cooking lessons, however his main gig is at Bunker Hill Farms, the place he makes visitors mouthwatering lunches and dinners. He’s a wizard who focuses on native, natural and seasonal and can make you allow desperately lacking his sweet-corn risotto and booze-infused fruit.
The subsequent morning (our solely full day on-site) started with a light-weight breakfast earlier than we walked a pair tons of yards to the taking pictures pavilion, the place their skilled had us taking turns firing at clay pigeons and targets unfold out throughout the vary. In fact, you don’t have to do that. There’s additionally yoga and a spa and a pontoon and paddle boards and kayaks and climbing and horseback driving and, for a slight improve, even helicopter excursions and hot-air balloon rides.
Josh Berhow
After a fast lunch — pork tenderloin! (when is that ever served for lunch?!) — we shuttled over to the opposite facet of the property for our tee time. Armed with a forecaddie, we stocked our carts with snacks and drinks and fishing poles as a result of, effectively, you by no means know once you would possibly wish to forged just a few, simply to say you probably did.
The course, designed by Harry Vignocchi, is an 18-hole par-72 that ideas out at 6,700 yards. It’s virtually hidden among the many property, and the reversible format — they name it “unorthodox” — makes use of eight greens, a number of the identical fairways and several other tee bins to create 18 totally different holes. One inexperienced — you’ll play it because the fifth, eighth and 14th holes — is guarded by water and a stone facade and performed from an island tee field. One other gap (the seventh) requires a semi-blind second shot right into a inexperienced the place the aiming level is simply off to the facet of a waterfall.
Josh Berhow
The greens are a number of the purest you’ll ever play. They get lower than 250 rounds a 12 months, which is roughly the quantity of visitors a preferred public course will get in a day. There’s a superintendent who has a workers of a few half-dozen who maintains your entire property, together with the course.
The liberty is intoxicating. There’s no starter or marshal to let you know to choose up the tempo or to cease taking part in as an eightsome. You’ll be able to play as few or as many holes as you need. Take a mulligan. Re-tee. Skip a gap. You’re the king of the course to do what you please.
After golf, we stayed on that facet of the property and rode ATVs once more (it was such a blast we didn’t get sufficient of it the primary time). Then we ate flatbreads, fished and swam out to the large inflatable in the midst of the lake like we had been youngsters once more. After a dip within the jacuzzi, our ultimate dinner Scordato served up was his do-it-yourself Bucatini and shrimp.
That night time we puffed on cigars which might be out there to visitors. We rookies had no thought if any of them had been any good — spoiler: they had been — however at Bunker Hill Farms, it feels proper to indulge.
