Foundation Park Champ 18 is a challenging disc golf course in central-south Illinois, about an hour out of St. Louis. This course is the second highest rated course in Illinois according to DGCR, and will provide a fun secluded round for any disc golfer who makes the trip to play here.
Location of Centralia is an hour and 12 minutes from St. Louis, and a little ways off of interstates 57 and 64. While it may not be the most convenient course to get to, it makes up for its location by not being too crowded. I only ran into one other group during my solo round here, and while there were a few groups of people playing the two courses at Foundation Park while I was there, it was very light traffic on the courses for being such a nice day. There are gas stations and restaurants in town for whatever needs you have. There aren't too many courses close by if you're making a day of disc golf, but with a newer recreational 18 right next door to the champ 18, you can easily make a full day out of Foundation Park.
Park Amenities check all of the boxes for your day of disc golf. At the parking lot for the two courses, you will find a bathroom and water fountain, as well as a shelter. There are other bathrooms and water fountains around the park as well. Foundation park is actually a private park open to the public, and is very well maintained. In addition to the two disc golf courses, you will find plenty of nice features across the 300 acres of park land here, including plenty of hiking trails, an ice skating pond, a chapel in the woods, an outdoor amphitheater, restored prairie areas, and a labyrinth. This is a well taken care of and beloved park for the community, and you will see plenty of other park goers while you walk around. At the same time, the course does not overlap with other park uses.
Course Equipment at Centralia has an old school feel to it, but gets the job done nicely. The baskets at Titans, a staple for any course designed by Dave McCormack and Gateway Disc Sports. The baskets are in great shape, and have next tee directions in the baskets themselve, a great feature to have (especially when you catch on to this before hole 7). Each hole has 2 tees, with the shorts being concrete and the longs being marked by blue painted posts and ground markers. The tee signs include graphics of the hole layouts, tee and pin locations, and pars and distances, and what pin is in place. There are plenty of discrete trash cans and benches throughout the course as well. A fun feature on the tee signs are numerous ace shoutouts, which is a cool feature to see, and a great upgrade from the sharpie announcements of aces you see on other courses. Across from the Champ 18, you will also find a map of the two courses as well as the park as a whole by the other parking area.
Course Design at Foundation Park's Champ 18 makes the most out of a large chunk of land across the east side of the park. Pars can range from high 60s to low 70s depending on pin placements and the tees you play from, and the design of the course can make for a wide range of scores among your own group or a tournament. When playing from the concrete tees, you will find a mix of short and gettable par 3s, multiple difficult par 4s, and a couple of long par 5s. The course also makes some use of what elevation is present on the property, with a mix of downhill and uphill drives and approaches to go with the flatter holes on the course. In terms of fairway shapes, you will find a mix of right, left, and straight shots. All in all, this course will provide players with a bit of everything, requiring you to pull all the tricks out of your bag to have a successful round here.
Depending on your accuracy and how well you are placing drives, par can seem either forgiving or brutal on the Champ 18. Just about every par 4 and 5 on this course requires your second shot to land in a certain area to have a real shot at a birdie or par. With so many holes on the course requiring two well placed drives, you will not have much time to breathe after a good initial drive during your round. Hole 1 alone starts you off with a par 5 that has a small gap leading to circle 2, requiring you to avoid being blocked behind the trees and bushes in the fairway on your second shot. All of the different distances on the course are also spread out well, with the back 9 being longer than the front 9 while still including some shorter par 3s. As a RHBH dominant player, this course also called for many forehand drives during my round. Between the different distances and shapes of fairways on this course, you will not get bored during your round here. The variety of shots this course includes will test any player that comes to Centralia, and make for a very fun round of golf.
Course Difficulty will challenge newer players, especially with how rough the off-fairway areas can get. Newer players may want to go to the Rec-18 before taking on the Champ course. Intermediate players will likely be able to challenge for par, though any lack of accuracy will prove punishing. I managed to be a tad under par on my most recent round, but I could see how that score could have greatly fluctuated up or down depending on not only putting, but how well I was throwing my drives and approaches as well. Even experienced players should have a challenging round here, though those level of players will likely be able to get well below par.
Course Highlights for the Champ 18 may vary depending on the opinion of the player you ask. For me, hole 7 was a great design, with a landing zone just across a creek followed by a tight approach/drive to a small green. Hole 8 has a goal post tree that makes for one of the most fun natural obstacles I have seen on a course, rivaling the Y tree at Idlewild. Both par 5s at holes 1 and 12 are open with obstacles at different stages of each hole, with two long accurate drives being required to get a birdie look.