All-in-all, I love this course! Probably my favorite course within an hour of Hannibal. It is, first of all, a beautiful course to play, it weaves in and out of the woods surrounding the lake.
The design uses the woods and the water very well. The design uses open into wooded holes well and vice versa. There are also fully wooded holes. Very few holes are just open, which I liked. Water is also used well, once you get to hole 8, you'll be close to water most of the rest of the course.
It is a fairly technical course, with almost every hole having water, trees, or both to avoid. The fairways are generally fairly tight, but none of them felt impossible to get through even in the woods. There were probably more backhand lines, but the lines are all fairly straightforward. The technicality comes with some elevation changes, and the tree and water obstacles/hazards.
This will be in both the pros and cons - Many of the holes had longs and shorts. Some had 3 potential basket placements. If they can get these consistently placed on either longs or shorts for each hole, that would be amazing. The way they're placed, though, was more a con than anything.
The course is well-maintained, they were mowing it as I started my round. They mow fairways for all the open holes, the fairways aren't all that wide so if you don't hit it you will throw your next shot from pretty tall grass.
The signs are pretty accurate to show the line and baket placement. There are just a couple holes that are difficult to find.

Hole 6 didn't have a basket in either the short or long. That's definitely an issue lol. I was excited to play this hole too, it was a longer one through the woods that ends close to water. So that needs to be fixed.

They need to have the baskets on a consistent basket for each hole, whether long or short. A lot of the holes are blind drives where you can't see the basket on the drive. I had to walk up at least 200 ft sometimes to see which basket was being used, because sometimes it was placed on the long basket, sometimes it was on the short. There wasn't any consistency in this. So they either need to place the baskets on a consistent path or put baskets in both the long and short locations.

The gnats/bugs are awful. I don't put that under the con section because you kinda have to expect a wooded course on a lake to have lots of bugs, but just be aware. The gnats were genuinely horrendous, even if I'd put big spray on I don't think it would've done anything.
I'm a very average player, so can say that a few holes, especially hole 12, are very likely to have lost discs on. Hole 12 has water all around it, and I missed the layup thus losing a disc. Be aware if you're not a very experienced player.

Lake Pittsfield DGC is truly a hidden gem of central IL. It's out in the middle of nowhere, which probably plays a part of that. It appears that the locals really love this course. And that shows with the condition of the course and the upgrades that have been made since the last review 2 years ago. The word on the street is that they plan on installing a second 18 hole course as well.

The course plays up and down some light hills for many of the holes away from the lake. The water can come into play on numerous holes playing so close to the lake. There's three water carries and the others would require a bad kick or mistake on your part to really come into play. Very nice design by Dave McCormack here. The course flows nicely for the most part. There's next tee arrows on every sign too to further aid with navigation. No long walks between holes and the course starts and ends right by the parking area.

There's now 2 Gateway Titan baskets on EVERY hole. This is always awesome to see and really ups the replay value. The baskets are all mounted nice and level and catch pretty darn good. Better than I remembered them catching actually. No complaints with these.

There's a good mix of open and wooded, many holes feature a combination of each. The wooded holes are generally on the shorter side with the more open holes being a touch longer it seemed. Every hole had a fair line to the pin, some even had multiple options, but the wooded lines are pretty tight in spots. Fair but challenging.

The tee signs are pretty nice. They feature a basic hole map, hole #, par and distances for both the "A" and "B" pin positions from either set of tees. All the info you could really ask for on these. In addition to that they have the hole sponsors info and next tee arrows. Really nicely done with these.

There's two tees on each hole apparently. The white tees on the tee signs are the concrete ones. The other (blue) tees looked to be painted blocks in the ground.

The grounds were in great shape on our visit. Grass mowed, fairways cleared and just clean all around. Beautiful views of the lake throughout the course too, which is a rare thing in IL as far as I've seen.

The two baskets on each hole is awesome. The one bad thing is a lot of the holes don't have too much variance between the two positions. It's still better than single baskets, but maybe moving a few a bit back or to the side one way or the other would spice it up a bit. Not on all the holes, just a few of them.

The course is called a "Championship" caliber course. I wouldn't go that far. I'm a pretty middling player and finished -2 playing the short pins. I don't imagine I'd have been too much over that, if at all, playing the long pins. I had played Northwood Black earlier that morning. Comparing this course to a course like that is laughable. Championship caliber for the general vicinity I guess.

A little goofy finding a few of the next tees if you forget to check the map. Nothing major, but if you don't have a map available, try to remember to check the sign before heading up the fairway.

Bring bug spray. The mosquitoes weren't bad yet in early June, but my god were the gnats ridiculous. I'm not sure if bug spray works for gnats or not. But bring something that does work for them. I'd honestly rather deal with Mosquitoes than the gnat swarm out there. Not a con, just a warning since there's nothing that can be done about this.

This course was rated pretty high on here with only a handful of reviews so I wasn't sure what to expect necessarily. Boy was I pleased with this course. Such a fun layout that's not overly challenging. This is just a fun, beautiful course that I'd recommend to anyone.

Like I said above, it's kind of in the middle of nowhere. I you happen to be near here it's a must play. Without a doubt. I'd even go out of my way to visit this one again. I for sure will if they add a second course on site. When this course gets enough reviews it's going to be top ten in the state. Must play.

There are 18 holes, that are a fair mix of different looks. Some are quite open and some are heavily wooded. Usually it will have some of each. There are two tee pads on each hole and two pin locations. The signs are nice and there is a hole for each pin that will have a zip tie or flag to indicate which pin is in play. The white tees are turf and the blue are natural. It is on the lake, but the water is only a minor hazard.

There is a good course map on the kiosk. Layout is pretty close to converging 9's, so you can stop at your vehicle for refreshments halfway through. Port-o-potty in the parking lot can be useful. Clean and stocked with paper. I played the course a day or two after significant rainfall and there was little standing water, so it drains well. The grass was well manicured.

I really liked holes 6, 10, 11 and 17 a lot. 8 is along the waters edge and a ricochet or turning over too much could be dangerous. 12 short is a mid range over the water that could be tough if the wind is blowing. 14 also plays toward the lake.

Blind tees on a few holes make it hard for a first time visitor to place drives without walking the hole first. On holes 3, 5, 8, 10, 17 and 18 I was winging it and hoping it would work out, and it was ok most of the time. The turf pads are ok, but not perfect. The long tees were rough, and some of them didn't offer a great line. Concrete tees would be a nice upgrade.

It had been raining cats and dogs the week before I visited. The only puddles were in the grass in the middle of hole 9. Not much elevation at all, but you can only use what is there.

Lake Pittsfield is out of the way, but worth a trip if you want to play another quality track. I shot a 60 from the white tees on my first and only round, and felt pretty good about it. Hole 10 was the only hole that really beat me up. Blew an easy birdie putt on 11.

The course map is pretty good, I would take a quick pic for reference.

I saw there were no pictures so I ventured up to this course hoping it would be nice and I wasn't disappointed. I added all the pictures so more folks can see how nice the course is an go throw it.

New course that has opened on Beautiful Lake Pittsfield.
This course has some McCormack design staples with tight fairways, baskets tucked into the woods and excellent Gateway baskets.

The Hole design here is some of the best stuff I've seen from Gateway recently considering the majority of the course is sandwiched into and out of the woods running right next to the Lake.

Use of water hazards. This course plays around a lake and yet the designers have found great ways to incorporate water hazards and punish shots that hyzer to quickly. There are throws across water, backhand hyzers over water, forehands hyzers over water, one shot that plays downhill with the threat of water should you misjudge the distance. Check out the pictures I added and see.

The woods! For a course right on a lake there are some very technical woods shots here. In fact, the majority of the shots are such. You really need to be able to control flex lines to approach some of these pins. Its nice to see a course utilize the woods fairly for being such a new course. Usually a course takes a while to beat in should you go off the fairway however this course had a lot of the underbrush cleared and it really allows you to attack the pin.

I really enjoyed this course and only have a couple things that I didn't like.

1. Holes 7/8 These 2 holes play on a camp road/access road and very close to what appear to be campsites. It would be very easy to hit a camper on Hole 7 if someone is camped there.

2. Blue pads. Like other McCormack designed courses the blue tee is just that a tee. there is no pad. This is a real bummer as natural pads on the more technical/longer throw make the blues a real challenge. Think Konarcik Park or Quail Ridge level from the blues.

3. Turf pads. The turf is good now however this is definitely the same upcycled soccer/football field turf used on some other Gateway designs. I'm sure its an inexpensive option and it may be fine for this course as it is quite remote. If more folks find out about this course then the turf will wear in.

I really hope this course is maintained well. It had freshly
mowed fairways and trees that were properly pruned in the woods. It does seem like a course that, if not played enough, course get out of hand without upkeep.

Go find this course and throw it! I believe the city of Pittsfield had the course built to attract folks to the area and not just to stick some course in.

This course is really nice. It isn't the easiest to get to, but luckily it is located on a nice lake and you can camp on site making for a fun weekend trip.

FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS LISTED HERE TO LOCATE THE COURSE. DO NOT USE GOOGLE AS IT WILL TAKE YOU TO THE CENTER OF THE CITY ABOUT 6 MILES FROM THE COURSE.

Also, be aware that if you use Sprint/Boost or any cell company that uses their towers you will have no data and be on roaming at this course and in the city of Pittsfield. So download directions/take a screenshot ahead of time.

Reviewer Final Note. RIP to one of my favorite discs on Hole 12. I haven't lost a disc in water in over 2 years.