Great new course in Marion.

Let me start this off with "I love city park courses". I love the use of mature trees as obstacles, the elevation changes that may be there, how they wind around ball fields, creeks, and anything else the park has to offer. That said, this course did not disappoint.

Two sets of tee pads, two potential basket placements, great signage and flow, use of lots of mature trees and elevation.

Numerous memorable holes:
#1 Line of trees on left side of fairway with basket tucked in.
#2 and #3 Creek flowing on the left side of the fairway.
#4 Dog leg left after clearing a tunnel of vegetation about 80 feet out
#'s 6, 7, 9, 11 and 12 either solid tree protection or low hanging fairway branches
#17 down into a valley and
#18 back up the hill across the marsh

Holes 14 and 15 were under water due to recent rains... locals said that next step of development was to add drainage to that area....

No concrete pads. While tee areas weren't bad, they may be come so over time without the concrete pads.

Through the first 13 holes, was ready to rate this as a "4".... then hit the under water holes as well as the last three that were just ok....

This was course #3 of a 6 course trip through So. Illinois and was by far the best of the group. Couple of Mt Vernon players told me about this new course which altered my agenda for the day. So glad they did!!

Would like to revisit same time next year and see what improvements are made. Add concrete pads and clean up the marshy areas... Has 4+ potential written all over it..

Even as it is now, definitely worth the stop!!