It has length and a few decent holes

Little originality It also stays wet for a very long time after the rain has stopped. There is a large field you walk through that just splashes mudwater on you for many days after a decent rain, no matter how much sun. It's not that fun and it's a tiring course.

There is some potential, but I find it largely a waste of time. My friends kind of like it, cool if you live close I guess, but I'm over 30 mins away

Beautiful, clean park. 19 playable holes. Good tee signs and next tee indicators. All baskets present and in good condition. Good clean tee pads of sufficient size. Ample parking. Flow from basket to tee is easy to figure out. A few signs where needed to point the way. Walk between basket and tee is a bit far on some, but do not complain about walking if you are out playing DG. Park crowd was light on a weekday in the middle of the day. On a weekend and in the summer I am sure there is some crossover and interference with others playing other games.

No benches at any of the tees. Not a single garbage can anywhere on the course. Kudos to the locals as there is ZERO trash here. Holes are totally devoid of any inspiration. Zero thought was put into where baskets are placed. All holes are just point and shoot. All holes play straight away. Holes are well laid out through this park so as to offer a good mid length course, but with a little thought as to basket placement this could be a MUCH better course. Normally a nice 18 hole course in a nice neighborhood park would earn a 4... but basket placement cost this one a point and a half. Tee signs show alt tee pads... but I did not see a single one anywhere on the course.

Overall very playable, very fun, mid length. I could see this become a MUCH better course with just a bit of creative basket placement and at the same time some variation in hole length. I would gladly see 6 of the 18 holes get shorter if the trade off was that they got more interesting/challenging with some hyzer and some annie placements. The sweet spot on this course is 14, 15, 16, 17 where the trees are finally used to some interesting impact on play. 6 could also be great if the basket was moved up and moved over for either a great hyzer or an annie as well.

Madison Meadows is an 19-hole course with some nice driving holes surrounded by a sea of 9-hole pitch and putts, so when you are in the area it ranks fairly high on the list of disc golf options in Chicago. It uses a variety of distances to distinguish the holes, so you have to mix up your shot selection off the tee. The course has concrete tee pads (reds) and longer natural tees (blues) that are fairly easy to find. The course has good signage; there are tee signs with hole maps and distances, and there are signs directing you to the next tee on the holes with long walks between them that help with navigation. There is a lake in the park that can come into play on #3 and #19.

This course is guilty of my # 1 course design pet peeve in that they have crammed a disc golf course in a heavily used park where it does not fit. A number of the holes run up along baseball fields, football fields, walking paths and roads where errant shots create safety issues for other park users. In several spots like #8-#9 and #4-#12 the holes are too close together, creating a safety issue with other disc golfers. You really have to keep it in the fairway at this course, which is easier said than done because from a disc golf perspective there is no penalty for being out of the fairway. The course is flat and lightly wooded, so you can pretty much take any route to the hole that you want. The course encourages players to disc up and throw for distance, which are exactly the shots that are most likely to fly off course and create problems with other park users. The combination of these two factor makes Madison Meadows a problem waiting to happen.

Shot for shot, Madison Meadows is probably a better course than I have rated it. If you get out early in the morning or on a weekday, it can be a fun round with chances to air out a few drives. However, when the park is crowded the course simply creates too many conflicts with other park uses for me to recommend it to others.

- Course is set in a very large park that makes great use of the available terrain. Most of the holes are more or less open, but there a few tricky ones as well.
- Majority of the holes use a wide range of trees, from large pines to small saplings to force a variety of lines. For the most part, a straight shot is the best option, though there are a few tricky shots here and there. #5 has large pines that protect the basket from the right, and #1 is a short but sharp dogleg left.
- Other holes use a denser forest to make tough lines. There is a small forested area in play on some later holes, like #15 and #16. #15 has a tree-filled fairway, going over is the best option. #16 is a small tunnel shot, plenty of pinball potential.
- A small pond is in play on a couple holes, like #2, #13, and the water side of #19. It is close enough to the fairway to alter a typical line, which is nice to have.
- A wide range of hole lengths, from very short to very long are present at this course. Between the varying hole lengths, the different kind of trees, and some water, there are a lot of different shots.
- Some minor elevation changes on #17 and #18, going up and down a smaller slope. Compared to the rest of the course, it is very noticeable, but nothing too crazy.
- Good baskets, teepads, and signage. Easy to navigate and find everything, with the exception of #19 perhaps.

- Number one problem with this course is the number of non-disc golf activities that go on. There are football fields, baseball fields, walking paths, gazebos, and even some roads at the edges. Normally, the walking path is the only thing to look out for, but the other things are a big distraction and could potentially be in the way.
- This course is as flat as they come, with only a couple holes with any slope what-so-ever. Add in the fact that there is zero rough, and it really is a very beginner-friendly course without much challenge. I think for most people the only issue is some of the hole lengths, or the odd tree here and there.

- Like I said, a very beginner friendly course that will offer almost no challenge to a seasoned player. There are a few tougher holes, like #5 and #11, but the majority are pretty brainless. A great place for a relaxing round, or to bring some newer players to. That said, it is not just a wide open field, there are plenty of scattered trees to give each hole some individual character, as well as some water.

- Good variety of hole lengths for a chicagoland course
- A good amount of straight tunnel/low ceiling shots
- Provides one with good work on their line shaping of tee shots
- Lots of ace opportunities
- Multiple lines on most holes
- Almost every basket is well placed around the limited amount of trees on the course
- You can air it out on some holes and have some fun
- Nice tee pads, great signage (shows alt tees/distances, & points direction to next tee), & adequate baskets

- Fairly straightforward and deuceable holes, with the exception of a few that require giant tee shots
- Without wind, course can play pretty easy
- Course can have issues with rain and flooding

Good course to go out and have some fun. With ace opportunities and chances to air it out, a solid course in the chicagoland area. Wind often makes the course much more challenging as it's so wide open. I've been playing this course for 8+ years and grew up on it, really helped me tone my game and work on all kinds of different shots. Good course in a well populated area that gets crowded on the weekends, but not a problem as the course usually flows very nicely.

Madison Meadows disc golf course is situated in a large open park off of Westmore-Myers and Madison - just a few blocks from the Lombard Commons disc golf course. While it is pretty wide open and flat, the course utilizes tree cover fairly well to create holes which both work the basics of the disc golf shot and offer up multiple routes to many of the pins.

Challenge - The course is probably serves up its best challenge to low to mid-level amateur players who throw between 300-400 feet and are still developing some of the basic disc golf shots (long turnovers, sidearm, overhand shots, rollers). For players that have already mastered the basics, this course is going to be a birdie fest mixed in with a couple of pars when putts are missed - it just isn't all that technical off the tee and only a few holes have enough distance to let the big arms take advantage.

Longer arms should look around for the blue dots which indicate where the Pro tees are. Myself and several others laid out most of these many years ago but I feel they still greatly enhance the course in terms of adding both distance and technicality.

Navigation - Where they haven't been vandalized by other park users (football/baseball) or others, the signs are pretty helpful and there aren't any huge leaps you need to take when navigating this course. Do remember that there are now 19 holes!

Maintenance - The parks department seems to take very good care of this park. The pond is looking better and better each time I come back and the grass is almost always mowed nicely.

Other park amenities - The park has lots of other stuff going on if you aren't wanting a whole day of disc golf or if you have brought a child along. There is a nice playground on the East side of the park, just okay tennis courts, football and baseball fields, and a small inline skate hockey setup right by hole one. In addition, you can fish for panfish, bullhead, and some small bass in the small pond near holes 3 and 19 - its quantity over quality, but the times I've done it, its still been enjoyable.

Risk/Reward - There aren't any holes which I can think of which have true "risks" to going for big shots, you will rarely find yourself punished for missing a line OTHER than having a longer approach shot for par. Unfortunately, there really isn't much potential to create this type of feature in this park because of the absence of any usable punishing features (brush, OB, water, etc.).

Challenge - Advanced to Pro golfers aren't going to find much here to get too excited about.

Mud/Drainage - I would almost go as far as to say avoid this course completely in the winter and spring because the drainage is terrible. Hole 1 is usually a good indicator of what is to come as there is often a 20' diameter ring of mud around the whole cement tee. The back holes often dry out first, but usually the Meadows aka "the swamp" is just that in the winter.

Other park users - This is suburban Chicago so you will find the usual assortment of cranky old folks, over-entitled teens, and ultra-aggressive football folks along with a smattering of friendly onlookers as well. The Lombard Falcons club specifically have created a lot of problems in this park by destroying most of the field areas, leaving tons of trash, and generally attempting to blockade against any other uses of the park. Yes, I'm a little bitter : ) but this group has in the past gone out of their way to make other park users feel uncomfortable so it is something to be aware of when visiting this park.

Overall: Having grown up with this park in my first years of golf was really a blessing. While not super challenging, it is one of the best parks I can think of for learning how to throw a variety of shots as a beginner.

Fun facts: Madison Meadows and the Lombard Commons are also both old home courses of the famous pink-haired Scott Papa, aka Dr. Disc, and PDGA #008 Steve Matul.

If you are looking to buy discs while you are in town, there is a shop adjacent to the 7-11 in "downtown" Lombard (St. Charles & Main) which have really nice folks and some rare old and collector discs often still on the shelves. The prices are sometimes a little steep but if you want to find some old Discraft or Millenium, it's worth a stop.

Madison Meadow is a decent course that, despite it's flaws, is an enjoyable place to play for a wide variety of players.

This course has a good variety of shots, and multiple tees on almost every hole, so even experienced players will be able to find challenge here. There's no elevation whatsoever, but there is a suprising amount of distance. Trees provide obstacles for almost every shot so a decent amount of line shaping is required on many holes.

I don't know if this course has a signature hole, but #19 gives you the option to throw a 625ft bomb with a small patch of trees blocking the straight path to the basket. Or an alternate tee/basket location exists where you throw directly over the pond. This is essentially an entirely different hole, but it's labeled #19, so if you want you could make this a 20-hole course. In order to do this, back track from the #19 basket toward the walking path along the pond. The tee is right off the path a few feet from the edge of the pond.

Recently (in the past year), the park has done a really good job putting in new tee pads, and some very nice signs. For a multi-use suburban park, it's good to see the effort being put into this course.

The course flow is a little weird in a few sections, but 'next tee' signs exist almost everywhere there is any ambiguity (except from #1 to #2... you have to turn left and go about 50 yards towards the baseball field for the tee pad)

This place defines "multi-use" park. If you play during the day on a week day, or during low-traffic times, you should be fine, but during the summer/fall, there are usually people everywhere. The walking path around the pond comes into play on a couple holes (namely #3 where the path is basically in the fairway). The town's youth football/cheerleading teams use this place to practice in the late summer and fall, so if you come while this is going on, count on having to skip at least 3 or 4 holes.

While there is a good amount of shot variety here, this course just seems kind of boring. You won't leave here saying "I remember hole x and y, those were awesome shots," Maybe with the exception of the two #19's which are pretty unique.

It's hard for me to criticize the new teepads, because I'm sure a lot of time and effort went into installing them, but those things are too small. You can get a two step run up, maybe, on them, but that's it. On some of the longer shots, you'll probably have to start from three or four steps behind the pad if you take a big run up.

Madison Meadows is worth checking out. It's the only course in the area with 18 holes, and there's enough challenge and variety for a wide range of skill sets. They take good care of this place, and it's a nice park overall from a visual standpoint,

From Westmore-Meyers, go west on Madison until you see the parking lot on your left. The first tee is next to the tennis courts.

- Nice cement tee pads for the short tees.

-Good Variety of distances: A handful of shorter holes and then some Monster holes in the back that give you a change to air it out.

- Some Obstacles: Good incorporation of the lake and trees as obstacles when possible.

- Tee signs are excellent, giving accurate distances

- By comparison this course really stands out in this area as one of the few with length and 18+ holes.

- Non DG-ers like this park too. Most of the time this isn't a problem, mostly just people walking their dogs. But a couple of times there have been people using the picnic benches on the first hole and I've had to skip the hole entirely.

- The course if really flat, but that shouldn't be a huge surprise.

- Navigation can be a bit tricky on the back 9, but not impossible.

- A couple of fairways are subject to flooding on occasion, and there can be a lot of goose poop in the fall but now I'm just being picky.

- Other than the lake the course is very forgiving of bad shots.

It's not the best course in the world but it sure is the best option for a lot of people living in this area. It can be somewhat vanilla at times but it is a fun 19 holes and still provide and challenge with some of the distance shots. It certainly isn't a destination course but it was a great neighborhood course when I lived in the area.

Nice variety in hole length with some huge drives
Almost impossible to lose a disc.

Very flat
Hard to navigate
Boring as hell to look at/play
Poor signage
No cover to um... water the trees

A spacious 19 holes with some huge driving opportunities. I end up here quite a bit these days due to proximity. Once you hit the lot the first tee is off to the right by the brown picnic shelter. After that it's a real challenge to navigate. Ask the locals.. I've been there a dozen time and still have a hard time finding my way around.

Fun course to play, definitely a great course for beginners and nice to play for experience dg'ers looking to get some confidence back in their driving ability. couple of great ace opportunities

mostly flat, alot of the holes seem too simple or easy. I only used a forehand once and only 1 overhand throw.

very pleasant place to throw. Big open park with a walking path through a few holes. non dg'ers seemed very aware of players and were conscious of throws

-Variety in hole length (most courses around here are exclusively pitch and putt)
-Cement teepads
-The few trees are well used in the hole design
-Water in play on 2 holes
-Rare Chicagoland opportunity to really let it fly with drivers
-7-11 on westmore sells discs

-Mostly wide open
-Predominantly flat
-This is a mult-use park with plently of other activities and park users interfering with DG
-Walking path in play on many holes
-Parks dept. has crazy draconian regulations for doubles league play

This course plays through a large, open, flat multi-use park. It has probably introduced a lot of people to DG due to the park's popularity with non-DGers.

-Clean, well kept park
-Good concrete tee pads (short tees only)
-Good variety in length, with several 400+ foot holes, as well as short 220' holes
-Excellent course to practice fundamental lines
-2 par 4 holes, that make you work for the 3
-plenty of makeable birdies
-pond comes into play on #19 and from the long tee on #3
-good opportunities to let some big drives rip (#8, #12, #17, #19)

-very very flat, no topography to work with
-not much variety in hole type, most holes are very straight, with only one true R-L hole (#1) and one true L-R hole (#14)
-football fields near #6, 7, 8, and 11 sometimes cause disruption in play during the fall
-drainage isn't the best, and some holes (#4 almost has it's own lake after a heavy rain) become pretty muddy after a rainy spell

Overall, while certainly not the best 18 hole course in Chicagoland, it's probably the best centrally-located course. It's a fun round to play, and it feels good to rack up those easy birdies on a casual round. Will definitely play best for people who have confidence in their straight shots between 250-350.

Standout holes: #4 (need a very good drive or a very good upshot), #11 (650' through scattered trees with OB fields), #16 (pure tunnel shot), #17 (fun, long hyzer hole, nicely positioned basket), and #19 (great hole to air out on, but be careful of the lake on the right hand side)

The park is a very well kept with scattered trees throughout. This is a multiuse park with tons of people around. It is very flat.

If you fly into Chicago O'Hare this is the closest free 18 hole course.

There is a good variety of holes on this course. It has short cement tee pads and long natural tee pads.

The tee signs are very nice and descriptive. The course has decent flow once you figure out where all the holes are.

Several good holes for rolling.

Long natural tees are hard to find. Course can be difficult to navigate in a few places.

I believe the baskets are homemade and are ok but don't catch like the new modern baskets.

There is no rough to penalize you on bad shots.

This course lacks true challenge to warrent a higher rating.

This is standard par 54 disc golf.

Here is a link to another photo gallery. There are shots from the tee, fairway, and back towards the tee.
http://discontinuum.org/index...2_itemId=1926

In early spring this course can have standing water in places.

Check out my Illinois Top 10
http://discontinuum.org/index...1486.msg68704#msg68704

Its a great course for Chitown courses. It does pose some challenges, like a little pond and some trees.

It's a course that was added to a park that has multiple uses. For example a passing dog may decide to fetch your Frisbee or you may not be able to throw cause a soccer game has broken out. The park does not belong to the disc golfers, and it shows.

Better than no disc golf

This course has many ace opportunities, several long holes, and well placed trees on almost every hole. Course requires accuracy on most holes.
The tee pads (19 of them) are all concrete and there is a nice gravel path winding through this sprawling course. There are benches throughout and a lake with a fountain in the center of the course that creates a secluded atmosphere even when many others are around. Very little chance of losing a disc on all but hole #3 and #19.

Tee boxes might be a bit small for people with a big approach.
Not a lot of high risk. Other than hitting a tree, recovery from being off the fairway is usually not a problem.

The course has a nice flow and a nice variety of holes. If you play hole 19 from the new tee pad down to the practice basket you get a very long downhill drive around a small grove of pines. Great way to wrap up the round!

Alot of length. A few really challenging holes. Cement tees. Some good land for roller shots. I like the pine trees on a few of the holes.

Overall, I'd have to call this a boring course. Very flat. Not much trouble out there to get your energy level up and make you think on the tee.

Its okay to work different shots in your game. A couple par 4's. Just nothing where you get to work your way out of trouble though, because there isn't any.

The course plays through a large flat multi-use park with lots of large scattered trees. There is a small lake that is in play on a couple holes, and lots of ball fields and other park areas as obstacles. The lake is a very cool obstacle on a couple holes, and adds a nice risk reward element.

There is a nice mix of long and short holes, from short ace runs to a couple real long bomb holes. Most holes have at least some trees in the fairway, and a few have more dense stands of trees to shoot through. The last hole has one tee that shoots over the pond for a very cool finishing drive.

The park is large enough that the holes have nice separation, and never throw on top of one another. The design made good use of the available space and trees to make a course that doesn't feel too repetitive despite the lack of elevation or much variation in foliage throughout the park.

The tees were in pretty good shape, and were concrete on the main pad for each hole. There were alternate tees (sometimes two alternates on a hole) that really changed up the hole and gave a different look, and these had nicely leveled dirt or grass tee areas. There was at least a numbered post at each tee, with nicer signs on some. The grass was well-mowed when I played, and the park was nicely kept in general.

The navigation at this course could use some work. Many tees had no signs at all, and the signs that were in place were often faded and didn't show the tee or basket. There were several long walks between holes, and there were only a couple that had next tee markers. A couple places the next hole was in a non-obvious direction, and it took some wandering to figure it out.

The tee pads were pretty short, especially for the longer holes. Most were not flush with the ground, so they weren't conducive to simply starting behind the pad. The baskets were a mix of different types and ages, and seemed a little inconsistent. The number plates were faded, and were occasionally facing the wrong direction, which made a couple holes without tee signs a little frustrating.

A couple holes played too close to ball fields, playgrounds and roads, could be some safety hazards there. The course could have used a little more variety, with most of the holes having a pretty open straight or slight hyzer shot. There were enough trees and space to create more holes that would challenge other shots.

This course is very beginner friendly, and the only place to lose discs is in the pond. Newer players will enjoy this course, as it's not wide open, but the fairways are easy to hit and poor drives aren't severely punished. More experienced players won't find much challenge here, though there were a few holes that will let you open up on some longer drives.

This is one of the better courses in the area, so it's worth playing if you're around. It's nothing too special though, so I wouldn't suggest driving way out of your way to play this one.

1.) Beautiful course with a great atmosphere and excellent upkeep.

2.) Course was very clean, and not very crowded.

3.) The variety of holes was nice. Although, there are not any heavily wooded holes. The are some VERY long holes (up to 625'), as well as some shorter holes (around 200'). There were a few straight, as well as a bunch of dog-leg left & right. There is also a beautiful hole in which you have to drive over a lake!

1.) A little hard to navigate if you are not familiar with the course. We had to ask a few locals where a couple holes were because we had no idea where we were going.

2.) Quite a few signs were missing, so you had to guess on the par for the hole, the distance of the hole, and the pin location. And there were also a few signs in which the pin location wasn't listed on the sign

This is one of my favorite courses that I have played so far. I highly suggest that anyone take the ride out to this course and play it at least once. This is not a very easy course. Not overly difficult, but it offers a nice challenge.

Also, while you are out at this course, I suggest you take a 15 minute drive to play the 9-Hole in Oak Brook. It is not very far away, but it is also an amazing course.

Another suggestion is after you play here, go check out Old Town Pizza and grab a slice of pizza! It is located right next to Famous Liquors at 109 E. Roosevelt Rd. This place has HUGE slices of pizza that are absolutely delicious. It is a great way to end your day (or split up time between Madison Meadow and Oak Brook's Central Park).

Lots of opportunities to let it rip as long as you aren't a 450 driver. There are 3 sets of tees at each hole but I would like to know where they are because I could only ever find one per hole. Was pretty muddy when I played but I go barefoot most of the time so it wasn't a big deal. Hard to loose a disc as it is mostly open. Went on the first really nice saturday of the year (85 and sunny...b-e-a-u-tiful) and only saw 3 other groups out there, and didn't have to wait at any hole. 18 holes is nice for the area, took me about an hour and fifteen minutes to eat up this course solo. Shot a 7 over my first time through (playing each hole as a par 3) but my drive was a little off and I hit a lot of trees for how scarce it is...so there is definate opportunity to get some nice birds and try to go under playing par 3 for all. Ran into a garderner working on her vegitables around hole 14-15 with a dog named Buddy, she was really friendly for someone that I'm sure gets disc golfers roaming into her property all the time. There have been some modifications to this course within the last few weeks. Nothing major, but the new tee placements do add some more difficulty and some more chances to let a drive fly.

Nothing really techniqual except hole 15(?) (which is actually a plus for me as I am somewhat of a beginner, but I know most of you guys like your difficult shots). Grass was a little longer than I would have liked but I can't recall ever thinking I was in danger of losing a disc.

I had a lot of fun playing this course with friends and by myself, it had a low risk of losing discs (which is big for me because I am in college and have almost NO money!) but it just doesn't compare to the 18 hole courses farther south (Shannahon, West Park, etc.) or the tight technicality of the 9 hole courses (Central Park in Oak Brook or Knock Knolls in Naperville). Definatly a course to relax on and let some discs fly...bring your whole bag! I hope with this construction going on they will replace the signs and they are almost all vandalized or missing.

The biggest pro for the area is that the course has some a good variety of lengths in it. It is hard to find courses in the Chicagoland area that have enough space to put long holes in it, but this course has that. This course is a good stress relief course for that person who is sick of hitting every tree in the woods-most of the holes are very open (which is a con for me, but like I said, good stress relief). The park is also scenic with a pond that has a fountain in it (which comes into play on two holes, depending on how you play them). I also enjoy the giant field to the north of hole # 19 which allows for ironing out new discs/throws that you have been wanting to practice.

The course is somewhat boring, with very little elevation change and a lack of woods. Most holes are out in the open and straight. If you come to play the course, you will disagree with me on the first 3, but after that you will know what I am talking about. But like I said in the pros, sometimes this is a good thing if you just want to go out and chuck a disc with little though.

Another plus for this course is the park. There are other facilities if you want to make a whole day out of your trip. There are basketball courts, baseball fields, tennis courts, street hockey, a gazebo, and grates for grilling. Also some playground if you want to drop the kids off while you are out for a round of Disc Golf.