-Nice scenery with mature trees
-Fairly open with good distance on some of the holes, so it could be nice to practice long shots.

-The navigation of the course is horrible. No next hole signs on the baskets. After we found the tee for #4 we spent 10 minutes looking for the basket until we realized it wasn't there.
-The tee signs aren't accurate in distance or where the basket is at times
-The grass was tall enough that even a disc in the open was hard to find if you didn't watch the line closely
-Grass tee pads

Practicing long throws is about all I would do at this course since there are so many problems. Although if it requires traveling over 25 miles then it wouldn't be worth the time. I wish I would've played at Big Creek again instead of going to this course.

1) It's only 9 holes
2) The land still has potential for a decent course

2 missing baskets, 1 badly-damaged basket, lack of trimming has allowed weeds to grow up into the basket and chains, 1 tee blocked by a tree, hard to navigate (and not just because of a missing tee sign),

When I pulled in I was encouraged--the course is situated in the corner of the campus of Spoon River College. And from the street, it was a beautiful setting. The course started well--hole 1 was a nice, tough left-to-right around a corner of woods. But when we arrived at the basket we noticed that no trimming had been done, and the weeds were growing up into the chains. Couldn't gripe about it at that point because it actually helped my putt stay in the basket, but by the time you've played 2 or 3 holes like that, it gets old quickly. Once the holes started moving into the interior of the property, the navigation also got a bit difficult to follow or even understand. The property is bounded on two sides by woods and on another side by a road. A better solution might have been to stay along the edges as long as possible to add more challenge and interest to the holes, as well as to improve the ease of navigation. The basket for hole 4 is missing, the basket for 7 was mangled, probably by a negligent groundsperson on a big mower, and the basket for hole 8 was also missing. That might have actually been a blessing, however, because according to the distance on the tee sign, that would have put the basket near the entrance/exit of a walking trail! Dangerous combination there, and could have easily been avoided.

I believe that there is still hope for the course. It's a decent piece of land, very flat and kind of boring, but decent enough to hold a solid 9-holer with some lengthy, challenging holes. Since there are no concrete tee pads to ensure these holes stay where they are, I suggest a re-design with better flow, and replacing the missing/damaged baskets. That plus a minimum of TLC (like taking 30 minutes to trim under the baskets) might even entice the students on campus to start playing and caring about the future of the course.