Road Trip - Allentown, PA to Chicago, IL

[Theli420]

Greetings! Looking for any good course recommendations close to I-80, between Hazleton, PA area and near the Indiana/Illinois border. I will likely be traveling in later May. Also, if there any good tournaments I could get involved in, I'd be up for suggestions for those, as well. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[bcr123psu]

In all honesty, I'd recommend paying for the premium membership just to use the route planner. Well worth it for trips like this.

That said, if you're taking I-80 across the state, you're not terribly far from Pymatuning, Slippery Rock, Moraine, and Deer Lakes. I guess Grove City has a course too. Oil City might be a bit out of your way but I know Dave McCormack from Gateway installed a course there not too long ago.

 

[blackandwhite]

If you are anywhere near the Indiana/Illinois border Lemon Lake and RLW are both very worthy stops

 

[sidewinder22]

Moraine for sure. Oh how I loathe Oil City.

 

[Theli420]

If you are anywhere near the Indiana/Illinois border Lemon Lake and RLW are both very worthy stops

How close are they to I-80? I'm actually coming to Naperville. I just used Chicago for whatever purpose.

 

[Theli420]

Moraine for sure. Oh how I loathe Oil City.

Moraine will be a separate mission this summer, for sure. If I have time, I'm going to throw there on the way back. What is bad about Oil City, aside from the tons of broken glass mentioned as cons in reviews?

 

[mashnut]

How close are they to I-80? I'm actually coming to Naperville. I just used Chicago for whatever purpose.

It's not a huge detour to either. Rogers Lakewood is the best single course out of all of them, so that's what I would recommend if you only have time for one round. If you have more time, the Lemon Lake complex is a cool place. The blue course is not fully in right now, but the Silver/Gold course is excellent, the Red course has nice variety and the White course is pretty short and technical.

 

[sidewinder22]

Moraine will be a separate mission this summer, for sure. If I have time, I'm going to throw there on the way back. What is bad about Oil City, aside from the tons of broken glass mentioned as cons in reviews?

I didn't even care about the glass. It's got a couple good holes, some ok, but I felt like it could be so much better. It probably didn't help being 100 degrees and I played Moraine and Knob Hill right before. But it was all the insane uphill walking, and never getting to play a decent downhill shot. I finally got to hole 18 near very top of the course/mountain and said finally I get to throw downhill! But that hole is terrible, you basically pitch a putter to the landing zone from the tee and then depending on the pin, you play flat or slightly uphill. Then you walk down some 100' elevation back to the parking lot. Hey, where's the cream filling?

 

[Martin Dewgarita]

Moraine will be a separate mission this summer, for sure. If I have time, I'm going to throw there on the way back. What is bad about Oil City, aside from the tons of broken glass mentioned as cons in reviews?

I enjoyed Oil City.

 

[Theli420]

It's not a huge detour to either. Rogers Lakewood is the best single course out of all of them, so that's what I would recommend if you only have time for one round. If you have more time, the Lemon Lake complex is a cool place. The blue course is not fully in right now, but the Silver/Gold course is excellent, the Red course has nice variety and the White course is pretty short and technical.

Thanks for the input. I've been looking at both courses. The plan will be if I have time for two or more to go to Lemon Lake. If not, Rogers Lakewood. What makes Rogers Lakewood stand out, as opposed to Lemon Lake Silver/Gold?

 

[mashnut]

It's got a little more elevation and a little more variety, with some tight wooded shots, some park style holes, a water shot and a few more open shots on the sled hill. LL Gold is a tight wooded course, it's got a lot of great lines to hit but not as much elevation or variety in scenery. Silver is a shortened version of gold, similar tight lines but lots of reachable holes off the tee.

 

[bilythekid]

Foundation Park in Centralia Illinois was easily one of my top 5 courses EVER

 

[mashnut]

Foundation Park in Centralia Illinois was easily one of my top 5 courses EVER

Great course, but not at all on his way for this trip.