Not very many pros here. The tees are fairly new and all in good repair. The baskets are all in good repair and have orange flags on top to help you see them. New signs at every tee. Not much to them though, just a 4x4 in the ground with the hole number and distance. The only other pro here would be if you're a nature person and enjoy a walk in the woods.

If you got some tees and baskets and put them in the middle of the forest then you would have Dr. Lawless dg course. There are no fairways at all. It's playing dg in poison ivy and thorn bushes while getting eaten alive by bugs. The trails are just small ones from people walking. Hard to find all the holes and the map doesn't help much. Even perfect throws end up in thorn bushes here. There are several elevation changes here, which would be nice but walking up a hill through thorn bushes and thick brush is no fun. A big waste of 2$.

-Secluded, wooded area
-wildlife (rabbits, frogs)
-low course traffic
-free

Note: This review is written two years after the most recent review of the course; I am reporting on it as it was when I visited. It is different than it was two years ago.

-schule and ground cover everywhere; easy to lose discs
-poison ivy almost everywhere
-thorny brambles on every hole
-mosquito, gnat, and horse fly infested
-no "next tee" or tee pad signs after the first 8 holes
-virtually unidentifiable dirt tee pads
-overgrown course; nine-foot, fully matured weeds on the later holes
-all short holes

Upon entering the park there is a tree with poison ivy growing up it and a sign explaining the aphorisms "leaves of three, leave it be" and "hairy vine, no friend of mine." Although I can see how such an exhibit can help educate park-goers, the irony of its existence is overwhelming when one enters the forrest of poison ivy that exists on the course.

With a house on Diamond Lake I'm in the area often and I was really hoping for this Vandalia course to be another quintessential escape from Chicago suburban life, but let it be known that this course is abyssmal.

Also: Bug spray does nothing to keep the Michiana horse flys away.

Good if you only want to practice your short, very short, game. Most holes are 110-190. I think I threw a driver on one hole...I guess one positive is that there is no trash on the course. This course would be a great beginner course.

Way too short. Biggest con is that the layout is absolutely atrocious. There are 2 hole right next to the parking lot and then you walk 1000 ft to hole 3. We spent like 20 minutes just looking for the 3rd hole. Natural pads are not that great. Out of the way from mostly everything and not worth a drive out to the course. Some fairways are terrible, really small and not really a real fairway.

Scott Wilson course designer of Meyer Broadway is redesigning a few holes ( I believe) which should add some distance and more of a challenge. I shot a 44 my first time playing this course. It seems like with all the land that the park has there could be a really great course here if a lot of work was done, which is sad because the course is soooo weak as is.