Multiple concrete tees and good signage here. A great variety of lines and distances on this course with some fun elevation. Hole two has an interesting down sloping fairway to the right. 4 is such a cool par 4. It is a placement shot down a hill through a gap and then a short approach over the fountain pool to the green with an up sloping back stop. 5 is a short, fun uphill hole. 6 is a cool downhill par 4. First you must hit the tight gap heading downhill. Then to get to the green for a birdie putt you must navigate the fairway that slopes towards the ob road with a treacherous basket placement atop the slope. 9 is a cool downhill shot with the fairway as a peninsula surrounded by an ob road. 10 is a tough birdie as the fairway goes way uphill making the hole play much longer than its listed distance. 11 is a fun par 4 where you can rip a drive off the tee and then a have a challenging low ceiling shot to a protected green that sharply drops away behind the basket. 14 is a super tight tunnel shot through the woods. Once you get out of the woods the terrain drops away and then slopes back up to the green.

Some holes lack interest for me like hole 3, a short dogleg left with no good line. 12 is a boring straight shot or a flukey skip shot left when the pin is over there. 15 is a short hole with the basket in a tricky position on the slope on the right. The green is cool but the drive is boring. 17 is a boring open straight shot or big hyzer.

Much better course than the North course in the same park.

This is my home course and it is a true gem! The setting is beautiful with elevation you wouldn't expect in the heart of the prairie. The park is filled with mature oak trees. There's a lovely lagoon and even some woods.
There are concrete tee pads on all tees, with 2 or 3 tee placements 12 of the 18 holes. There are at 2 basket placement positions on nearly every hole.

The signs are pretty basic. The map at the first hole pictures the old course so isn't much help with navigation, but the tees and baskets are numbered and there are "next tee" signs at the bottom of each basket. There are no benches devoted to the course but the course maintenance is outstanding. The layout takes great advantage of the terrain, although you are nowhere near the parking lot after playing #9 and have quite a walk to your car after #18.

Most of the holes have multiple lines to the basket and there is a good variety of short and long holes. The course favors RHBH players a little bit, but is fairly balanced. There are some challenging risk-reward decisions on several holes, with an road OB on #6 to make you think about your drive and approach to the side-slope basket. Baskets on #14, #15 and #16 are also posititioned on tricky slopes. The course is very fair, with no reliance on lucky shots execpt for the #3 hole through the woods from the long tee.

There are several "wonder holes" at Lincoln South. #4 is a beautiful, downhill dog-leg right with woods on the right and the lagoon looming dead ahead for long drives that don't make the turn. It's my favorite hole on the course, especially when the basket is positioned at the alternate spot across the lagoon. This postition requires a decision about whether to lay up or go for it, and four mighty oaks and deep water add to the risk. Unfortunately, this position is rarely utilized. The blue/white tee on #6 demands a downhill tunnel shot through the woods, follow by a tricky, side slope approach shot. #11 is a long hill-top hole that calls for a long distance drive followed by a low, controlled second shot to a basket on the "edge of the table" and another risk-reward choice. #14 is a phenominal layout through a tunnel in the woods, across a small valley to a basket perched on a hillside in the woods beyond. The lagoon lies downhill on the right for the full length of the hole. Getting a 3 on this one always feels like an accomplishment.

One con of the course is that the basket positions aren't changed very often. For the most part, you either get the long or the short positions all at once. It would be great if they could mix it up a bit, but I shouldn't complain if I don't want to volunteer. The other major con is that the lagoon does not really come into play except for when #4 is set to the "tournament position" mentioned earlier. This is a Park Disctict decision. There used to be a nice shot over the water but they installed some waterside benches in the fairway which forced a move of the hole. I guess when you're sharing a park with other users you can't have everything, but one can't help but to fantasize about a ridge-top tee in the woods above where you could rip one out of the trees and over the water.

I love this course and I tip my hat to the Springfield Park District and the Springfield Disc Golf Club for creating and maintaining 2 great courses on this property. In my opinion, Lincoln South is one of the best courses in Illinois.

Very Challenging course for a new player. Great location. lots of different placement of holes. Lots of long holes. Busy park but course is laid out so you do not have them interfearing with play very often.

They were moving the baskets for a tournament and some of the holes were very hard to find and basket markers did not match holes in a few cases. I was told that once they go back to normal play it will be better.

for a guy who has only played for 4 days total at this point. Great place to play!

Beautiful Park
Nice concrete tee pads
Great challenge
Nice Variety of holes - distance, obstacle, OB

Course layout still in flux - No map - really wasn't a problem at the time since we met up and played the 36 holes with the guys who are doing the new layout - there were markers at the base of the baskets that you could conceivably navigate by.

NOTE: Even though this review is dated as 2010, I have re-written most of it based on my play in August of 2011

This course has a core group of local golfers that have really invested a lot. Most of the work has been done through volunteer time, by people that really care, and it shows.

Even though this course was probably a typical aged park course, the group has brought it up to modern standards. Nearly every hole has multiple tees and pin positions, and the distances for each combination (often 6 combinations) are printed on the concrete tees.

The distances for the holes covers a wide spread. The longest hole has a distance of 750 feet from the blue tee to the far pin location, and it doesn't even have wide open fairways!

Most of the holes offer multiple paths to the pin. Those who can drive precisely will have a nice advantage.

There are a lot of interesting features as out of bounds areas (lagoons, cliffs, fountains, and park roads), and plenty of amenities. Even with the cliffs and lagoons, the layout makes it unlikely that you will lose a disc to any of the hazards.

The thing that is truly unique about this course, though is the variety. Some holes are all about distance, while others are all about accuracy. The design for hole 5 made me laugh out loud today as we played it. It's clear that the designers very much wanted the course to have character.

Even thought this park has 2 full size courses, don't think that they crammed it into a space that is too small. You won't breeze through this course quickly. Expect semi-difficult terrain, and frustrating shots. If you are out of shape (as I am), you will probably be worn out by the time you finish it.

The main disadvantage to this course is still the layout. The course was redesigned shortly before I initially made this review to make room for the new course in the northern part of the course. When I first reviewed this course, I spent a lot of time discussing the confusing nature of the course. Since then, the baskets with incorrect numbers have been corrected. 4x4 posts with tee numbers have been planted near every tee (previously you just had to guess). And the NextTees help you find the next hole.

Still, the map at the front of the course is incorrect. Some tee pads (such as #2) are angled incorrectly, so it is hard to determine which basket you are seeking. The tees do not have maps. And sometimes the tees can be hard to find (ie #15), and sometimes the baskets can be hard to find (ie #5)

The other big issue with this park is that there can be a lot of people. When I first played the course, I encountered walkers, kids on bicycles, playgrounds full of kids, and a group of LARPers that blocked some of the tees for hole 4. If you go on a weekday, this shouldn't be a problem. My second time playing was a Saturday in August, and this time, I had very little problem with nonplayers being in the way, other than hole 15.

Worst of all, for a multi-use park, there are a couple of blind shots. Sure, blind shots are fun, but with this many other park-goers, you just don't want to take the chance of hitting someone. On busy days, you may need to send someone ahead to spot pedestrians, or just skip some of the holes.

The distance between holes and the confusion caused by moving things around are all associated with the plan to expand the park to 36 holes. I haven't tried the north course yet, but I think that the golfers in Springfield are extremely fortunate to have 36 holes in a single park.

My original rating (2010) was a 2.5, but I've raised it to a 4 now that the posts with tee numbers have been added.

As far as rating the Springfield disc golf community, I'd give them extremely high marks. Their website shows that they are very active, and they have a lot of experienced players will go out of their way to help newer players. Now that the city has three 18-hole courses, all with multiple pin placements, it seems like a great disc golf environment for the locals.

If you want to try this course now (before the numbers are fixed), check out the plan for the layout here: http://www.discgolfclub.org/S...sion_Kent.pdf

The .pdf was the plan used for building the modifications, so it may not be completely accurate, but it can help in a few places.

Best course in Central Illinois overall.

BEWARE the course has changed. The new North course starts 1,2,3 as the old 16,17,18. Now 15,16,17,18 was 17, 12,13, 14. Somehow they inserted and juggled around 6-14.

Need new map somehow. I've played this one +20 times and could not understand the new layout 6-14. Where is #14?

The park is one of the best kept courses in Illinois. It has large cement tee pads and multiple pin positions. The fairways are always well manicured when i've played there.

It has some minor elevation and some unique holes. It does not have a lot of heavy rough or tight tunnel shots but it has enough trees to make it difficult. Roads come into play on several holes making some tough out of bounds.

Lincoln South has a wide variety with 3 sets of tees. SSA for the Blue tees was 55.21 and 44.06 for the red using results from the tournament this year. I am not sure what SSA is for the White tees but it would obviously fall somewhere between. This course will test every shot in your bag.
http://www.pdga.com/course-ra...?TournID=9479

I would absolutely love this course as a home course. You have many options with the multiple tees and pin positions. It's really fun to play and you won't have to worry about looking for discs. It's a nice stroll thru the park.

Currently Hole #3 is one of the most unique and best holes in Illinois. It's a fantastic par 4. There are 3 other really nice par 4's (#9, 11, & 14.)

Hole #17 is a really cool hole to. You throw across the pond with some tight road out of bounds on the left and woods to the right.

There are a few areas where flow is an issue. Course directional arrows would help. This course lacks a few tight tunnel shots and rough. With the addition of the new 18 hole course on site 3 new holes will be added to the course and 3 average holes will be removed and used on the other course. I got a preview and will probably move this rating to 4.5 once that is complete. Those 3 holes should make this course play tougher too.

Douglas Park is a shorter course but pretty fun to play. It's not far from Lincoln.

Springfield Disc Golf Club website forum is active. If you are looking for people to play with post there.

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

Located in a beautiful park. 2 sets of tees. From the longer set this course is a real challenge for anybody. Alot of length with well designed holes that use the many tall oak trees to force shots from a variety of angles. Good course to throw some rollers on and several opportunities to unleash long drives. There are a few par 4's out there that really challenge you to play smart and execute. Your throwing driver off the tee out here off of most of the tees. Water and road OB come into play several times as does some perilous pin positions on the sides of some steep hills. This is a well manicured multi-use park that makes this a fun course to play over and over and over again!

Hole 3 is one of the finest holes in Illinois with a tight wooded downhill fairway (OB road tight to the left and heavy woods tight to the right) that opens up to a landing zone with the basket to the right nestled against a pond. The pond OB comes into play on a long drive that sneaks its way through the gap. Alot to think about on this hole!

Not much bad to say about this. I love the design. There are maybe a couple holes that might be in that 'par 3.5' range where deuces are a little too hard to come by, but most everybody is taking a 3.

I entered Hole 3 on this course in an amateur tournament with a 3 stroke lead on 2nd place and a 4 stroke lead on 3rd place in 2005. After my double circle 7, and a 3 and a 4 by my competition, we went to Hole 4 in a 3-way tie! (i ended up losing by 1 to nick rapp) Thats what you call a good hole!

I found the course to be challenging, I really enjoyed the landscape and the use of terrain. Blue and White tees make you spend a little extra time thinking about how to best play the hole.

Poor flow from hole to hole in some areas. Also the streets come into play fairly heavily on several holes. Also signage was fairly beat up some of the signs were missing.

I would like to have seen the other tee pad positions have signage as well.

- Excellent shots
- Variety of terrain and hazards
- Well thought out layout

This was my home course, and still sets the bar for standard. Most courses fail to live up the variety of shots and terrain that is experienced by all who venture to Springtucky...