Madison Meadows is a sprawling city park course. The design capitalizes on the ample amount of space available to the course by offering a wide mix of hole lengths, with a fair share of bomber holes and several long birdie opportunities mixed in with some ace runs. There's a casual, let-it-rip feel lent in part by the longer distances and in part by the relative openness of the course. Trees are utilized to form wide lanes, some low-ish ceilings, and singular obstacles to be avoided. A lake comes peripherally into play on a few holes, though it's relatively easy to avoid.

The course covers a lot of ground across the park but the park seems quiet enough that conflict with non-disc golfers shouldn't be much of an issue. Parking is ample and grooming is excellent. In all, Madison Meadows offers a casual round that newcomers to the sport can comfortably tackle. Experienced players might find themselves a bit bored, but if you come in expecting a light round then you should enjoy the pretty surroundings and abundant birdie opportunities.

The course's openness coupled with a complete lack of elevation puts a hard cap on what it can offer. Whatever obstacles are in play are relatively easy to avoid and generally pretty basic. Approach shots in particular are often completely unimpeded. Par 4s are purely a function of longer distances. The terrain can't offer much of a challenge, and the design doesn't put up a fight to try and provide one, either.

While my impression was that this park is pretty quiet, the course might be hard to play on days when there's heavy foot traffic. Sidewalks border numerous holes, which somewhat increases the possibility for conflict with park goers.

Madison Meadows is a good choice for a low-key round but otherwise doesn't offer much beyond another notch in the belt. There are lots of better options in the greater Chicago area: 50 Acre Park for example strikes me as being a bit similar in style but with much better terrain and interesting obstacles.

What I personally like and how this course stacks up:
1) Holes with good risk/reward -- C-
2) Holes that have rewarding birdie opportunities -- B-
3) More wooded than open - lots of variety of shots required caused by hole shape and topography -- C
4) Natural beauty (Appalachian beauty preferred) and seclusion -- C
5) Multi-shot holes with defined landing zones, good risk/reward and multiple options to play them -- C-

I ranked this course subjectively based on my own personal enjoyment factor...more accurately my "personal addiction factor". Since I have played a decent number of courses (115 18-hole, 50 9-hole as of early 2009), my hope is that players/explorers who have similar tastes will find my ratings list helpful as they chose courses to play and explore.

Over time, I expect to fill some of my reviews in with more descriptive verbiage...if what I say adds anything to what has already been written. For now, my list is more important to me than the verbiage of my reviews.

I fully expect others with different tastes/philosophies to disagree with me. See my profile for my rating philosophy.