-The recent changes to the course have made it better than ever.
-The course is very challenging, but fair...very rarely do you see bad shots go unpunished and good shots generally wind up good.
-Just about any hole out here can rough you up. Every hole out here can be done in 3 shots...several holes can stick you at a 5 or 6 if you have a bad throw.
-5, 13, 16 and 18 can all be considered par 4s. Deuces on these holes are rare both because of length and shape of the shot.
-The course forces you to play for par. Yes there are deuce opportunities out there, but they're not easy to get.

-Tee signs have only the bare minimum of information.
-After the redesign, 7 stands out as a clear weak link...but it has grown on me over time - it is a nice relief after the relentless assault.

Courses like this are the reason I love disc golf, its just flat out fun to play. Even after taking a 5 or 6 on a hole, you simply walk away from the pin with some friendly banter - because the course beat you today - not because of a bad break or an unlucky shot. Kudos to Greg, he has designed some good courses, but this is, particularly after the redesign, truly his crown jewel - and in my humble opinion the best of Illinois disc golf. Not the best because its the hardest - the best because it is the most fun.

1. I liked the scenic view of some of the shots.
2. Some variety in shots (also some monotony)
3. One of my favorite holes so far is here. I don't remember the number but it is a 20-25 ft. fairway, 300 something feet down to the basket right in the middle. Gorgeous tee. I think the long pad at this hole was closer to 400. I saw it and fell in love
4. Spread out well.
5. Pro or Con: easy to lose discs. Could be a pro because it forces accurate shots, could be a con because I am an Amateur who doesn't always have accurate shots.

1. There were a few times where I felt like I was throwing the exact same shot for the 3rd or 4th time. I can't recite the actual holes though. It just felt like they could have made some a little longer, more sharp angles, more obstacles, or something.
2. A little bit of trash around.

overall a pretty good course. I met up with a local by happen chance and he showed me around so I never looked at the map and can't speak to its accuracy. The rain the week before made for navigation in some areas a little more tricky due to mud. I'm between a 3.5 and a 4. I will give a four because I may be unfairly comparing it to McNaughton which was played directly before it and enjoyed immensely.

Great tees and baskets. Everything is kept in great shape, and there's even a nice practice hole.

Good variety of shots: There's doglegs in both directions, and good use of elevation and obstacles. You can tell that a lot of care went into designing these holes.

Nice hike through the first 9 holes. Even though there was some mud, the hike through the woods was really great.

Holes 17&18 are really interesting. They are very memorable, and probably the signature holes of this course.

The people are friendly. We saw a few people walking dogs in the area, but they never were in the way.

Holes 11-16 (the "vineyard") are disc eaters. Generally, they are very picturesque holes, with nice fairways, easily distinguishable roughs, and share tree lines. The problem is that the rough areas have longer-than-necessary grasses, and these tree areas have a lot of undergrowth.

I really think that this is the only downside of the course. Everything else is perfect!

This course is one of the most fun courses I've played. Just bring a few cheaper discs that you won't mind losing.

If you love courses in the woods like I do, then you have to make a trip to the Peoria area. This course and McNaughton are two of the best of this type, and they are so close together!

This is a cool park that has a quiet and secluded feeling. It has very nice terrain and is heavily wooded for half the holes. There is some decent elevation change on several holes.

This course has a wide variety with long and short tees. The long tees played about 5 shots tougher than the short tees at the Greater Peoria Open. SSA is 48.14 for the shorts and 53.06 for the longs. This is a difficult course. It will challenge every shot in your bag and expose any weakness in your game.
http://www.pdga.com/course-ra...?TournID=8621

There are some very difficult tight wooded holes on this course along with some thick rough in places. The middle opens up into "the orchard" where the holes are a little more open. You finish with a tough stretch of holes. Holes #17 & #18 are the 2 best finishing holes in Illinois.

Hole 5 is one of the tougher holes you will see. It's a tight gap to the landing zone if you play it safe. The 2nd shot is a difficult downhill shot over the ridge that drops about 20 to 25 feet to a sweet green.

Nice cement tees for the shorts.

Tee signs.

Innova Discatcher Baskets.

Dirt long tees. With the addition of cement long tees and a few minor tweaks i'd fate this course 4.5..

On the way to the park keep a sharp lookout for the entrance. It is very easy to miss.

Culver's is not far from the park. Love that place for lunch or dinner!

If you are in the area check out
McNaughton Park, Pekin, IL
Lake Eureka, Eureka, IL
Bradley Park, Peoria, IL
All 3 are great courses.

Check out my Illinois Top 10 list.
http://discontinuum.org/index...1486.msg62818#msg62818

-True variety of shots are required for this course. Accuracy is a must on the first eight holes, as most of these holes are carved out of the woods. Great putting is needed for the middle eight holes (in the orchard), as the scoring can be done in this stretch. The last two holes require distance and allow the grip and rip players to shine.
-Course design is second to none. If I were to rank the four best holes in the area, Northwood Park would have all four of them (5, 8, 17, 18).
-The course is fun to play, unlike McNaughton Park in Pekin. I have shot a handful of 47's at Northwood.
-Hole's 17 and 18 offer an amazing two hole finish. Some people have tried to compare it to McNaughton's finishing stretch, but that argument shouldn't be made because Morton's two finishing holes beat out Pekin's finishing holes in every way.
-Hole 5 is truly the greatest disc golf hole imaginable. If Hole 17 at TPC at Sawgrass (the island par three) is Golf's signature hole, then this is disc golf's signature hole

Can't say there are a lot of cons anymore. With the redesign of the course done, a lot of the issues with the orchard were fixed. The score separation will be much better now and it was an issue before. Concrete pads are the only thing I would add to the longs but that will be done by the September, 2012 Super Tour at Morton.

If you are in the Central Illinois area, this is the course to play. This is designer Greg Nettles at his best. This a fun course to play that should not be missed! With the recent design change the course is the best of the best. The orchard has been changed and the course is more challenging. Hole 1 has been changed and the "luck factor" is gone and the addition of new hole 9 and new hole 17 add a lot of intrigue to the course.

Wow. I don't even know where to start.

At the beginning of the course, there's a huge map of all the holes. At this point I was already impressed.
This course has forest holes, uphill holes, downhill holes, huge 600 feet fairway holes, over "water" holes (a little creek), prairie holes, and so much more. Every shot is unique and a very big challenge. The people that I ran into here were very friendly and helpful in figuring out where to go. Hole 17 is breath-taking and I was kicking myself for not bringing a camera. I had a great time with my dad here. You really won't regret coming here.

Holes 11-15 were pretty monotonous. They're all dogleg shots in the prairie. Some of the concrete tees were very muddy...but other than that, I don't really have any complaints!

This park is so beautiful. As I was playing here ( I think hole 14?) , I saw an owl come down from a tree and catch a snake!! It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen in nature. Then the very next hole I sank a 120 foot putt. You can imagine my happiness, right? Definitely check it out!

This is a phenomenal course!

Proximity to McNaughton in Pekin makes for a great disc day. WalMart is a mile away for all the last second things. Not sure if they sell discs; forgot to check.

I love practice baskets! Every course needs them!! Nothing worse than schtoinkeling a putt due to lack of practice.

Incredible mix of open and tight shots. The front half of the course is in tight, wooded areas. The middle and end of the course open up. The holes in the middle, especially, appear to be easy because the fairways are well manicured and obstacles appear minimal. Looks are deceiving! These holes can be very difficult if your disc placement is off.

Hole 1 is nearly a blind toss; throwing downhill amongst big trees. Perfect hole for a roller, if you have a good one...

Hole 2 is a tricky, short hole throwing uphill. Basket located 2/3 up the hill. Your putter will slide/roll down far if you're not careful.

Hole 5 is one of my favorite holes ever. Wish there wasn't a Gatorade bottle in the stream or a broken basket. Dang hoodlums!

Hole 18 is confusing if you've never been here before. It's a rough, yet pretty, hole that lets you 'grip n' rip'.

Cement tees are nice. Signage is good. Aside from holes 17 & 18, you won't get lost.

Lots of graffiti. Vandals need to go elsewhere.

Litter is abundant due to lack of garbage cans. My memory isn't the best; can recall garbage cans on holes 8 and 15 or 16. If there was a garbage can on every other hole, litter levels should decrease.

Wish the basket on 5 wasn't broken. That's a great hole.

Anything else is just being nitpicky. This is a phenomenal course! I wish it wasn't over two hours away.

Go here and Pekin. Your arm might fall off later, but it's well worth it. Said it before but this course warrants me being repetitive: This is a phenomenal course!

Good disc golfing here! Bring your A game!!

***Update
Love the new holes, and the bright yellow signs to help with navigation! Thanks! Three years later, the trash is gone, the graffiti mostly removed, and the fairways were well cut back through the woods. Hole #5 is just as good as I remember.

--> Original Review, from 2009
Natural Terrain --- This course design made beautiful use of the natural terrain available. The first couple holes are in the woods, with solid elevation changes and plenty of mature trees in the fairways forcing you to shape your shots... Hole #5 is easily the most beautiful hole that I've ever played on. A long teeshot slightly to the left sets a player up on top of a hill overlooking a winding stream, bridge, and basket out on a bend. *Breathtaking* Other holes take you through what feel almost like an orchard of some kind... tall grass, smallish trees planted almost in straight rows. Hole #14 follows a mound to the right, and holes #16-17 let you really rip it with some nice open holes. Hole # 18 is back up the road to your left, but its >600ft provides an elevated tee, over water, out into an open landing area, a long second shot to an uphill basket right next to the shelter you started at. Again... WONDERFUL use of the varied terrain in this park.

Hole Length --- This course really takes advantage of varied hole length (ranging from <200ft to >600ft).I literally used every single disc in my bag on this course at some point, from the longest of drivers to the most technical of hyzer/anhyzer midrange shots.

Signage --- Basic hole signs at the white tees, were overshadowed by the full map by hole #1 and online map that I printed. Something that I really liked (and appreciated my first time out) was the brick showing "next tee" direction by each basket.

Cement Tees --- These are excellent long, narrow tees on every hole, located at the white tee. The blue / red tees where applicable were painted cinder blocks set into the ground, and I think are meant to simply be grass tees.

Baskets --- Yellow targets were easy to spot for a first timer. They were in good shape, with no rust or other weathering apparent.

***Update:
Dust, dead grass and heat (101 degrees) couldn't take away from the greatness of this course.

--> Original Review, 2009
Mud --- I played when things were mostly frozen, but be ready for plenty of mud in the woods. Steep slopes, streams, and little to no grass will make about 1/3 of the holes downright treacherous after any recent rain.

Trash --- It made me really sad that there was so much trash on this course. There were probably 4-6 trash cans available throughout the course, which were 2/3 full, but there were so many beer cans, and plastic bottles strewn *everywhere* that it made made me wonder who the general player population is on this course. (*note, I have also now committed to carrying a garbage bag for trash with me on all casual rounds... if trash bothers you too, do something about it!)

Sharpie Graffiti --- Now, I'm all for noting Aces and Dates somewhere (I prefer on the bottom of the disc at hand, but could see the potential of an interesting public sharpie board added onto hole signage somewhere in the future...) but the Graffiti on this course went well past this type to include plenty of pot leaf drawings, "XYZ loves BCD" (and the seemingly requisite profanity or lewd comment that joined it soon after) or random other comments on *most* signs and baskets,... It seems that our artists got tired of their own voices partway through, because the back nine was noticeably cleaner.

Baskets --- A couple of baskets are in need of some repair work. One loose/leaning basket, and a chain single hanging down unattached, were the most noticeable.

Overall, the cons I felt were completely cosmetic... the play and course design were awesome! If I get to play this course again, and the trash is cleaned up, it will get a 4.0 or 4.5. ***Update...changed the review score!

***Thanks for the invite back to play from Cobra165... I had a great time at this course!

(my first written review)

This course was basically within sight of the Highway Exit, and the directions from DGCR were spot on. After playing on only my local courses for so long, it felt strange to pull off the highway, drive out into the farmland and basically stumble upon this absolute *gem* of a course.

I was forced to park at the south lot, and walk up hole #18 to get to the main lot and shelter due (I think) to it being rather off season when I played (Feb-28).

Looking at the course map, I was a little mystified about the layout of holes 6-7-8... why play 7, and then walk back up the hole to #8 tee? ... however, I realized immediately upon walking up to 7 tee that the layout is set that way to force all players to throw *away* from the cemetery located outside that corner of the park. It felt very respectfully laid out when walking through it... strong cudos to the designer of the course for that fact. More people should be as considerate.

I liked this course enough that I would drive from Indianapolis to play this course again if there were a 36/54/72 hole tournament over a weekend..

Tip top tees, signs, and baskets. Nice variety of holes. The wooded holes are forgiving and the wide open ones give you a chance to air it out. Especially hole 18! Great mix of lefty/righty shots. Well maintained course. There's also a "Around the World" basket before Hole 1. Detailed map of course posted at start of course also. Overall a great challenge!

I had no complains or negative thoughts while playing this course.

If you play the Peoria area, make sure you hit this course! This was my favorite we played on a day when we hit 6 in the area.