(1.697 Rating) A basic campus park style niner.
- A COURSE ON CAMPUS - For students that attend Southern Illinois, this is going to be an adequate course. The game play has been tweaked a bit harder from earlier years and now offers a low-end Rec challenge. Birdies can be had and bogeys are possible on horrible shots that also have a bad follow-up approach shot.
- BEGINNER FRIENDLY - Not a perfect beginners course, but not too bad. The course is mainly lightly wooded and has a good mix of par 3 distances. It's hard to lose a disc too. Sure there is fringe water on a couple holes, but there is plenty of bail out space. Very little overgrowth as well.
- NATURAL BEAUTY - I scored this category about 45 percentile but decided to include it up here because it's one of the stronger qualities. The grounds are really well maintained which is always a plus. The greenscape was very healthy and vibrant for my July round. The detractors are modest. Lots of man-made features in view through-out the course. No part of the course is fully detached from the built environment. None of the holes have a wow element too them. It's nice, just not glowing.
- QUICK PLAY - I was done in less than twenty minutes. The walk to the course is 5 minutes though, and it's also a 5-minute walk back to the car.

A standard small 9 holer with spacing issues.
- SAFETY HAZARDS - I played at the break of dawn and still had to wait several times for walkers. Concrete walking paths are played parallel too, and also thrown over several times. I don't recall any holes that were free of this issue. On (6), play is really close to a large playground area. In addition to these hazards, the layout is rather squeezed together. Fairway definition is either light or non-existent. Discs will find other supposed fairways. Players will need to be aware of their surroundings and be instinctive on when not to throw.
- PAY TO PARK - Visitors will need to park in visitor only parking spots and pay money. I don't recall how much it is, because I rolled the dice on a summer morning on a weekend when no one was around. In addition, tee (1) is a good 500-foot walk to the closest visitor lot.
- AMENITIES AND EXTRAS - The first amenity I saw was an updated course map. A great start that was unfortunately not followed up on in other areas. No practice basket and the baskets on the course are older mach IIIs with a couple other newer model replacements. A couple baskets appear to have taken some hits from lawn equipment. The tees are dirt and were only marked with timber tee edges about half of the time. No extra tees or alt basket placements. I'm pretty sure there was a restroom building a couple hundred feet west of tee (1), but I didn't check to see if it was open.
- NAVIGATION AND SIGNAGE - Passable. The course map as noted above, helps quite a bit. The tee signs are older but generally do the job. A sign is missing on (6), and thus it will be hard to spot on first go around. I personally teed from the wrong area on (6) as I didn't spot the throwing scar till hole (9).
- HOLE VARIETY - Below average overall, but I think it's about average among all the niners I've played. A decent mix of distances from low 200s to upper 400s. There's one par 4 that will require a strategically placed drive to leave a plausible line to attack the basket on the next shot. The holes themselves are generally park style shots with varying tree coverages. There's some mild 10-foot elevation change and some water to be cognizant of on a couple holes.
- LACK OF CHALLENGE - A low end rec challenge. Mostly park-style shots that need to weave around a couple trees. Very little technical prowess is required although ripping shots plus 350 will be needed to birdie a couple holes. Overall, I think even par would equate to around an 850 rated round.

The only course on campus now as the old nearby Rec Center course appears to have been fully removed as of this review. Overall, it feels like a 1.75ish course. The hole quality is probably good enough to deserve a 2.0 rating on my ledger, but there are just too many minor flaws bringing it back. The course should work fine for school students and faculty, but that's about it. No reason for cherry pickers to seek this course out unless that they happen to be in town. For baggers that are traveling along I57 like myself, this one will pad the courses played stats for sure. It's only a 30-minute drive from the hotels in Marion that I frequently stay at, and that's how I was able to check this one off. If I were in the area again, I'd replay Blackjack or Pharaoh again well before I'd consider here again.

- nice, pretty area
- in town
- very beginner friendly

- very short course
- many holes overlap other holes or pedestrian walkways
- very busy with pedestrians and other players
- somewhat confusing layout
- natural tees

it's not bad for the small area it's in, but it definitely leaves a lot to be desired. i will say that it is a great course to play with a new player. apparently there are unofficial alternate tees, but you have to get in touch with a local in order to learn them.

Par 36, but par is set way too high. Only two holes over 300. Three holes under 200. Basically pitch and putt. I do like holes 4 and 9 though.

Hole 4 is 270' and the flight path passes over an arm of the lake right before the green. You can get a 2 if you go for it.