- two course maps
- excellent blue DiscGolfPark baskets
- area in multi-use park mostly devoted to disc golf
- trash cans and some benches
- nice, large dual concrete tees
- tee signs at each tee with full color maps
- intense elevation change for Illinois
- hole numbers on baskets
- next tee indicators built into baskets
- navigation generally straightforward
- good degree of challenge with variety of shots
- well maintained and mowed park
- built-in bridges where needed
- multiple water hazards
- good mix of hole lengths

- most long tees just add distance and not much of a different look
- tall prairie grasses can make finding discs difficult in places
- limited tree/woods obstacles
- long walk between 11 and 12 (but good navigational signage)
- not as natural a feel as true hills

The Quarry at Rotary Park is an excellent new course in the Starved Rock area. With the nearby Starved Rock DGC, this area is becoming a reasonably solid disc golf destination. The Quarry brings a moderate plus level of challenge with significant elevation change, water hazards, and a variety of hole lengths and tee positions.

Alas, this is Illinois, and most of our elevation change comes from old quarries and the like. I don't feel like this course is quite as natural feeling as a truly hilly or mountainous area, but it's what we've got and it's excellent in terms of vertical diversity for Illinois. Equipment is top notch, with not one, but two course signs with maps (one for front nine, one for back nine). Honestly, these are so close together it seems a bit wasteful to have two, but it's a nice touch. There are benches are garbage cans, brand new baskets, and dual concrete tees.

What's most lacking here is probably some more wooded holes. Illinois is a prairie state and that is well showcased here, but in my opinion prairie courses don't make for the best disc golf. They are excessively punishing when looking for discs, and there are elements of that here. Still this course is well laid out, separated from other park activities, and has a decent amount of technical challenge for not being very wooded. There are two ponds thrown over here which adds some more risk and another element to the course.

I only noted one long walk here, but navigation aids are excellent and it was usually clear where to go. In terms of the effort and polish put into this course, its in the upper echelon. The course wasn't quite unique and technical enough to score higher, but it's very well put together and worth a stop if you're in the area. I only had a few real complaints and its an enjoyable course. The play is strenuous here; you will be out in the sun hiking up and down hills, so it's a good idea to play early. There is a good variety of hole lengths and this course is a welcome addition to the area.

The Quarry at Rotary Park is a brand new Discgolfpark designed 18 hole course. The course traverses an old quarry, hence the name, and features lots of elevation throughout. The course is lightly wooded but there are enough trees to keep things somewhat interesting on many of the holes. There's also a couple of ponds in play on holes 12, 13 and 15. Holes 13 and 15 are legit water carries while 12 is only in play with an errant drive. It is a big downhill hole so it's very possible, especially if the wind is up.

The baskets are the same type that they have at Nearby Starved Rock DGC. Blue Banded Discgolfpark baskets which are similar to and look almost exactly like Discatchers. The blue is a nice color that stands out nicely and makes them easy to spot. These are all mounted nicely and catch great. One basket and pin placement per hole.

The tee pads are concrete. Good sized and just well done overall. I didn't have any issues with these whatsoever. Two tees per hole on every hole which is great.

The design is well laid out. It basically plays in two nine hole loops which both bring you back somewhat close to the parking lot after each loop. The front nine plays on the east side of the park and is more "wooded" than the back and shorter but more technical. The back nine plays on the west side and towards the bottom of the old quarry. This is where the ponds come into play and more drastic elevation. The holes are open enough on most holes where there's lots of options off the tee as far as shot selection so it doesn't really favor any one type of throwing style.

The flow is easy to follow out here. It's open enough that you can see the next tee from most of the previous baskets out there. The baskets have arrow attached to the bottom of the cage that also points you toward the next tee. I really love this about these baskets. You'd be hard pressed to get turned around on this course.

Nice tee signs on each pad which is always appreciated. Not just the longs or shorts like a lot of courses have. The signs have a nice hole map to go along with the hole #, par and distance. There's also an info panel that will detail any unique features for each hole such as OB and any rules on how to play it if you do find hazards or OB.

There's a large course map on the kiosk before the start of the course which is always nice if you want to take apicture to use as a course map.

The course plays in a disc golf exclusive section of the park so there shouldn't be any other park users for the most part. The walking path doesn't really ever come into play at any point.

The course doesn't have too many trees. They use what's there about as good as possible, but it's still sparse in this department.

The course play's very close to I-39 so you'll be serenaded by the soothing sounds of expressway traffic. Especially on the front nine.

Being that the course is built on an old quarry, the bottom holes are very rocky and will scuff up your discs pretty good if you play out here quite a bit. It also doesn't drain the best on these holes.

I'm not generally a fan of elevated baskets and there was two of them out here. I get it, with the lack of trees they wanted to add some extra challenge. I just feel like this is starting to get a little carried away on newer courses. When every course has an elevated basket it loses it's uniqueness.

This is actually a nice compliment to the also brand new Starved Rock just 10 minutes down the road. Both are Discgolfpark courses so they feature the same amenities but in two totally different types of parks. While I preferred Starved Rock slightly more this was still a fun course and is well worth a play if you find yourself passing through the area. Not a must play but the second best in the vicinity imo.

-Elevation change: This course plays in a former quarry. You start at the rim and play down and back up 3x over the course of 18 holes. There are big downhill (1, 10, and 12) and challenging uphill holes (11 and 18). In some cases, there is a slight hump in the fairway that makes it more difficult to judge distance. Due to much of the course playing on a slope, bad shots can wind up way offline.

-Equipment: This is a DiscGolfPark course. If you've played one, you mostly know what to expect. Standard DiscGolfPark baskets with blue bands, plus a white banded practice basket. Course map. Concrete tees instead of the usual DGP turf. Nice, signs at both sets of tees and truly excellent navigational signage. The DiscGolfPark baskets feature a metal arrow welded into the bottom of the cage pointing to the next tee. In the few cases where the red and white tees were in different directions, a second arrow was added to show the way to the reds. Additional signage is added as needed, like on the transition through the woods from 11 to 12 (including an alternate path in case the direct route is flooded) and from 14 to 15. The two water holes have clearly signed drop zones. Due to all the up and down and the rough nature of some of the terrain, I really appreciated the extra effort to make it clear where to go next. There are solidly built wooden bridges between 12 and 13 and between 13 and 14.

-Design: Due to the largely open nature of this course, I was pleasantly surprised that I couldn't just throw hyzer after hyzer. Outside of the two water holes (13 & 15), this course never felt repetitive off the tee. Both water holes are around 250' from the long tees and require 230-240' to clear the water, but 15's basket is situated much closer to the water and it's very easy for a good but not great drive to yield a death putt. The course loops back to the start after 9, with the parking lot on the other side of the soccer fields in case you need to refill your water. Holes 9 and 18 use staked OB to define the dogleg left fairways. Not my favorite design feature, but it's not overused here and both holes are probably better as a result.

Multi throw holes: I prefer a few multi throw holes amidst my mostly par 3 golf and The Quarry delivers. Holes 1 (white only) and 9 are par 4s, with 1 playing fairly soft and 9 playing significantly tougher. Hole 18 finishes things off with an excellent par 5.

-Playable for a variety of skill levels: Each hole features red and white tees. Generally the reds changed the line in addition to shortening the holes. Both felt appropriately difficult for the stated skill levels. Hole 18 long/white was the exception. I'd consider it at least blue level in difficulty, maybe even approaching gold. Birdie is out of the question for a white level player (outside of 3 excellent shots and a throw in from outside circle 2). I wouldn't change a thing though. This is a killer finishing hole. Just keep in mind that the red tee is probably closer to white level.

-Foliage: Since this course is situated in a former quarry, there aren't many large trees to contend with and almost all are found on the front 9. When we played in April, there was virtually no shade outside of the path from 11 to 12. I'm not sure I'd want to play this one in midsummer heat. Lots of up and down hiking with the sun beating down on you. The relative lack of trees is the only major con in my book, but it really limits the rating ceiling for an otherwise excellent course.

-Shot shape variety: There are a lot of fairly straight shots and a few that finish left, but only 16 white has a right finish and there's nothing preventing you from throwing a rhbh hyzer there too.

-Gimmicky design elements: Holes 8 and 16 feature baskets elevated via a really long pole. Both have the cage about 6' above the ground. While I'm not against elevated baskets in general, using a longer pole is my least favorite method. I don't know that either hole really needed the elevated basket. Hole 7 has an artificial island green made of a rectangle of railroad ties in an attempt to give this very short hole (from either tee) some teeth. I'm not really a fan of artificial islands.

-Finish: While some of the fairways are fairly smooth, there is plenty of rough terrain. Watch your step or risk rolling an ankle. There's a path (more like a gravel service road) that must have been used for heavy equipment that cuts through a few holes on the back 9. It sounds like this will eventually be replaced with grass. It was fairly dry when I played, but I could see the need for small bridges to cross the low area on 2, 3 and 18 in wetter times. Right now 2 and 3 had stepping stones to cross the (tiny when I played) stream.

-Tee size: I'd have liked the tees to be at least 2' longer. Since most of the holes are on a hillside, starting behind the pad is often awkward.

This course is a really fun and fairly tiring spin. If you're planning to pair this with the nearby Starved Rock course, I'd play this one in the morning as Starved Rock has infinitely more shade to block the midday sun. There are what looked like real bathrooms near the parking lot and a picnic shelter and playground as well. Although both were in use, I didn't see any of those park users ranging out into the course, probably since they'd have to hike back up. The two soccer fields weren't in use, but multiple games could make the decent size parking lot fill up fast.

While this course is a former quarry and you'll see some large rocks in places, most of the fairways are grass and it was surprisingly easy on my bag full of base plastic.

Hole 18 kicked my ass, but I loved it. It's an 850' beast of a par 5 that opens with either a downhill or cross valley shot (depending how far you throw). The OB seasonal stream is maybe 325' from the tee. From there it plays steeply uphill and eventually doglegs left. OB stakes define the fairway and green. Basket is behind the leftmost large tree at the top of the hill.

I played the longs and my son played the shorts, so I think I got a good feel for both layouts.

Fishing conflicts: I forgot to mention that we saw a group fishing on 13's pond. There's plenty of cleared space along the far bank to allow for fishing and disc to coexist, but only if both groups are aware and respectful. On 13, they were setup well away from the basket and we could throw safely. We greeted them as we passed by and they moved to 15's pond while we were playing 14. When we got to 15s tees, they were fishing from 15s green. Before I could even ask, they offered to move, which we gladly accepted.

Coming back around, we stopped to chat about how the ponds were fishing. Apparently these two ponds are stunted (I think that's the term, with a ton of tiny bass and not enough food to allow them to grow large enough to be worth catching). The plan is to introduce muskie to thin out the bass and let them grow large enough to be worth fishing. They said there's another pond that has much better fishing, but it's a 30 minute additional hike from the parking lot.

If the muskie plan works as intended, these ponds could get more popular for fishing and hopefully the park responds by clearing out more spots along the banks that are out of the dg spray zone. Some signage to alert both groups couldn't hurt.

A broad quarry is the setting for this new course. You drive in at the top of the course and when you get out of the car the magic has already begun. You can see the entire course spread out below you. Really no trees to deal with at this point. The quarry is probably 100 feet deep, I measured a 50 foot drop from tee at the rim to #10 basket and there was at least another 50 feet down to the next lower parts.

Any bomb shot is made up for the climb back up out of the quarry. 1-9 plays down and back up and 10 does the same so the designers used the terrain well.

18 is a special hole. Or terrifying. Over 600 from the short tees and uphill, the entire way. I had to stop after 12, another great bomb shot, so I wasn't able to play 18.

13 is a great risk, like risk of losing your disk in a pond. The basket stands about 10 feet above the water and a near vertical dirt bank down to the water will surely cause your disk to find a watery grave if it's thrown short. It is a short hole at least.

15 also plays across the water but I didn't see it so can't comment on it.

A final positive among many is that the course is just off of I-80, a very easy course to get to and if you're visiting the very popular and nearby Starved Rock State Park you can really make a great day of it. You can also disc the Starved Rock disc course to really make a great day of it and you might as well visit Matthiesson State park and totally wear yourself out like I did.

The course is not for those who will struggle walking up and down some rather steep hills.

Springs leech water onto the slopes of the course making them wet but when I played after a week of rain, it was manageable.

I imagine in the summer as the grasses grow that you'll spend some time searching for your disk. The course seems to big to be kept up with a mower.

4 (?) soccer fields might make parking a problem on weekends when the soccer moms and dads of the world show up to win championships. I guess a pro is if your kid is playing soccer and you don't like it you could play disc!

I really think this course as word spreads is going to be on the list of places you must play among many in Illinois. It's really just opening this spring so good things are to come as word gets out.