- Great variety for a golf course style layout

- Golf carts are a great option to have

- Beautiful and well-kept property

- Very nice temporary baskets

- Natural tee pads

- Expensive to play relative to other area courses

- Potential conflict with ball golfers

- Navigation can be tricky first time out

The Pine Hills disc golf course is open seasonally from October to March, sharing space with the 9 hole golf course. As one would expect the course is mostly open but uses the scattered trees and sloping hillsides extremely well. There are also a handful of more wooded holes including a few that require tight gaps to be hit. There is no extreme elevation change here, but most of the fairways have some significant grade gain or loss, and many greens have rollaway potential. The course seems to vary slightly year to year, I've played both 18 and 20 hole configurations, but the layout is mostly consistent. Overall, this course has more variety than you would typically expect from a layout on a ball golf course and water comes in to play on two holes. I've updated the hole distances based on my latest rounds, though holes 19 and 20 were not played, so those numbers are from 2020.

Equipment is a mixed bag, tees are almost entirely natural which can definitely be an issue considering the course is only open in the wetter/colder months, but the portable DISCatcher baskets are great quality temp baskets. No benches, though this is mitigated if you spring for a golf cart. I believe there were a couple port-o-potties on the back half of the course and a smattering of trash cans as well. I've only played during tournaments when the course was reserved, but I'd expect sharing the space with golfers during the off season isn't too much of a problem. The green/cart fee was $25 for the day, not sure what the rate is for just green fees without a cart. Walking is certainly manageable, but the cart is very nice to have. Tee times are required so call ahead at the number found on the website linked in the Links/Files tab.

Pine Hills is a fun layout that I would probably play regularly if I lived nearby. The property is pretty, well kept, and pleasant to play through, keep an eye out for bald eagles! The greens fees may dissuade many people from playing often, but I think it's a layout worth checking out if you live in the area, and the novelty of the golf carts adds to the experience. The restaurant/bar/pro shop on site is also great and had very reasonable prices for food and drink. For those traveling to the area, check out the nearby Starved Rock State Park for some fantastic hiking trails and waterfalls, one of my favorite places in Illinois. A weekend stay at the park and a round or two at Pine Hills is well worth it.

Pine Hills is located on a golf course. The area is very scenic on and around the golf course. The course is more "open" but there are a lot of intersting features which add challenge. Sand traps, greens, elevation, and water add challenge and thought on shot selection.

Innova Discatcher Pro Portable baskets. Awesome temporary baskets and catch great. Very visable.

Although this course is rather open there is a wide variety of shots and disc selection required. Thought on shot selection and risk/reward come into play as well.

If you like throwing rollers there are many options to do so.

Golf carts rule! For $10/round or $15 all day I think this is a good value.

Hole #5 is one bad arse Par 6!

Hole #17 is awesome. Great risk/reward shooting over the cliff. If you come up short you are in the water or OB on the cliff.

Being able to pull out drivers and let them rip is a bonus.

The clubhouse is very nice! The restrooms are clean. The food is great and reasonably priced. There are a few port o potties out on the course as well.

If you like drinking beer while playing disc golf this is the place for you. No need to hide it. Stock up the cooler in the clubhouse and enjoy your suds. No park rangers or cops to worry about.

I would give this course a 4 disc rating if there were tee pads and signs.

I had no problem navigating the course either time I played but I could see some struggling. Having a cart will help the issue when you can drive up and check the hole out.

This course is long and isn't beginner friendly. I could see novice players or those who can't throw over 300ft not liking this course.

If you are travleling down I80 this is a really good/fun place to stop and play.

You can get a good idea of the scoring at the course. It was fairly windy for this event.
http://www.pdga.com/tournament_results/75266

Being temporary there are many options of being flexible. I played an event in the spring and came back to find many tweaks and changes to the design in the fall.

Make sure you call before driving out to make sure the course is open for play!

The course shares space with a 9 hole ball golf course. Most of the holes play along the edges of the fairways, bringing mature trees into play and keeping it from just being wide open shots. Several holes play near the edge of the woods, offering chances to end up in the rough. Ball golf greens and sand traps along with some property line fences add ob to contend with.

Unlike many shared courses, Pine Hills isn't just a bunch of long bombs. There are some shorter ho,es mixed in, and many reachable lengths for the advanced and open players the course seems to have been designed for. There are some nice long holes, many of which offer some interesting shot placement challenges to set up your second drive. The signature par 6 dogleg is a really interesting set of shots, and with the mando, ob fence, dogleg and steep uphill approach it takes 4 excellent drives to have a chance at a birdie 5. There aren't a lot of hills, but the rolling elevation changes are used well and the few steeper areas are brought into play as much as possible.

The baskets are temporary, but all were in good shape and nicely leveled. The tees were grass, but there hasn't been enough traffic to make them a problem, and all were in nice flat spots. The course description available in the clubhouse has good descriptions of the holes and instructions for getting to the next tee.

Because the course is temporary, there isn't any signage and the next tee markers aren't always staked down well. This makes it a little tricky at times to figure out the course flow. The tees aren't numbered and occasionally there are spots where multiple tees are visible and it takes a little bit of work to figure it out. The hole descriptions are nice, but with several long blond holes it would be nice to have a course map or individual hole layouts.

Because the disc golf layout doesn't exactly parallel the golf layout, there can be some conflicts. The golfers were very polite when we played, but they do have the right of way so make sure to pay attention as you play on or near the golf fairways.

Despite the excellent use of the available trees and elevation, this course does still feel pretty open at times. Experienced players will enjoy the multi-shot challenges and the chance to air it out. Beginners will find it pretty long, and probably won't have as much fun. It's always a fun extra to have golf carts, and they're no extra charge here for an added bonus.

If this course were available year round and had some basic signage it would bump up to a 4 for me, mostly thanks to the interesting par 4, 5 and 6 holes that make you plan how you're going to attack each part of the hole.