Pros:
- Well maintained park with many additional amenities
- Fun course is entertaining for multiple skill levels with a variety of challenges and types of fairways
- Good baskets, tee pads, and signs
Cons:
- A few layout issues resulting in mild conflicts between fairways and roads/parking lots and baskets and tee pads
- Skews slightly short and open limiting challenge for more advanced players
- Could be confusing to get to your first time out
Other Thoughts:
Randal Oaks is a great recreational level course that makes good use of the space allotted. I admire courses that don't try and force in or leave out fairways to conform to the standard 9, 18, or 27 hole layout. The 10 holes here provide a good amount of variety while being fun to play for multiple skill levels. During my round I was also informed by members of the local Lucky Shots disc golf club that there is an additional 18 hole layout developed by the club that is available on UDisc if you have the time and the course is empty enough to allow some safari type golf.
There is a nice spread of fairway distances ranging from just under 200' to over 400'. There are a handful of moderately wooded fairways (though the course is mostly open) that require some mild shot shaping, but the stand out feature is the elevation used on half of the holes. There are some fairly significant hills (at least for Illinois) that you will be throwing up, down, and across, with a few baskets placed on greens with considerable rollaway potential. This course has enough challenge and variety to entertain more experienced players hunting for birdies, while being approachable enough not to turn away newer players. Holes 3, 4, and 9 were the standouts to me, making good use of both elevation and trees to force some shot shaping.
There are a few layout issues at this course. There are a couple places where pads and baskets are a little too close to each other, but generally the course is well spaced. Hole 3 is a great shot, but there is a very real chance of your shot going over the fence into the ball golf course on the left, or finding the parking lot on the right. The drive on Hole 5 crosses a road and walking path, while playing parallel to another road.
The DISCatcher baskets are aging but still catch well, the paver tee pads are very nice, and the tee signs are simple but effective. The sign for Hole 3 was missing during my visit, making finding the pad the only real navigational difficulty of the round for me. It is slightly confusing getting to the course in the first place as you have to drive through the parking lot for the zoo, and go down what sort of feels like a private access road to the right (north) that then takes you south around the zoo and along the ball golf course, past a playground, past another parking lot, until you finally get to a final parking lot near Hole 1 and the course map.
This is a nice, well maintained course that I wish I lived closer to. There are additional amenities that I have already mentioned like a petting zoo with games and a playground that could really make this a great destination for an inexpensive family day out. The course itself is well worth bagging if you are in the area, if not something to go out of your way to travel a great distance for. I stopped by after a trip to More Brewing Company just down the road in Huntley, and definitely hope to make it back to both locations in the near future.