southern Illinois golf courses

[pcew73]

Guys,

 

I am looking for a course and hotel to play/ stay in mid to southern Illinois during the second week of May. A group of 12-16 will be traveling down I-57 from Chicago though illinois on our way to Mississippi. In the past we have stopped at Rend Lake but the last few years we have not been impressed and are looking for something new. Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

[nitram]

Annbriar in Waterloo. The best, by far and worth veering off of I-57.

Spencer T. Olin near Alton. Always in decent shape and accessible.

[pd1775]

Gateway National is usually a good track, but I heard they tore up all there back tee boxes recently. So unless you want to play the course from about 6,000 yard I'd skip it.

[ramseyjs]

Annbriar and the others mentioned are very good courses but are not off of 57. If you are travelling down 57 then I would head to Kokopelli in Marion (site of the 2012 Illinois State Amateur) and Hickory Ridge, which is the SIU Carbondale Golf Course. Both are very good tracks and a lot of fun. I am from Chicago and we would do a spring trip down there every year so I am pretty familiar with the area and those are the two standouts.

[pcew73]

Thank you for the responses guys. We stopped at Kokopelli in 2009, when they were in the transition of new ownership and the place was just awful. I have done some checking and it seems that they are behind all of that now and have brought it back to what it once was. I think we will give her another go around and from the sounds of it we will be impressed. Cant wait!

[Betterthanbogeys]

Definitely give Kokopelli another try. I last played there in September and it was in excellent shape!