Note: Course Reviews are in no particular order, but mainly reflect the courses I am playing with my 11-year old son and resident junior golfer.
For many years, I have periodically driven by Kaufman Park Golf Course, on the south side of Route 24 at the west edge of Eureka. I’ve always seen a smallish parking lot, a small, plain clubhouse, and what appeared to be the first hole, stretching out of view on flat terrain. Countless times, I made a mental note to come back to play the course, but I never did.
That is, until this past weekend, when me and my wee golf buddy made the short trip over from Peoria to give it a try.
Before getting into the specifics of the course, though, I was impressed with the history that has been recorded about Kaufman Park. At the website, there is a historical record available that was written by a Dr. James Riley that details the origins of the course dating back to the early 1920’s and progressing through to the mid-1980’s. Essentially, the Kaufman family made certain acreage of their farm available for the first iteration of the course, and that relationship continued for several decades, until ultimately, the land making up the present course was donated to the Kaufman Park Golf Course entity. It’s an interesting read, and makes you appreciate the relative luxury we enjoy on today’s golf courses, compared to, for example, greens made from sand and fairways mown by livestock!
Back to our experience, we handled our greens fees and cart rental (pull carts available, too) in the clubhouse, which also offers balls (exclusively Snell golf balls, which I have seen nowhere else), tees, gloves, etc. Greens fees and cart rental are reasonable. The young lady behind the counter was very friendly, and we were soon loading our bags onto the cart.
As soon as we reached the first green, I realized the course was much different from what can be seen from the road. Beyond and to the right of the first green, you find a cluster of elevated tees for the 2nd, 6th, and 9th holes. The 2nd hole tee shot is over a creek below and onto a flat fairway that doglegs to the right. The 3rd hole is a fairly straightforward and level par 5, followed by a slightly elevated tee shot to the par 3 4th green. The 5th hole is a sharp dogleg right, requiring a short and precise tee shot of about 200 yards to hit the elbow and leave a clear shot of less than 100 yards to the green.
Leaving the 5th hole marks the end of the fairly level holes. The 6th tee (part of the cluster mentioned above) is elevated and a carry of about 180-200 yards will cross a pretty deep, fairway valley/ravine and place your ball at or near the top of a ridge whose elevation pretty closely matches that of the tee. From there, your 2nd shot must cross another, smaller fairway valley/ravine to a green sitting somewhat lower. Fail to make the ridge on your tee shot, or fail to make the green (or close to it) on your 2nd shot, and you will have either a pretty severe uphill or downhill lie, depending on the miss. Just behind the 6th green sits a tall pole with a birdhouse mounted on top, which is visible from many locations on the way to that green; hence, the 6th is known as the Birdhouse Hole.
The 7th and 8th holes come back towards the elevated tee cluster and are both par 3s. The 7th is 180-210 yards, crossing the fairway valley/ravine again and ending at a green elevated about the same as the tee. Miss the green and you’ll have a steep uphill lie to get to the dance floor. The 8th is a shorter par 3 of about 120 yards, with the green about 20-30 feet below the tee in elevation.
The 9th hole begins at the elevated tee cluster and is fairly straightforward, with the fairway having a left-to-right slope until about 100 yards before the green, where it levels out.
I should note that on most holes, several tee options create hole distances that can accommodate short, medium, and long hitters, although the longer hitters will likely choose a club less than driver off the tee for several holes.
On this first trip, we both thought we would try out as many of the uphill, downhill, and sidehill lies as possible. For journalistic purposes, of course. Now that we’ve experienced all the course can offer from that perspective, we want to return and see how it plays if you actually hit the landing spots that make many of the holes more manageable.
Regarding the condition of the course, we had no complaints. The fairways were uniformly mown and perfectly playable, but not manicured. The greens were in good shape, with gentle to moderate breaks, reasonable speed, and no false fronts or ridges or the like. There were just a few spots on a couple greens where there were turf issues. There are no bunkers — the sidehill/downhill/uphill lies that result from an errant shot on holes 6, 7, and 8 more than make up for the absence of bunkers. It feels and plays like a course where care and effort surpass raw budget, and that seems fine to me. We appreciated the condition and challenges throughout our round and will be back to try it out again, knowing now there is much more to the course than can be seen while driving by.