Nothing Greater Than Decatur

From Snowville to Scoville

By Brian Weis

Every Wisconsinite dreams of a golf trip as the weather turns in fall or as the snow starts melting in spring. If you are struck with the golf itch but do not have the time for a long golf excursion or the budget for high end golf destinations, then look no further than Central Illinois.

Image this, no expensive flights, no airport security lines, no time changes and best of all no baggage fees. If that is not an attention getter than let me set the hook by say that within a 4 hour drive of Milwaukee you can play a weekends worth of golf on a variety of courses variety at reasonable rates. How is this for reasonable? A round of golf and a nights stay starting at $55 a person, based on double occupancy. (Yes, you read that right!)

About Decatur

Decatur, Illinois is more known for its blue collar and agricultural roots than a golf destination. However, the area features arguably a collection of three municipal courses that would rival any municipal's trio in the country.

Similar in size and stature to Green Bay, the Soybean Capital of the World is home to Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and Tate & Lyle. Unlike Green Bay they currently do not have a National Football Team however their welcome sign will point out they are the original birthplace of the Chicago Bears.

Weather

Typically in the fall and spring, Decatur is 10-15 degrees warmer than Milwaukee with the golf courses opening in early March and closing in late November. Scovill Golf Club brands itself as a year round course.

Top Tracks

Typically, I list Top courses in order of my favorites. In this cases each of the three courses are so different, that my order has no rhyme or reason other than the order I played them.

Red Tail Run Golf Club
Designed by the legendary Hall of Fame golfer Raymond Floyd, this signature course is a classic modern links course. "The Tail" meanders thru natural prairie on the front nine and thru mature oak forests on the back.

Dubbed "Raymond's Turn", holes 14 through 17 is Decatur's answer to Amen corner. After playing the course for the first time, Floyd himself remarked that if you can go one over on those four holes you can score well.

The meat of the back nine starts at the par five 14th. This hole will have you grabbing your yardage book before every shot including off the tee, where you are faced with a fairway splitting creek that is reachable. Play it safe with a smooth choked down driver or better yet pipe a fairway wood. Less is more for the second shot, hit a mid iron 10-20 yards passed the 150 stake. It is best to leave yourself 120-130 yards out and attack the green with a short iron which takes the pond and narrowing fairway out of play.

By far the 15th is the most memorable hole. Three words come to mind; location, location, location. Strategic placement to the left is needed or the tall mature trees will block your approach to the 90 degree dog leg right green.

The par 3 17th dubbed the Fortress is anything but a misnomer. The 231 yard hole is fortified by an elevated green, a watery moat on the left and three deep sand bunkers surrounding the green. The only Trojan Horse is a well struck fairway wood. Locals call this hole the easiest par 4 in Decatur.

Skinny
5 Tees: 7351, 6713, 6164, 5615 and 5104 yards
Slope/Rating: 132/74.4
Rate: Weekend With Cart $41 ($26.50 walking)

Course Information
Red Tail Run
520 West Grove Road
Decatur, IL 62521
217-422-2211

Scovill Golf Club
Named one of the top 100 "women-friendly" courses in the nation by Golf for Women magazine, Scovill is the most visited course by out-of-town golfers. A member of the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary System, Scovill features manicured fairways and beautiful natural plantings.

Unlike the other two courses in the trio, Scovill is a woodlands course that features stunning elevation changes. At first glance of the score card the length won't intimate you but the steep climbs and drops will have you in an uncomfortable awe. The starting and finishing holes are ones that set the stage for your round. The first hole is a modest 475 yard par 5. Warming up I could not help but realize I would have to blast a drive to climb the 3 story wall in front of me. The final hole is a classic risk versus reward hole, a down hill 238 tight hole with a massive pond on the right and out of bounds to the left. A well struck drive has eagle potential all over it. However, a slight fade or draw could spell disaster.

Skinny
4 Tees: 5925, 5255, 4832, and 4303 yards
Slope/Rating: 119/68.4
Rate: Weekend With Cart $41 ($26.50 walking)

Course Information
Scovill Golf Course
3909 West Main Street
Decatur, IL 62522
217-429-6243

Hickory Point Golf Club
Hickory Point Golf Club, located on Decatur's north side, is home of the Tate & Lyle LPGA FUTURES Tour. The Larry Packard designed course features generous fairways, lengthy holes and well manicured conditions from tee to green. In addition, to the course Hickory Point offers a lighted driving range and special six-hole short course for beginning and youth golfers.

The championship course recently went through a full restoration and has the feelings of a resort course.

The second hardest hole forces a three well stuck shots down a down dog leg par 5. The creak meanders through the hole twice making shot selection important.

Skinny
5 Tees: 6848, 6514, 6150, 5901 and 5779 yards
Slope/Rating: 125/72.4
Rate: Weekend With Cart $41 ($26.50 walking)

Course Information
Hickory Point Golf Course
727 Weaver Road
Decatur, IL 62535
217-421-7444

Where To Stay

Decatur offers numerous hotel chains including Holiday Inn, Hampton Inn, Ramada, Homewood Suites to name a few. The Decatur Convention and Visitors Bureau lists all the hotels with golf stay and play packages. View current packages www.experiencedecatur.com/getaway.php.

Our group stayed at the Country Inn & Suites. The rooms were comfortable and the service was great plus they offer the three things that are needed for most traveling golfers; WiFi internet access, a hot tub and complimentary continental breakfast.

2011 Country Inn & Suites Package
Golf Package Rate: $70.00 per day per person, based on double occupancy.
Package Includes: 18 holes of golf with shared cart and bucket of balls.

Country Inn & Suites
5150 Hickory Point Frontage Road
Decatur , IL 62526
217-872-2402
www.countryinns.com

Where To Eat

The Beach House
Looking for causal fining dining after your rounds, make your reservations at The Beach House located on the shores of Lake Decatur. The menu showcases aged hand cut steaks to fresh seafood. I highly recommend the Pretzel Encrusted Chicken Breast. Your biggest decision will be your sides. You will be faced with the usual choices but they are well known for their four cheese blend Mac n' Cheese and crispy tator tots. Trust me on this one, live a little and order both!

A little piece of trivia, Ken Davis, general manager of The Beach House was the former butler for Hall of Fame golfer Raymond Floyd. In 2006, Floyd's house burned down and Dwayne Andreas, president of ADM invited Floyd to stay with him. The stay was fruitful for the park district because the concept and design for Red Tail Run Golf Club was conceived.

The Beach House
In Nelson Park on Lake Decatur
2301 East Lakeshore Drive
Decatur, IL 62521
(217) 422-7202

The Final Word

Decatur Convention and Visitors Bureau has been aggressively rebranding the area as a golf destination by attending almost every Midwestern golf show. Had I not stumbled on their booth, I would have never considered it for my golf travels. I highly recommend the area due to the quality of golf, reasonable costs and close proximity to Southeastern Wisconsin.

My lasting impression of the city of Decatur is Midwest sensibility with southern hospitality.

More Information
Decatur CVB

Article Tags: Decatur Illinois

Revised: 04/20/2011 - Article Viewed 33,924 Times

About: Brian Weis

Brian Weis is the mastermind behind GolfTrips.com, a vast network of golf travel and directory sites covering everything from the rolling fairways of Wisconsin to the sunbaked desert layouts of Arizona. If there’s a golf destination worth visiting, chances are, Brian has written about it, played it, or at the very least, found a way to justify a "business trip" there.

As a card-carrying member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA), International Network of Golf (ING), Golf Travel Writers of America (GTWA), International Golf Travel Writers Association (IGTWA), and The Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG), Brian has the credentials to prove that talking about golf is his full-time job. In 2016, his peers even handed him The Shaheen Cup, a prestigious award in golf travel writing—essentially the Masters green jacket for guys who don’t hit the range but still know where the best 19th holes are.

Brian’s love for golf goes way back. As a kid, he competed in junior and high school golf, only to realize that his dreams of a college golf scholarship had about the same odds as a 30-handicap making a hole-in-one. Instead, he took the more practical route—working on the West Bend Country Club grounds crew to fund his University of Wisconsin education. Little did he know that mowing greens and fixing divots would one day lead to a career writing about the best courses on the planet.

In 2004, Brian turned his golf passion into a business, launching GolfWisconsin.com. Three years later, he expanded his vision, and GolfTrips.com was born—a one-stop shop for golf travel junkies looking for their next tee time. Today, his empire spans all 50 states, and 20+ international destinations.

On the course, Brian is a weekend warrior who oscillates between a 5 and 9 handicap, depending on how much he's been traveling (or how generous he’s feeling with his scorecard). His signature move" A high, soft fade that his playing partners affectionately (or not-so-affectionately) call "The Weis Slice." But when he catches one clean, his 300+ yard drives remind everyone that while he may write about golf for a living, he can still send a ball into the next zip code with the best of them.

Whether he’s hunting down the best public courses, digging up hidden gems, or simply outdriving his buddies, Brian Weis is living proof that golf is more than a game—it’s a way of life.