Orange at University of Illinois Golf Course

Was pleasantly surprised by the conditions at UoI’s Orange Course! Despite some rain and cart path restrictions, the course dried up pretty quickly. Most importantly, the tee boxes, fairways and greens were in great condition and a pleasure to hit off of. Ponds are a bit low and unsightly but everything else was great. Highly recommend playing this course!👍

Drove 90 minutes south due to unplayable conditions at home. Greens fees surprisingly affordable and maybe it would deserve 5 stars if normal conditions.

Rough had plenty of flowered clover which made locating balls difficult at times.

Course is pretty nice, somewhat short and affordable with green complexes reminiscent of Donald Ross’ Ravisloe course up north.

Gale force winds throughout with an hourlong rain delay.

Great cheeseburger and fries along with a Yuengling made it it all worthwhile.

Played with a few members and an overall enjoyable experience.

Total cost for the day: $26 greens fee, $15 sleeve of ProV1s, $12 cheeseburger/fries/beer.

I played 36 holes, 18 on the Orange course and 18 on the Blue course. I used to play this course when I was a member of the University of Illinois Men's Golf Team in the late 70's. It's always been a favorite of mine, so I try to play it at least once per year. Brings back great memories from my college days. I highly recommend these two 18 hole courses!

Nice course, but had an experience that was less than ideal. I booked an afternoon tee time and as we got to hole 15, we were kicked off the course due to league night. We weren’t able to finish our round we paid for. Why would we be able to book a tee time for 18 holes knowing full well we would not be able to finish it before a league night that we knew nothing about.

The orange is more challenging than the blue, I was in the trees all day but had a good time,

Have played this course numerous times. While the green fees are relatively affordable, the value offered is slightly subpar. On this occasion, the experience was especially poor due to the lack of an adequate number of golf carts available. With a reserved tee time of 10:22, we weren’t able to tee off until 10:50, because of the wait for golf carts. Poor planning by management.

The course itself is in reasonable shape. Greens and fairways were in fair quality. Sand traps were heavy sand because of recent storms. Cart paths could use some repair. Course represents a reasonable and fair challenge for a wide range of handicap levels.

Staff could have a better attitude. The manager/pro is not particularly customer focused or friendly. Unapologetic attitude about the golf cart shortage and his explanation that “this has never been an issue before” rings untrue, as this has happened on at least a couple of occasions this season. The rest of the staff is a little better, but don’t expect stellar service here.

Used one o the GolfNow hot deals and paid $25.49 per person for my son (6) and I to go out, 18 with cart included. This is almost of the cost of cart fees in some other places, so the value is phenomenal.

The course has very good layout although the condition of the fairways and greens are mediocre. The bunkers feel somewhat different than what I expected but I hit great shots out of them so all is well.

Got some hot dog and Powerade before tee-off and the restaurant and clubhouse staff are very friendly. They let us go out by ourselves.

There was a group of foursome in front of us at the 1st tee who are obviously new golfers. Three of them duffed their drives and subsequent shots so I was worried it was going to be a long day. However they waved us through after 3 holes so all was well. In fact, it was clear sailing after that point.

That is, until we made the turn. We stopped by the restroom and when we got to the 10th tee, a fivesome was magically inserted in front of us. We had to sit around until they teed off. All five of them are very good golfers and wasted no time, but it still felt rather strange. We spent the rest of the round waiting behind them at every tee box. At one point they told me there was a foursome in front of them who are playing slow.

There is a twosome behind us who are (naturally) getting somewhat impatient as we are. When it was finally our turn to tee off at the 18th tee, they drove up to the tee box in their loud gas cart and hard braked in the middle of my backswing. The ball was thinned towards the green but there is water in front. The guy then yelled out to me "just chip and putt!" without any hint of apology. I explained the ball may be in the water (it was not) and continued on to finish the hole.

Overall, it was 4.5 hour to complete the round which is acceptable overall. However, bear in mind that we completed the front 9 in well under two hours. The back 9 felt like we spent most of our time waiting to take a shot. And when it was our turn, we were rushed by the group behind us. I feel some of the golfers playing here have bad etiquettes. In fact, I feel an underlying sense of anger from some of them.

Played my college golf on the Orange & Blue golf courses back in the late 70’s. Orange is a tougher test than the Blue, and I enjoyed playing both for a total of 36 holes. As a senior golfer, the senior tees made both rounds very enjoyable. Shot a 75 on the Orange and 73 on the Blue. Both courses are in great shape tee to green and greens role nice and true. Staff only charged me for the cart (no greens fee) to play the Blue, after having played the Orange (cart & greens fees) earlier in the morning. Playing golf on the Orange & Blue is a good test of your game and you’ll use all of the clubs in your bag!

Enjoyed the course. Not a lot to offer in terms of terrain, but a well-paced round.